Mass communication and social change in Iraq: changing the attitudes of women

Abstract

In this thesis I consider the possible role of facilities for mass communication in the processes of social change in contemporary Iraq. In particular I have undertaken a research study of sample of Iraqi women in order to investigate whether unconventional attitudes are associated with more interest in the media. This research reported in Chapter Five contains a great deal of interest descriptively as well as providing some good reasons for believing that the mass media and in particular newspapers are important in encouraging and legitimating new perspectives and obligations on social rights amongst a disadvantaged group. In the chapters preceding that concerned with the research I first survey the academic literature on the role of mass communication in process of modernization including some discussion of development. In Chapter Three I discuss the nature of national development plans in Iraq over the last ten years and the objectives of the revolutionary government. I describe legislative provision for social development and survey some features of Iraqi society that I considered relevant to the changing status of Iraqi women. In the fourth chapter I present an account of the system and facilities for mass communication in Iraq, reviewing its institutional developments, plans and orientations and how it functions to support development plans in the country. It is an unfortunate fact that comparatively little has-been published in the English Language on social change in contemporary Iraq. This thesis is an attempt to begin to repair that deficiency by concentrating upon some of the ways in which technological innovations can contribute to social reform.