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The Press and Public Diplomacy in Iran, 1820–1940

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Camron Michael Amin
Camron Michael Amin*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan-Dearborn
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Abstract

The under-appreciated role of the press as a tool of public diplomacy was rooted in its origins as a Qajar state project in the nineteenth century, but also cultivated by a shared impulse of Iranian journalists and statesmen to represent Iran effectively in the court of world opinion. Moreover, foreign governments often reacted to the Iranian press generally, not just the official newspapers and not just newspapers produced in Iran, as a forum though which to advance or protect their interests in Iran. The Pahlavi state integrated the press as part of a larger state-run mass communication policy in the 1930s that would eventually include new technologies such as radio, and retained public diplomacy as an essential purpose of the media. This study draws upon archival material, press accounts, and memoirs.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 2 , March 2015 , pp. 269 - 287
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 The International Society for Iranian Studies

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Footnotes

This research was supported a grant from the Office of the Vice Provost of Research at the University of Michigan, and, a Campus Grant from the University of Michigan-Dearborn Office of Sponsored Research. I extend my thanks to those who have read and constructively critiqued this work in various stages. All remaining errors are my responsibility (except those that are the result of British sabotage!).

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