مطالب

Background: The emergence of amateur critics and vernacular reviewers as non-institutional cultural voices is one of the consequences of social media's development and widespread use.Aims: This study aims to better understand reviewers and their types by examining how they establish critical authority in comparison to institutional critics and their potential influence on cultural valuation.Methodology: This subject is explored through the rhetorical analysis of their linguistic strategies. The research draws theoretically on existing literature regarding cultural criticism and review in social media. Methodologically, it combines qualitative content analysis and rhetorical analysis, emphasizing identifying Aristotelian persuasive elements within the data, including ethos, pathos, and logos. The study sample consists of 350 Instagram posts gathered from 30 film review pages.Findings: The findings indicate that most reviewers adopt a consumer-oriented perspective, distancing themselves from institutional critics. They have also emphasized using Instagram's affordances, particularly its interactive and participatory features, to construct their cultural authority. Furthermore, they have employed rational and emotional appeals in alignment with presenting "summaries and supplementary movie information" and expressing "emotional appeal and affective experience of consumption". These strategies, along with the reviewers' focus on "addressing the audience's emotional needs", "personal growth and self-improvement", and "less dependence on institutional critics", reflect their disinterest in delving into deeper levels of critical evaluation and rhetorical directness in constructing their authority. In the final section of the article, the impact of reviewers on cultural valuation is further discussed, distinguishing three types: "film-style bloggers", "cinema influencers", and "critical reviewers".Conclusions: Based on the results, the first two types of reviewers demonstrate how Instagram’s platform-specific features primarily shape critical authority. While diverse reviewers enhance access to information, they often marginalize critical evaluation and cultural value in favor of consumerism and commercial competition. Only "Critical Reviewers" have successfully integrated critical evaluation with Instagram’s affordances through distinct rhetorical strategies, emphasizing the need to increase their numbers in the era of digital media.

Background: The 2024 Iranian presidential election intensified political polarization on Persian Twitter (X), where ideological factions engaged in networked contestation. This study employs social network analysis to examine polarization mechanics, mapping key actors, echo chambers, and discursive strategies. Findings illuminate digital factionalism, algorithmic amplification, and the role of influencers in political mobilization.Aims: This study explores the mechanisms driving political polarization on Persian Twitter (X) during the 2024 Iranian presidential election.Methodology: Utilizing computational social science methodologies, the research combines social network analysis (SNA) and thematic analysis to examine over 133,000 active users and numerous election-related hashtags. Data collection spanned June 1–16, 2024, leveraging Twitter's API to identify clusters, user interactions, and thematic trends. Key tools included the Louvain algorithm for community detection and centrality measures for network analysis, visualized through Gephi software.Findings: Findings reveal a fragmented political landscape characterized by ideological divides, echo chambers, and limited interaction between opposing factions. Analysis identified six major clusters, each aligned with distinct political affiliations, including reformists, conservatives, and opposition groups. Thematic analysis further highlighted the rhetoric surrounding leading candidates Masoud Pezeshkian and Saeed Jalili, revealing polarized sentiments and distinct narratives among their supporters and detractors. The study also underscores the role of platform algorithms, influencer strategies, and group identities in deepening polarization.Conclusions: This research contributes to the understanding of digital polarization within Iran's socio-political context. It emphasizes the dual role of social media as both a space for public discourse and a driver of ideological segregation. Recommendations include strategies for promoting digital literacy, fostering inclusive discussions, and enhancing algorithmic transparency to mitigate polarization in Iran.

The present paper examines the ways in which short stories, "Who's Irish" by the Chinese-American writer Gish Jen and "Souvenirs" by the Sudanese-Egyptian writer Leila Aboulela re-imagine states of belonging and family relationships in postmigration contexts. To do so, the paper adopts a postmigrant research perspective to analyze familiar key concepts such as belonging, home, family and identity. The concept of postmigration emerged in theater in early 2000's and then found its place in academic research with the aim of addressing gaps in studies on migration and broadening the perspective on the complex phenomenon of migration and its transformative effects on both immigrants and the hosts (Anne Ring Petersen, Moritz Schramm, and Frauke Wiegand 2019: 3). The paper draws on theories such as those offered by Roger Bromely on concepts of belonging and ethnicity to argue that even though these stories predate the academic conceptualization of postmigration, they represent the ways in which ascribed identities are challenged and new belongings are created. The research questions address how narratives under investigation problematize confining concepts on ethnicity, the ways in which family ties and relationships are affected in postmigration contexts and what these new spaces of belonging are like. The study concludes that "Who's Irish" and "Souvenirs" depict postmigrant "spaces of plurality" (Bromley 2017:39) which are conflictual but transcultural and trans-ethnic too.