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Children ’s media socialisation: parental concerns and

mediation in Iran

Melika Kordrostami a, Akshaya Vijayalakshmi band Russell N. Laczniak c

aJack H. Brown College of Business and Public Administration, Marketing Department, California State

University, San Bernardino, San Bernardino, CA, USA; bMarketing Area, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad, India; cJohn and Connie Sta ﬀord Professor of Business, Iowa State University,

Ames, IA, USA

ABSTRACTChildren ’s media socialisation, parental concerns, and mediation styles have been studied mainly in the US and Europe. The present

research aims to extend media socialisation theory by investigating children ’s media behaviour and parental concerns and mediation

styles in Iran, and then to compare the ﬁndings with the research based on parents in Western countries. Based on in-depth interviewswith parents from Iran, we put forth propositions and a media

socialisation model. We ﬁnd that parental concerns and behaviour are in ﬂuenced by their cultural practices and expectations, govern- ment regulations, and media dominant in the local region.

ARTICLE HISTORYReceived 21 March 2017 Accepted 20 July 2018

KEYWORDSMedia consumption; Iran;socialisation; children;Middle East; consumer culture theory

General background

The notion that parental actions (or mediation) in ﬂuence children ’s (media) consumption

has been established for various countries including the United States (Carlson & Grossbart,

1988 ), Mainland China (McNeal & Ji, 1998 ), Hong Kong, Taiwan, New Zealand (McNeal,

Viswanathan, & Yeh, 1993 ), United Kingdom (Ritson & Elliott, 1999 ), and Japan (Rose, Bush, &

Kahle, 1998 ). As can be deduced from the countries listed above, there is limited knowledge

about how parents attempt to shape children ’s views and uses of the media in the Middle

East, particularly in Iran. Iran is a country set apart from many other countries in the world

because of its regulations and culture. These factors are likely to in ﬂuence the nature of

parents ’concerns, which in turn impact their mediation (Austin, Bolls, Fujioka, &

Engelbertson, 1999 ). Therefore, the current paper studies the link between local environ-

ment, parental concerns and mediation techniques, thus extending parental media socia-

lisation theory to Iran. We use existing narratives on parental media socialisation to develop

and build our ﬁndings on Iran. We demonstrate (via our data) that because of the di ﬀerences

in regulation (hence available media and parents ’knowledge) and culture, parents in Iran

view the world di ﬀerently than US parents –thus, Iranian parents have di ﬀerent media

concerns. Consequently, they mediate TV in established and unique ways.

Almost all Iranians watch television and on average watch approximately two hours

every day (Jafari & Goulding, 2008 ). This is notably lower than the ﬁve hours per day that

CONTACT Melika Kordrostami [email protected] Jack H. Brown College of Business and Public Administration, California State University, San Bernardino, 5500 University Parkway, San Bernardino, CA 92407, USA

JOURNAL OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT2018, VOL. 34, NOS. 9 –10, 819 –840 https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2018.1515784

nels are broadcast via satellite. While the Iranian government attempts to jam the

transmission of such channels (A Small Media Report, 2012 ), many families view them

stealthily. Since these popularly consumed channels are watched illegally, neither rating

systems nor government recommendations are available. This means that parents have

to rely on other sources to determine what kind of media content is appropriate for their

children. Parents in Western countries rely on a vast range of knowledge sources from

government policies and regulation to programme ratings to information dispersed by

Pediatrics journals (Gentile & Walsh, 2002 ). Given the lack of such support in Iran, this

study explores whether parental socialisation e ﬀorts (regarding media) have the poten-

tial to be vastly di ﬀerent as compared to countries where satellite television is more

openly available. Moreover, Iranian (vs. Western) society is considered to have a more

interdependent (vs. independent) view of the self (Markus & Kitayama, 1991 ). In cultures

with an interdependent view of self, the self is de ﬁned as part of a bigger social

relationship. As a result, elders in the family (other than parents) are thought to have

a stronger impact on a child ’s upbringing than they do in many other countries around

the world. Consequently, it is likely that family elders along with parents might in ﬂuence

a child ’s media socialisation. A child ’s media socialisation in ﬂuenced by multiple care-

givers has not been well studied.

The present paper attempts to determine how the regulatory and cultural di ﬀerences

of Iran in ﬂuence the type and extent of parental concerns and mediation of children ’s

media. In this vein, this paper reports the ﬁndings of a qualitative study of Iranian

parents. Based on data gathered in this study, the paper presents a set of nine proposi-

tions and an updated media socialisation model that aims to capture the environmental

and regulatory environment, which in ﬂuences parents ’behaviour.

Literature review

The signi ﬁcance of an Iranian viewpoint

Marketing researchers consider Iran to be an ‘enigmatic political and marketing system

(Shultz, Peterson, Zwick, & Atik, 2013 ,p.87). ’Studying Iran ’s market can help researchers

develop a better understanding of other Muslim countries as religious values have been

shown to in ﬂuence media production, consumption, and lifestyle in general. Also, Iran is an

attractive target market because of its hugely untapped young population (5.6 mn under

the age of 35 (Jafari, 2007 )) and critical geographical location (Hargreaves, 2016 ). Iranians are

familiar with global brands and appear ready to embrace new companies that enter Iran

(Brownswell, 2015 ). For instance, Carrefour Supermarket in Tehran, Iran ’scapital,hastapped

into consumers ’need for organised larger supermarkets as compared to the unorganised

smaller shops in bazaars (Brownswell, 2015 ). Finally, Iranians demonstrate a strong commit-

ment and loyalty to family and friends (Javidan & Dastmalchian, 2003 ). Taking care of family

needs usually precedes taking care of personal needs. A survey by the Islamic Republic of

Iran Broadcasting found that a majority (94%) of the viewers rated family as ‘very important ’

(Azadarmaki, 2008 ). Dependence on the family is encouraged (Fernea, 1991 ). Children

receive attention from both parents and other family members and grow up with the

security that they can rely on their extended family to resolve most issues. Families have a

820 M. KORDROSTAMI ET AL. clear patriarchal and hierarchical structure with the father occupying the power position

(Javidan & Dastmalchian, 2003 ). This is in contrast to Western cultures with an independent

view of self (Markus & Kitayama, 1991 ). Thus, developing an understanding of parental

socialisation e ﬀorts in Iran may o ﬀer researchers an opportunity to better generalise

ﬁndings to other countries with a culture similar to Iran.

Iranian TV environment

As suggested above, in Iran there are two main groups of TV stations. One group includes

government-owned channels that o ﬀer entertainment (TV series, movies, comedy shows,

and children ’s shows), news, educational shows, and local programmes. Programmes aired

on these stations are broadcast in the Persian language (Farsi) and are produced mainly in

Iran. These channels (free and available for all) are watched by a large number of Iranians,

many of whom do not deem them to be credible (Dehghan, 2009 ). This is the case because

these channels adhere to the strict religious programming code set by the state (Dehghan,

2009 ). The second group of television channels includes the 120-plus Persian-language

satellite channels that are broadcast by di ﬀerent organisations based outside of Iran. Two

of the most well-known channels are BBC Persian and Voice of America Persia. Importantly,

having a satellite receiver is strictly forbidden by the Iranian government and viewers can

be penalised for having one (Shirazi, 2010 ). Nevertheless, approximately half the popula-

tion has access to satellite receivers (A Small Media Report, 2012 ). Many channels that

broadcast via satellite have been deemed to be illegal because the government considers

them to be a threat to Islamic religious values and national security; they believe that the

programmes can corrupt and have an immoral in ﬂuence on the society (Shirazi, 2010 ).

Iranian police have attempted to con ﬁscate illegal dishes by entering people ’shomes.

However, e ﬀorts to stop people from watching satellite channels have been mainly

unsuccessful (Perry, 2008 ).

Younger Iranians are more likely to use the Internet and mobile cell phones whereas

satellite TV is favoured by many families (Shirazi, 2010 ). Iranian families are similar to

their Western counterparts regarding their preference for TV. However, unlike the

illegal –legal tussle for channels in Iran, TV channels in the Western countries are

available legally in an environment facilitating an informed choice for parents. A combi-

nation of the above reasons (i.e. interdependent culture and illegal TV consumption)

could lead to di ﬀerent parental supervision of children ’s media consumption. This

similarity and di ﬀerence provide a background for studying media socialisation.

Theoretical considerations

Children gain ‘skills, knowledge, and attitudes relevant to their functioning in the market-

place ’(Ward, 1980 , p. 380) by a process called consumer socialisation. Media socialisation

studies the ways by which children access media and develop skills to choose what media to

consume. Parents monitor the environment to understand the threats and opportunities to

their children. In the process, they develop certain beliefs and concerns about media and

media content (Austin et al., 1999 ). Consequently, parents develop a variety of strategies to

mediate/in ﬂuence children ’s activities (Nathanson, 1999 ). Mediation activities are actions

that parents use to manage children ’s media behaviour. Three styles of parental mediation

JOURNAL OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT 821 have been identi ﬁed in the previous literature: active mediation, co-viewing, and restrictive

mediation (Nathanson, 1999 ; Valkenburg, Kramar, Peeters, & Marseille, 1999 ). Parents ’

mediation activities in ﬂuence children ’s media use. Based on the ﬁndings, we study

media socialisation in Iran by focusing on how parental concerns are developed, what

those concerns are, the activities parents undertake to address them, and the impact of such

actions on children.

Another theory that explains media choice in the mass communication literature is

uses and grati ﬁcation theory (UGT) (Ruggiero, 2000 ). This theory posits that consumers

actively choose media options, rather than being passive receivers. Moreover, UGT

claims that consumers have needs that they try to satisfy by actively selecting speci ﬁc

media. This theory assumes that consumers have enough knowledge and skills to

understand their own needs, media habits, and di ﬀerent options to satisfy the needs

(West, Turner, & Zhao, 2010 ). Since the current research focuses on children, who might

not necessarily be capable of understanding their own media habits and the ways to

satisfy their needs, UGT was not chosen as the theoretical framework.

Parental concerns regarding media

As explained in the above sections, parents have a signi ﬁcant impact on children ’s media

socialisation. Parents have di ﬀering perspectives regarding the e ﬀect of media on children.

Some parents might consider TV as a babysitter imparting important social and family

values to their children. However, other parents might ﬁnd the same programmes to

communicate negative learning and behaviour in their children (Van der Voort, Nikken, &

Van Lil, 1992 ). Overall, the potential concerns that parents have about media consumption

include aggressive and sexual content that may lead children to become fearful and

engage in illegal and/or risky behaviours (Cantor, Stutman, & Duran, 1996 ; Anderson &

Hanson, 2009 ). Previous research has shown that parents ’concerns regarding media

impact their mediation activities. For example, when parents have beliefs that TV induces

negative behaviour they are more likely to choose restrictive mediation (Valkenburg et al.,

1999 ). The concerns arise from parental beliefs about right/wrong and are rooted in

cultural norms of the country and those imposed by the state (Kirwil, 2009 ). For instance,

in an interview as part of the documentary ﬁlm, The Dish, a viewer suggests that when a

satellite dish is being installed in a household, the family often requests that the ‘immoral ’

channels be blocked (Shirazi, 2010 ). What action or behaviour counts as moral or immoral

varies from culture to culture (Reuters, 2017 ). Interviews with parents in Iran will explore

similar questions on media content and media e ﬀects.

RQ1 : What are the concerns of Iranian parents regarding media targeted at children?

Parental concerns regarding advertising to children

Parental concerns regarding ads targeted at their children are studied independently from

TV programmes as parents tend to have di ﬀering views on both (Carlson & Grossbart, 1988 ).

That is, a parent with a critical attitude towards TV programmes might be less concerned

about the in ﬂuence of TV advertising. Parental views on ads in ﬂuence how they interact

with and educate their children about the commercial persuasive messages. For instance, a

822 M. KORDROSTAMI ET AL. parent who holds more negative opinions towards ads might consider it their responsibility

to teach their children how to fend o ﬀthe persuasive attempts (cf. Carlson, Laczniak, &

Walsh, 2001 ). While it has been suggested that ads increase parent –child con ﬂict, such

eﬀects are weaker in families that discuss marketing and consumer issues (Buijzen &

Valkenburg, 2003 ). Similar to TV programmes, research in the US has found that parents

are more concerned about the sexual vs. violent content of ads even though it has been

argued that violent ads may increase aggressive cognitions in children (Brocato, Gentile,

Laczniak, Maier, & Ji-Song, 2010 ). Many parents, especially those in countries, such as China

and Belgium, want ads targeted at children to be banned since they believe that advertising

to children would encourage them to want products that they don ’t need (Young, de Bruin,

&Eagle, 2003 ). Parents from other countries, such as New Zealand, UK, and Australia tend

not to be supportive of such a ban (Oates, Newman, & Tziortzi, 2014 ). It appears that a

country ’s dominant beliefs and values in ﬂuence parental attitudes. Therefore, we explore:

RQ2 : What are the concerns of Iranian parents regarding ads targeted at children?

Parental mediation

Activities that are used by parents to manage children ’s media use are known as parental

mediation (Nathanson, 1999 ; Valkenburg et al., 1999 ). Restrictive mediation involves parents

setting rules and limits for their children ’s TV viewing. Studies show that parents with

negative perceptions of TV viewing are most likely to use restrictive mediation

(Valkenburg et al., 1999 ). Active mediation involves parents explaining the scenes on TV

to the child either while watching the show or at a later time. Parents who believe that TV

can o ﬀer harmless entertainment and/or educational opportunities are more likely to use

active mediation (Nikken & Schols, 2015 ). Such households are likely to have fewer TVs in the

home and fewer pieces of sedentary equipment (e.g. computers for gaming) (Pearson,

Salmon, Crawford, Campbell, & Timperio, 2011 ). Lastly, co-viewing occurs when parents and

children watch TV together. Co-viewing can be active or passive in nature (Nathanson,

2002 ), i.e. parents have a conversation with their children on the TV content being viewed or

quietly consume it alongside them. Parents who believe TV has a positive in ﬂuence on their

children are more likely to co-view TV programmes. An interdependent view of self and

unique cultural background may in ﬂuence parental concerns and hence their mediation.

Therefore, we explore:

RQ3 : What are the mediation strategies employed by Iranian parents to manage their

children ’s media consumption?

Children ’s media consumption

Media consumption is de ﬁned as a consumer ’s media usage pattern including timing

and duration of viewing as well as the type of the media used for viewing (e.g. TV,

tablets). Media consumption is likely to be dependent on the country, family income,

technology access, and local media regulations (Buckingham, 2008 ; Wartella, Rideout,

Lauricella, & Connell, 2014 ). Research shows that European countries di ﬀer in the media

that parents make available to children (Livingstone & Bovill, 2013 ). In some countries,

such as Spain, there is a strong focus on national TV and reduced use of new media. In

JOURNAL OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT 823 others, such as Belgium, children have access to di ﬀerent TV channels, and they typically

use new media technologies. In the Netherlands, children have access to new technol-

ogies that often provide alternative media outlets (and thus, they rely less on TV). Finally,

parents in some countries, like the UK, have a strong focus on TV, but also provide

children with access to the Internet (Livingstone & Bovill, 2013 ). Children use media to

form their social identities. Therefore, there is a mutual relationship between culture and

media consumption (McRobbie, 1991 ). Previous research has shown the importance of

media consumption by children for their health and behaviour. For example, increased

media consumption can lead to aggression, sexual behaviour, substance use, disordered

eating, and academic di ﬃculties (Strasburger, Jordan, & Donnerstein, 2010 ).

Adi ﬀerence in family values leads to di ﬀerent levels of media consumption by children

(Villani, Olson, & Jellinek, 2005 ). Family values, in turn, tend to be in ﬂuenced a great deal

by the local culture (Smolicz, Secombe, & Hudson, 2001 ). For example, in ‘family-oriented ’

cultures, such as Asian countries, children have less private media time and a ‘media-rich

bedroom culture ’is not common unlike in countries, such as UK (Buckingham, 2008 ).

Given the under-researched culture of Iran, our research question focuses on Iranian

children ’s media consumption patterns. This information can be used to better under-

stand the behavioural, emotional, and cognitive impact of media on children.

RQ4 : What are Iranian children ’s media consumption patterns and what factors in ﬂuence

these patterns?

Research methods

Participants and procedure

A grounded theory approach was used to ﬁnd out the commonalities and di ﬀerences

between existing narratives and Iranian parents ’media socialisation e ﬀorts. This

approach is a suitable method for the research questions in this study because of the

limited prior knowledge about the Iranian consumer socialisation process (Glaser &

Strauss, 1967 ). The other advantage of a grounded theory approach is the opportunity

to adopt a ﬂuid, interactive, and open-ended research process where the research

problem in ﬂuences the choice of data collection and analysis, thus providing researchers

a chance to be part of what they study and conclude (Charmaz, 2006 ). As a result, in-

depth interviews and participant observation were used to collect data for this research.

Since the present research attempted to better understand media consumption habits

and parental mediation in families, it was essential for the researchers to gain participants ’

trust (to o ﬀer reliable responses). It was feared that, especially in Iran where satellite TV is

banned (A Small Media Report, 2012 ), participants might be reluctant to truthfully share

information about their TV viewing habits to the researchers. One of the authors (also the

interviewer) who was of Iranian descent attempted to build trust with the participants in

two ways. First, since the participants were recruited via snowball sampling, many of them

were acquaintances of the author or referred to by someone both the interviewer and

interviewee trusted. The Iranian parents knew that the ﬁrst author was not connected to

government agencies, so they felt comfortable sharing their TV viewing habits. Second, in-

depth interviews are known to build intimacy and trust between researcher and partici-

pants; hence this method suited the research questions (Jafari & Goulding, 2013 ).

824 M. KORDROSTAMI ET AL. An interview guide was created in which topics, their sequence, and wording were

speci ﬁed in advance. This made data from the interviews systematic, comprehensive, and

comparable. Further, it helped avoid the pitfall of omitting essential topics inadvertently.

Participants were from middle-class families, which is representative of the local societies.

Interviews were conducted with nine Iranian parents (living in an urban area in north Iran)

with each interview lasting between 45 and 90 min. The interviews were mostly con-

ducted in the homes of the parents. Parents with children between the ages 8 and 12

were selected, as parents still have a signi ﬁcant in ﬂuence on the children of these ages

(Livingstone & Helsper, 2008 ). Further, children in this age group (vs. 5 –7 years old)

understand advertising and its persuasive intent better but still need support to recognise

them (Brucks, Armstrong, & Goldberg, 1988 ). Parents interviewed were all mothers, mostly

married, mainly homeowners, and had one or two children (See Table 1 ).

Interviews covered the impact of media content and commercials on children, parental

mediation, and media consumption patterns. Al l the interviews were performed face-to-face

and audio-recorded. Inte rviews were conducted in Persian (Farsi) by the ﬁrst author. They were

transcribed and translated into English. Ad elicitation technique was also used to generate

further discussion on advertising content and mediation (Coulter, Zaltman, & Coulter, 2001 ).

The commercials used were the Betty White ’sSnickersad,theMarioBrothersSuperSmash

videogamead,andtheWhac-a-Molearcadegamecommercial.TheadswereinEnglishand

not familiar to the participants. Iranian partic ipants are familiar with watching and responding

to English ads because they are exposed to such ads on satellite channels. Moreover, they are

familiar with the products in the ads as they are available in Iran ’smarket.

Immediately after every interview (upon leaving the participant ’s house), summary

sheets were prepared. The summary sheet had six questions including, ‘what were the

main ideas discussed around parental involvement with media? ’Later (and before the next

interview), the interviewers heard the recorded interview in full and compiled notes. Data

was coded following the interests in research questions (McCracken, 1988 ). Coding is

‘reducing data into meaningful segments and assigning names for the segments ’

(Creswell, 2017 , p. 148). Several themes emerged upon analysing the codes. Based on the

emerged codes and themes, when the interviewer felt that no new information was being

gathered, the data collection was halted.

The interviews were transcribed by the interviewer herself to maintain consistency and

prevent unintentional loss of information. The participants ’responses were organised based

Table 1. Demographic information about participants.

Name Education Employment Spouse ’s education Spouse ’s employment House Children athome Interviewedchild ’s grade

Peyvand AD Unemployed CG Self-employed Rent M(8), F(2) 2nd Shahrzad CG Employed CG Employed Own F(4), F(10) 4th Fariba High School (HS) Unemployed HS Self-employed Own F(24), F(22), M(10) 4th

Rosa HS Self-employed HS Self-employed Rent F(8) 4th Ghazaleh HS Unemployed CG Employed Own F(16), M(12) 6th Behnaz HS Unemployed CG Self-employed Own M(21), M (11) 5th

Yeganeh CG Unemployed AD Employed Own F(11) 5th Neda CG Employed AD Employed Own M(10), M(4) 4th Sahar AD Employed AD Employed Own F(3), M(10) 4th

Note: All families owned at least one car, some owned two. All interviewees are given pseudonyms.

JOURNAL OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT 825 on the research questions the paper attempted to answer (McCracken, 1988 ). The reactions

were repeatedly read, comparisons were made, and conclusions were drawn. Through

repeated comparative analysis and successive levels of abstraction (Glaser & Strauss,

1968), we were able to move beyond description to generate theory. Discussions from

the interviews are presented in the following section. Based on these discussions, proposi-

tions were developed which are presented at the end of each section. ‘Grounded theory can

be presented either as a well-codi ﬁed set of propositions or in a running theoretical

discussion, using conceptual categories and their properties ’(Glaser & Strauss, 1967 ,p.

31). Therefore, as a theoretical contribution, we o ﬀer propositions which help advance a

model of media socialisation.

Findings

Parental concerns regarding media

Culture clash

Iranian parents agreed that media in ﬂuenced their children. In Iran, the primary concern

was regarding the TV programme content being inconsistent with traditional household

values. Iran is a traditional Islamic society and having intimate relationships outside of

marriage is not widely accepted (such relationships are a recurring theme in many TV

shows broadcast by satellite TV channels). The presence of the Internet, an increased

number of women graduating from college, and satellite TV channels are promoting a

shift in traditional attitudes and values. Although there is a gradual change in attitudes,

dating, divorce, and being single (after a certain age) are frowned upon (Zadeh &

Moza ﬀari, 2014 ). Iranian parents see TV as a cultural change agent, in ﬂuencing their

children ’s views of household practices, such as mealtime settings, family structure,

membership, family values, and identity (Chitakunye & Maclaran, 2014 ). Although satel-

lite channels and programmes are preferred among Iranian adults, they do not want

their children to be exposed to the same. Shahrzad, mother of an 8-year-old girl, feels

that:

Those soap operas are not good for her. If we were living in another country my opinion

would be di ﬀerent. But here we have a di ﬀerent culture, we are more traditional in Iran. I

don ’t want things that she learns from society that would be di ﬀerent from the things she

learns from TV. . .you know what happened the other day. . .she came to me asking mom

what does it mean to be unfaithful. At that very moment I knew this is the time for her to

stop watching those TV series. I felt guilty and stopped it.

Shahrzad expressed her concern about the in ﬂuence of the show while not judging the

show per se. Her concern is that the information from the show is not consistent with

what is taught at school or expected by the society. Fariba, the mother of a 10-year-old

boy, expressed similar views:

In general, I don ’t like to restrict him but I have to do so because we live in Iran. My kid

hasn ’t seen these things before. Let me tell you a very funny story. . .We travelled to Spain

and I took him to the pool. . .I saw him looking frustrated. . .He didn ’t want to come with us.

He ran away. . .I asked him- why did you run away? He said you mom always told me if I run

into someone who is changing [their clothes] I should not look and I should turn back. So

those people were all in their underwear [bathing suits]. . .We live in a society that has been

826 M. KORDROSTAMI ET AL. restricted so our kids have not been exposed to this kind of stu ﬀ. . .We have a traditional

family. . .I feel like if he doesn ’t see these things (on TV) it is much better for him.

Parents in Iran live in a dilemma of exposing their children to Western media content, which

they believe will prepare them for life, on the other hand, they are worried that the cultural

inconsistencies that children view in these programmes will impact them negatively.

Violence

Iranian parents were concerned about violent content, i.e. content with blood and gore on

TV. They did not express concerns about cartoon-based violence. They suggested that such

‘fantasy ’violence can be considered fun and not dangerous. These ﬁndings are consistent

with previous studies based out of the US (Brocato et al., 2010 ) that American parents are

also not concerned with cartoonish and fantasy violence. As one of the parents mentioned

to us:

He likes action cartoons, like Ben10. Ben10 is cartoony and fantasy, so I don ’t think the

violence there is important. And Ben10 does help other people, killing aliens. So I don ’t see

any problem with that.

An unusual pattern emerged when parents were asked to comment on the three violent

humorous ads shown as part of the interview. Parents of boys did not mention (notice)

the violence in the ads. They mostly commented on the product or the element of

humour in the ad. When we asked follow-up questions about the violence in the ad,

they unanimously mentioned that the violence was not severe or impactful; Peyvand,

the mother of an 8-year-old boy:

He is going to like all these TV ads. Because he likes the Snickers chocolate. The second one

he likes the dinosaurs, and the third one because he likes this game. . . I think these ads were

appropriate and interesting. I don ’t see any problem with this. Being shoved is interesting

for little boys, it gets them excited.

On the contrary, Rosa who has an 8-year-old daughter, said: ‘These were violent ads. They

were hitting each other. I don ’tﬁnd it interesting. I don ’t think Ava will like this. ’It appears

that parents with a female (vs. male) children perceived content di ﬀerently. Parents of girls

are more likely to believe their daughters will not enjoy the violence in the media.

However, parents of boys either did not recognise the violence or when they recognised

the violence they believed their son was going to like it. Previous research has shown that

it is more likely that mediation activities will be used with girls than boys (Livingstone &

Helsper, 2008 ). It appears that this di ﬀerence is visible among Iranian parents as well.

Further, Iranian parents were concerned that their children might be intimidated by

violence. A majority of Iranian parents mentioned that exposure to violence instilled fear

in their children. Fariba, the mother of a 10-year-old boy, shared:

He wanted to watch violent action movies, I let him watch two-three times but then he

could not sleep at nights. He could not sleep alone. Even now I have to sleep in his room so

he can go to sleep. I ’m 100% sure watching those violent movies impacted him a lot.

The reason children are more likely to be frightened in Iran could be that the children

have been exposed to more real-life violence than children in Western countries. Public

executions are frequent in Iran, and Iran ’s government has one of the highest numbers

JOURNAL OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT 827 of killings per year (Associated Press, 2014). Further, Iran went through eight years of war

with Iraq from 1980 to 1988, and the psychological consequences of this war are still

noticeable –research has suggested that war can negatively impact the mental health of

a society and can increase risk factors for trauma-related psychological problems in

children (Murthy & Lakshminarayana, 2006 ).

Research in the US also showed that viewing aggressive content leads children to

show aggressive behaviour. Such concern is consistent with previous research which

shows that violence can impact children ’s behaviour, cognition, and emotions

(Anderson, Gentile, & Dill, 2012 ). However, Iranian parents ’concerns about aggressive

content are mostly about children getting frightened.

Even when some Iranian parents noticed that their children might show aggressive

behaviour, they didn ’t consider that harmful. Interestingly, parents mentioned children

might imitate the aggressive behaviour they see in the media (kicking, throwing stu ﬀ,

etc.). But they don ’t intend to harm others, and this is just part of their routine

behaviours as children. As Ghazaleh, the mother of a 12-year-old boy told us:

Now kids are lonely, and they don ’t have anyone to practice this stu ﬀwith. I totally

remember it with my brother, playing this kind of stu ﬀwith their cousins. In the school I

see Ashkan does these things [kicking other kids]. He wants to practice what he saw in the

wrestling on the other kids in school. Not because he wants to hurt them, this is some kind

of game for them, they are friends and this is how they play.

This is an interesting ﬁnding which takes us to the de ﬁnition of aggression. In the

literature, aggression is de ﬁned as ‘any behaviour directed towards another individual

that is carried out with the proximate (immediate) intent to cause harm. Also, the

perpetrator must believe that the behaviour will harm the target and that the target is

motivated to avoid the behaviour (Bushman & Anderson, 2001 , p. 274). ’Parents do not

show concern when the actions of their children are not intended to harm others which

is consistent with this de ﬁnition. However, parents in western countries did not distin-

guish between violent acts based on whether they were designed to be harmful or not.

Some Iranian parents (mostly parents of boys) consider watching violence as a way to

make their children more masculine. Parents mentioned the concern that their sons are

shy, not con ﬁdent, and do not stand up for themselves. They think violent content in

media might help their children (boys) ‘man-up. ’An example of using violent content as

an agent for masculinity was mentioned by Peyvand, the mother of an 8-year-old boy:

I think he doesn ’t have enough con ﬁdence. Sometimes he comes home saying the other

kids hit me. We tell him why haven ’t you hit them back? He answers no! Teacher said we

should not hit each other. His dad insists to him a lot that he should defend himself. He is

strong, he knows Kung Fu, but outside of the house he is very shy. Maybe TV violence and

Xbox would help?

Parents in Iran were mostly concerned about violence in video games rather than TV. As

governmental TV is heavily censored and satellite TV mainly shows soap operas or

drama series, portrayals of violence that concern parents are more recurrent in video

games. As mentioned by Peyvand, the mother of an 8-year-old boy:

There is lots of hitting and violence happening in these kinds of games. Sometimes it a ﬀects

him. When he was playing zombie games, he has become very scared; he couldn ’t even go

to the bathroom alone. It took me one year to make him forget about it. Now I ’m still very

828 M. KORDROSTAMI ET AL. concerned. He gets very very excited when playing these games. It is like he identi ﬁes a lot

with the characters.

Or as Neda, the mother of a 10-year-old boy, says not only playing violent video games

but playing any video game makes her son anxious:

What worries me is playing Xbox. Although he doesn ’t play Xbox much, only on some

weekends, but still I think it makes him anxious. He only plays football on Xbox; he doesn ’t

have any violent games or any other games. . . Even if it is only football I see him getting

anxious, he gets headaches, he shouts.

Sex

Although parents did not approve of sexual content in Iran, they did not mention it as often

as they discussed their concerns about cultural clash and violence. The media which is

available to children in Iran does not include explicit sexual content. Governmental media is

strictly censored, and satellite TV is catered to the Iranian audience. Based on the interviews,

it appears that the de ﬁnition of sexual material (e.g. scenes of kissing, lying in bed) is similar

with Western de ﬁnitions. Parents talked to us about their increased concern about violent

rather than sexual content in the media. As Peyvand, the mother of an 8-year-old boy

mentioned:

I don ’t have problem with him watching kisses on the TV, I tell him look this two people like

each other and that is why they kiss, but I don ’t like him watching violence.

Parents, such as Peyvand believe that as long as the behaviour which is portrayed in

media is natural, it is not harmful to their children to view it. However, they didn ’t want

their children to believe violence is a norm. Few parents mentioned their concern about

sexual content. For example, Fariba, the mother of a 10-year-old boy, said:

There are some channels which show sexual stu ﬀand he is not allowed to watch them.

Even with the TV in his room those channels are blocked.

In summary, parents in Iran have concerns about the e ﬀects of media consumption on their

children. Iran ’s interdependent construal of self is evident again on the kind of concerns

parents have about TV programmes. They worry that the satellite TV programmes are not

‘connected to the social context ’(cf. Markus & Kitayama, 1991 ). The concern of portrayals

which clashed with cultural values was the most repeated among Iranian parents. The

cultural di ﬀerences were also manifest in their concern about the in ﬂuence of sexual and

violent content. The major di ﬀerence between Iranian parents and their Western counter-

parts is that Iranian parents were concerned about their children getting frightened rather

than aggressive after viewing violent content. Also, some Iranian parents use violence in

media as an agent to increase masculine behaviour in their sons. Finally, parents in Iran are

concerned about sexual content but not to the same extent as violence. This is another

diﬀerence as parents in the West are more concerned about children ’sexposuretosexual

rather than violent content (cf. Brocato et al., 2010 ). The reason is that the sexual portrayals

in the available Iranian media are not as explicit. Finally, we speculate that the impact of that

war might have on parents ’views of violence and its e ﬀects. Iranians who have (and

continue to) witness(ed) violence from close quarters are likely to be more fearful of it (vs.

its in ﬂuence on aggressive behaviour). Based on the above discussions, we present the

following propositions.

JOURNAL OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT 829 Proposition 1 : Iranian parents ’media concerns revolve around inconsistent cultural

inﬂuences, and impact of violence and sex; while the primary focus is on values

espoused by TV programmes contradicting cultural values.

Proposition 2 : Iranian parents ’objection to media violence is due to concerns of

children being frightened; which is di ﬀerent from parents in Western countries whose

opposition is due to the potential of their children becoming aggressive after viewing

media violence.

Proposition 3 : Parents in Iran use violence in media as an agent to strengthen mascu-

linity in boys.

Parental concerns regarding advertisements

Some parents in Iran were likely to believe that their children did not like ads, did not

pay attention to ads, and often changed channels whenever ads come up on TV. Fariba,

the mother of a 10-year-old boy, suggested:

We don ’t like ads. I know Amirabbas also doesn ’t like ads. He will switch the channel when

ads are up.

Children ’s attitudes towards ads are likely to stem from parents not assigning much

signi ﬁcance to advertising. For instance, Sahar, mother of a 10-year-old boy, shared her

thoughts on advertising:

I haven ’t seen any ad that would concern me. . .ads are very general and similar to each

other. . . both in governmental TV and satellite channels ads are OK.

While most of the parents appeared to have little overall concern about ads, some

parents believe ads in ﬂuenced their child ’s consumption behaviour. For example,

Peyvand, the mother of an 8-year-old boy, explained how exposure to ads had a ﬀected

her son adopting behaviours that she considered odd .

Ads have lots of impact on him. For example, there was this painting stu ﬀwhich is mostly

used by girls [in Iran], but in this commercial, he saw some boys using it, and he insisted

that I will buy it for him. In Iran, it is not common that boys do that kind of painting, but as

he wanted it, I bought it for him.

Similar thoughts were expressed by Rosa, mother of an 8-year-old girl:

Commercials impact her a lot. If she sees something in the ads, she wants to have it. She

likes it. If she knows we can get it in the market here, she wants us to get it for her.

The focus in the above case appears to be on ads ’potential to in ﬂuence purchase behaviour

vs. the content of the ad. Media in Iran has been regulated heavily and is controlled by the

government, so in general, Iranians do not appear to have been exposed to many di ﬀerent

kinds of ads or commercial campaigns from government controlled channels. This shows an

opportunity for global organisations to use di ﬀerent communication campaigns in Iran.

In sum, while Iranian parents ’responses towards ads were focused on consumption-

related issues, ads could lead to increasing consumerism in Iranian children. Such

ﬁndings may be a result of Iranians being exposed to fewer ads and promotional

activities than Americans.

830 M. KORDROSTAMI ET AL. Proposition 4 : Iranian parents ’ad concerns focus on increased consumption tendencies

in children.

Parental mediation

It is important to note that the TV programmes in Iran are not rated (e.g. TV-14, TV-MA)

while they are in the United States. The ratings include recommendations on age

appropriateness, the inclusion of violent and sexual content, and thus provide parents

with information to decide without having to watch a show. Given the lack of such

informational support in Iran, the responsibility of choosing and mediating programmes

falls entirely on the shoulders of the parents. As a result, the interviews with Iranian

parents focused not only on ways they mediated media consumption but also on how

they selected programmes.

Within the current sample of Iranian parents, the dominant type of mediation appears

to be restrictive mediation. For example, this is how Shahrzad, a mother of an 8-year-old

girl, described her e ﬀorts:

We blocked those channels. My husband and I were worried that she is watching too much

cartoons. Persian Toons and GEM Junior were showing cartoons 24 hours 7 days a week. I

was getting worried. So we deleted those channels.

Shahrzad also explained that she didn ’t watch cartoons herself, because she didn ’tlike

watching them, nor did she talk to her daughter when the show was on. Similarly, Fariba

instructed her 10-year-old son not to watch the TV serial ( ‘Fatmagul ’is a Turkish TV drama

targeted at adults and available in Iran via GEM channel). Instead of watching the show,

Fariba asked her son to go to his room or play outside. In this case, Fariba did not o ﬀer any

reason on why her son shouldn ’t watch the show. Parents not providing reasons for a rule or

restriction are one of the leading characteristics of restrictive mediation (Valkenburg et al.,

1999 ). In fact, when her son questioned her why he shouldn ’t watch the show, Fariba

directly responded by saying it was not for young children and o ﬀered no further explana-

tion. In the above scenario, Fariba made a decision to restrict based on the content of the

show while Shahrzad limited based on time spent watching TV. In both cases, parents made

a decision using speci ﬁc self-developed heuristics. Previous research showed that restrictive

mediation is used mostly by authoritative and authoritarian parents (Eastin, Greenberg, &

Hofschire, 2006 ) and Iranian parents tend to mainly endorse the authoritarian style (which is

consistent with other collectivist societies –Rudy & Grusec, 2006 ).

Interestingly, some parents were concerned about the ‘boomerang e ﬀect ’of being

overly restrictive. Such an e ﬀect occurred when the intended mediation caused a back-

lash. Researchers believe that excessive restrictions might increase curiosity in children

and in ﬂuence them to seek out restricted content at other venues like a friend ’s house

or on occasions when a parent is not around (Valkenburg et al., 1999 ). Thus, by

foreseeing a likely boomerang e ﬀect from being overly restrictive, some parents took

steps to minimise the possibility of such a response. For example, Rosa, mother of an 8-

year-old girl in Iran, mentioned:

Some TV series about boyfriend/girlfriend I don ’t want her to watch. Because we live in Iran.

I don ’t like it showing parents kissing each other on TV. I don ’t like her to watch this stu ﬀ,

but anyways she watches them. Because I don ’t want to restrict her. I think if I restrict her

JOURNAL OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT 831 she will become more eager to repeat that behaviour. So I let her watch, but then I tell her

our culture and costumes are di ﬀerent from this.

In the above scenario, Rosa is concerned that restrictions will not just result in her daughter

seeking out the content but also engage in similar behaviour. While Rosa wants to restrict

the material out of fear of her daughter ’s rebelling she allows her to watch it while

communicating that she disapproves of the content. Such mediation has been labelled as

active mediation. Active mediation also provides parents with ‘teachable moments ’to

explain to their children how behaviour on TV contradicts their ideals. Sahar, who has a

10-year-old son, explained how they convert co-viewing into teachable moments:

When we watch TV together, I always talk to him. I tell him to look what those guys have

done was wrong. . .that guy lied, so the bad things happened to him. . .when we watch TV

together I try to make a lesson out of it for him. I don ’t mind him watching a couple kissing

each other on TV. It is natural and at his age he should know some stu ﬀ. Although it is not

consistent with our culture. . .I watch TV with him and if a scene comes up that two people

are kissing each other. I tell him to look darling these two people are in love. They like each

other so that is why they kiss each other and it is OK.

It appears that Iranian parents use the TV as a means to engage and educate their

children. Some parents seem to use TV to teach children what they consider to be

appropriate behaviours and personal values by pointing to content with which they

agree. While a majority of the Iranian parents seem to be engaged with their children ’s

TV viewing, there were exceptions. Behnaz, the mother of an 11-year-old boy, explained

to us that she was not as concerned about the impact of TV:

I have no concerns about TV viewing habits of Arian. . .I have no limitations for them

watching TV. I want to give them freedom. Arian has watched movies with violence, but

it doesn ’t impact him. So his watching TV does not concern me. He never imitates things

that he sees on TV. When he sees Ben10 and Batman, he asks me to buy their dresses or

swords. He tries to do those stu ﬀ, but not with other people. He plays alone. . . sometimes I

watch TV series with him, but I fell asleep most of the time. We will talk sometime. If I don ’t

understand a scene, he explains it to me. If he doesn ’t understand I tell it to him.

These mediation styles used by parents have been established in the literature (Nathanson,

1999 ). However, the extent to which each mediation strategy is used appears to vary in Iran.

There is one more mediation style that is used by parents in Iran and has not been noticed in

the Western parents ’mediation. In this type of intervention, parents use other activities to

distract their children from media that they ﬁnd inappropriate/harmful. In this style, they do

not directly confront their children about the activity they want them to stop, but parents

engage children in other activities that would distract the child from the unwanted

behaviour. We name this style, distraction mediation . An example is how Fariba talks

about involving his 10 years old son in other activities, so he will not have the energy to

play video games:

I put him in sport classes so he will use up his energy and then he will not have any energy

to play Xbox.

Or Rosa, the mother of an 8-year-old girl, that describes how they get her daughter

distracted if they don ’t want her to get exposed to speci ﬁc media:

832 M. KORDROSTAMI ET AL. My husband is also worried. Sometimes they watch TV together. If there is a concerning

scene, he will start talking to her to distract her, or he would ask her to get him a glass of

water.

Similar to co-viewing and restriction, in this ‘distraction ’mediation parents do not explain

why the behaviour should be stopped. But they restrict the practice by engaging their

children in other activities, without making them aware that they are being restricted.

Restrictive mediation in Iran is also supplemented with occasional discussions. While

most of the parents were involved in one way or the other, some parents were not very

concerned about the impact of TV and did not feel the need to mediate. Finally, we ﬁnd

that parents in Iran use the fourth type of mediation which was not discussed in the

previous literature in the Western contexts. When parents use distraction meditation,

they don ’t set speci ﬁc rules for children ’s behaviour similar to restrictive mediation, but

they distract the child from the behaviour. The child is most likely not aware of that

speci ﬁc media content because parents tried to hide it from him/her using this media-

tion style. Although parents sometimes talk to their children when they use this style, it

is di ﬀerent from active mediation as parents are not providing any feedback or reason-

ing about the content that is being hidden.

Proposition 5 : Iranian parents use all the mediation styles which have been established

in the literature for Western parents with more focus on restrictive and co-viewing.

Proposition 6 : In addition to the three well-established mediation styles, parents in Iran

use distraction mediation to distract their children from unwanted behaviour.

Children ’s media consumption

In the current study, media consumption refers to a consumer ’s preferred media selection

and time of use. Interview responses show that the most commonly used type of media in

households in Iran is TV. The TV was viewed widely by every family member including the

children. All the Iranian families who were interviewed for this study had satellite receivers

in their household, although Iran ’s government has banned satellite TV.

Further, children also had access to mobile phones, tablets, and Xboxes. In Iran,

parents tried hard to keep up with the latest technologies for their children as they

believed that such access prepared their children better for the future. Behnaz, the

mother of an 11-year-old boy, told us:

Arian has mobile, laptop, tablet, TV in his room. I ’m not happy that he has all these. But

these days all kids have all this stu ﬀ, so we have to buy them for him too –he doesn ’t have

Xbox; he hasn ’t asked for it. But my husband and I decided to buy one for him. Because all

the boys his age have it.

The interviewer noted that though some families did not seem to belong to upper-

middle class (they did not have properly working air conditioners in their house –

something considered widely necessary in Iran), they still owned the latest laptops,

tablets, cell phones, and satellite receivers. Although middle-class Iranian families are not

very well o ﬀﬁ nancially, especially after the sanctions in 2008 (Farshneshani, 2014 ), they

still tried to provide their children with up-to-date technology and devices. This is in line

JOURNAL OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT 833 with previous studies that suggest that Iranian families are aware of global trends, and

staying up-to-date with these trends is considered essential (Jafari & Goulding, 2008 ).

Very few Iranian parents talked about their children using computers to play games

or do homework. This is mainly because a majority of Iranian schools do not use

computer-based educational methods (Hazari, 2015 ).

Another critical pattern that emerged regarding media consumption was the extent

of media use. Iranian children enjoyed screen time on the weekdays. On the weekends,

children spend time with grandparents or playing in parks and outdoor places. As Rosa,

mother of an 8-year-old girl, says:

On weekends, she mostly spends time with grandparents, or cousins, or aunts. . . at week-

ends she does not watch much TV because she spends time with family.

In Iran, it is common for grandparents to take care of children and contribute in

signi ﬁcant ways in raising the grandchildren. This is further increasing because of

employment of mothers. Consequently, parents are likely to rely on grandparents to

take care of children rather than use the TV as a babysitter.

Overall, some key points emerge from interviewing parents about their children ’s media

consumption patterns. One, Iranian families, irrespective of their class, like to own the latest

electronic gizmos to demonstrate they are trendy. This has led to the immense popularity of

X boxes for children. Second, Iranian children spend their weekends in the company of their

extended family. Both these features appear to be a characteristic of interdependent view of

self. Purchasing of latest tech gizmos even when it might be di ﬃcult to a ﬀord one rises out of

the desire to ﬁt in and belong. Further, spending time on the weekend with grandparents (vs.

playing videogames) signi ﬁes the signi ﬁcant role for ‘others ’in de ﬁning one ’s self-identity (cf.

Markus & Kitayama, 1991 ). Spending time with grandparents in ﬂuences how much media

children consumed. Based on the above we suggest the following propositions:

Proposition 7 : Iranian children have access to the latest variety of media technology

since parents feel pressured to keep up with the social trends.

Proposition 8 : Iranian children are likely to have low screen time since extended media

time (vs. extended family) is not used as a babysitter.

Proposition 9 : Concerning media usage, Iranian children are in ﬂuenced by parents and

other extended family members.

Discussion

In this paper, we examine the impact of culture and regulations in Iran on media

socialisation of children between the ages of 8 and 12. Con ﬁrming previous research

(Austin et al., 1999 ), we ﬁnd parental mediation is in ﬂuenced by their concerns. These

concerns seem to be primarily in ﬂuenced by local culture and regulatory environment,

factors that are explicitly not considered when discussing media socialisation in the

previous literature. We ﬁnd that where, what, and when media is consumed re ﬂect to a

great extent the cultural ideals of the population. Consequently, the environmental

factors resulted in unique mediation e ﬀorts via parental concerns (see Figure 1 ).

834 M. KORDROSTAMI ET AL. Previous research has considered the di ﬀerent factors that impact media socialisation.

For instance, parental education levels and employment status a ﬀect media socialisaation.

Ganzeboom ( 1982 ) showed that parents with higher education (higher intellectual and

cognitive abilities) are more likely to choose more complex media resources compared to

parents with lower education. Social status can act as a determinant of individual ’s access

to expensive and scarce media resources. Accordingly, children from higher social status

families are more likely to access highbrow media (Kraaykamp, 2001 ). Notten and

Kraaykamp ( 2009 ) showed that in addition to parents ’social background, family ’s compo-

sition also impacts media socialisation. Speci ﬁcally, in larger families and in families with

divorced parents, parents will o ﬀer less guidance about media. Other research has

demonstrated that the way children perceive media (television) in their world and how

they incorporate it in their everyday life depends on the country and culture that they

come from (Caronia & Caron, 2008 ). However, these papers on media socialisation have

rarely considered the regulatory or a highly interdependent cultural environment. The

present research thus o ﬀers an updated view of media socialisation.

This research ﬁnds that the interdependent view of self repeatedly reinforces itself, mainly

because children spend more time with their ex tended family. It appears that grandparents

and extended family members along with parents may impact children ’smediausage,while

parents mainly play such a role in Western countries. First, by spending time with other family

members on the weekend, children have lowe r screen time. This reduces the harm from

*Local Environment include social, reli gious, re gulator y and business environment

Culture Available

Media

Local

environme

nt*

Parents' concerns regarding media content and effects

Parental mediation styles

Children’s media consumption

Active mediation

Restrictive mediation

Co-viewing

Distraction mediation

Figure 1. Model of media socialisation.

JOURNAL OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT 835 continuous exposure to media (Strasburger et al., 2010 ). Second, children might receive

consistent or contradictory signals regardin g media usage. When the number of caregivers

increases there is a potential for con ﬂict between mediation styles. Research shows that

consistency in mediation is essential for parents ’inﬂuence to be e ﬃcient (Gentile & Walsh,

2002 ). Future research should con ﬁrm when and how such con ﬂicts can be avoided.

Although families in Iran try to keep up their identity with modern western ideas

(Jafari & Goulding, 2008 ), at the same time they have concerns regarding content shown

on TV (in ﬁdelity, romantic relationships out of wedlock, etc.). Since state-sponsored TV

channels do not show content which is even slightly sensual, there is a taboo associated

with such content. While families still watch these shows, there is a markedly higher

attempt to mediate the show ’s likely in ﬂuence.

One point to note would be parents ’concerns regarding media violence. Prolonged

war, instability in the Middle East, and public executions in the streets led some parents

to worry that children might be frightened by violent content. But some parents used

media to reinforce stereotypical masculine behaviours in their sons. This kind of identi-

ﬁcation with violence has been previously considered (Swani, Weinberger, & Gulas, 2013 )

but not necessarily in a media socialisation context. It might be worthwhile to ﬁnd how

parents engender sensation seeking in boys and compliance in girls via their (intended

or unintended) responses to media content. Finally, parental concerns about advertising

leading to materialism in children are similar to Western research in this area (Buijzen &

Valkenburg, 2003 ).

These concerns are expressed in the kind of mediation parents demonstrate. There

are no ratings available for TV programmes that are available via satellite dishes. In such

situations, Iranian parents tend to use di ﬀerent types of mediation including ones, such

as distraction mediation to control children ’s TV viewing. Iranian parents do not expli-

citly restrict untoward content but instead distract children from speci ﬁc TV content by

engaging them in something else. Parents try to avoid confrontation but still prevent

children from viewing material that is unacceptable to them. This behaviour can be

potentially harmful, as children do not get the opportunity to understand the reasons

they are not supposed to engage in certain behaviours. It appears that some parents in

the US also might adopt this technique to maintain harmony in the household

(Vijayalakshmi, 2015 ).

We ﬁnd that Iranian parents were highly involved compared to parents from other

Western samples. We speculate that this is likely because parents don ’t get any external

support, such as programme ratings or online reviews which could be used to automatically

block programmes (for example, using a V-chip) rather than having to watch the entire

programme with the child to make a viewing decision. This speculation needs to be veri ﬁed

through further studies. Future research also needs to investigate how other environmental

factors like exposure to war in ﬂuences how children respond to programmes (e.g. violent

content or advertisements). Another limitation is the use of American ads in the ad

elicitation process; future research should consider using Iranian ads for elicitation purposes.

This research o ﬀers an understanding of media socialisation in an under-researched

market. Culture and regulation are interrelated and impact available media, parental

concerns, and parental mediation styles, as we saw in the context of Iran. This interrela-

tion leads to di ﬀerences in children ’s media consumption patterns, di ﬀerent parental

concerns and a new mediation style adopted by parents.

836 M. KORDROSTAMI ET AL. Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the ﬁrst author ’s mother for her help during the data collection.

The authors would also wish to thank Dr. Russell Belk for his invaluable comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential con ﬂict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Melika Kordrostami is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at California State University, San

Bernardino. She completed her Ph.D. in Marketing at Iowa State University. Her research projects

deal with advertising, female portrayals, branding, and emotion regulation.

Akshaya Vijayalakshmi is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Indian Institute of

Management, Ahmedabad, India. She completed her Ph.D. in Marketing at Iowa State University,

U.S.A. Her research papers have appeared in Journal of Marketing Communications and Journal of

Consumer A ﬀairs.

Russell N. Laczniak completed his Ph.D. at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His primary research

interest deals with parent and children interaction regarding media. Dr. Laczniak formerly served

as editor of the Journal of Advertising and was president and treasurer of the American Academy of

Advertising. His publications have appeared in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of the

Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of

Public Policy & Marketing, Journal of Consumer A ﬀairs , and others.

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