Methods of media influence of the opponents of the regime through the social network Instagram (Case study of the Instagram pages of the monarchist current)

Introduction: Since Instagram is a good opportunity to extend the conspiracies of enemies and opponents of the regime are well aware of the power of this social network, they have created a new concept in non-violent campaigns. Opponents of the regime and intelligence services have been conducting activities such as cyber espionage, security intelligence wars, propaganda broadcasting, coordinating riots and subversive movements, gathering information and measuring public opinion through this network. Thus, this social network has become a battle between the opposition and the government, and the only cost that the opposition pays in this network is to think and create new and effective tricks on the minds and psyches of the audience. Currently, about 7 million people follow the Instagram pages of these 5 people of the monarchist circle and receive their messages through these pages. Like any political group, it publishes various content to achieve its goals. Accordingly, this study tends to find out how the monarchist circle uses the Instagram and influences the public opinion of the Iranian people.

Metods: This study is applied research in terms of objective and qualitative research in terms of nature and uses theme analysis. To conduct this study, 5 pages of Reza Pahlavi, Shahram Homayoun, Amir Fakhravar, Shahin Najafi and Farah Pahlavi were selected as the sample and the content of these pages was observed and evaluated in the period 2019 to 2021. The coding process was performed using quality data management software (MaxQDA software).

Results:: It was found that this circle has used the media techniques to picture the Islamic regime as an illegal system, whose organizations and institutions are incapable of providing welfare and justice. On the other hand, it introduces itself as a supporter of the protesters and opponents of the regime and insinuates to the audience that the overthrow of this regime is very easy. For this reason, this movement uses methods to persuade the overthrow of the regime and magnify corruption in order to accompany the audience and further influence them

Conclusion: The monarchist circle have selected influencers as one of the communication channels between themselves and the audience to change the attitude, thoughts, behavior and performance of the audience. This movement tends to overthrow the regime and encourage civil disobedience by highlighting and magnifying bad news and inducing its goals to the audience, on the one hand, and using Instagram, on the other hand. Therefore, those involved in the system should take preventive measures with the knowledge of this matter and efforts of the monarchist movement to influence the audience by promoting the media literacy of the audience.