Title: Examination of the method of presenting religious concepts in the Amoo Pourang program
Student: Marjan Sadat Hossein Alfatemi
Supervisor: Dr. Nasser Bahonar
Degree: Master’s
University: Soore University of Higher Education
Defense Date: 2010
Placing today’s children in the infinite world of information and communication and confronting them with various media, each of which in some way with various visual elements, special effects, and various aspects of entertainment has become first-hand choices in the lives of many of them, has made many religious affairs experts think about seeking to use media, especially television, for the purpose of education and transmitting many religious concepts to children. But unfortunately, due to their unfamiliarity with the category of children, their growth and abilities in understanding religious issues, the educational characteristics of television, and the relationship between religion and television, they usually act unsuccessfully and instead of making children interested, they cause fatigue and aversion in them towards religion. Regardless of the fact that to enter the arena of teaching religion through television, first of all, paying attention to fundamental principles seems necessary.
This research, first by theoretically examining the relationship between religion and media, children and religion, and finally children and television, addresses the principles for proper teaching of religious issues from television, and then by evaluating the form and content of the presentation of each of the Islamic teachings in the Amoo Pourang program; the most viewed children’s program of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting and finding its strengths and weaknesses in conveying religious concepts based on the mentioned principles, tries to achieve desirable points in teaching religion in the vision of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The research method in this study is content analysis, and its statistical population is the one-month program of Amoo Pourang in Ramadan of 2009, of which seven episodes were selected as a statistical week as a sample, and also the unit of analysis in this research is considered to be the sentence.
The data analysis shows that in the Amoo Pourang program, among Islamic teachings, the most emphasis has been on moral teachings, and practical rules, rituals, and doctrinal teachings have been placed in subsequent levels of attention. Also, this program has not addressed historical and social teachings in any part, which, based on the principles of teaching religious concepts to children, are among the desirable teachings for education.
Most of the religious concepts presented in this program are of the type of tangibles and objective matters, and only 2 percent of all sentences have an abstract and argumentative state, of which for 17 percent of them no clarification has been made.
In this program, a high volume of concepts has been conveyed indirectly and with a humorous and joking tone in the form of performance items, a comedy panel, poetry, and music videos, and the use of direct expression, admonitory style, and a serious tone in the form of Amoo Pourang’s direct speech and interview have occupied a small volume.
