Social Media and Perception of Corruption: The Study of Representation of Corruption by Iranian Users of Instagram Social Network

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Mahmood Shahabi 1
Maryam Hashempoor Sadeghian 2
1 Shiraz University
2 Shiraz university
10.22034/jcsc.2020.93051.1704
Abstract
Corruption is one of the major phenomena that has involved many societies throughout history. One of the weakening factors of corruption is the formation and expansion of civil society and two basic requirements of civil society are free mass media and social media. The present study was conducted to investigate the representation of corruption issue by Iranian users in Instagram. Our methodology is qualitative content analysis that has been accomplished with a customary approach. 160 Instagram posts implying corruption hashtag were chosenand analysed by theoretical sampling. The findings show that users have pointed out to 11 corruption which 7 of them directly and 4 of them indirectly related to economic corruption. Three main categories emerging from the analysis are understanding of the current state of corruption, the mechanisms of explanation and the mechanisms for protesting corruption. Nine Sub-categories are also emerged out of three main categories. Analysis suggests that users in the face of corruption, use this medium to describe and explain corruption and protest against it.

Keywords

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Cultural Studies & Communication
Volume 17, Issue 62
Spring 2021
Pages 143-164