The Role of Azeri Radio World Service in Explaining the Common History of Iran and The Republic of Azerbaijan

The current politico-cultural trends in the Republic of Azerbaijan, focused on "historical strangeness with Iran", have led to its divergence from Iran. One of the missions of Iranian Radio Azeri World Service is to explain the historical connections and raptures to the public opinion of its northern neighbor. Applying agenda setting and framing theories, the aim of this article is to evaluate the amount and circumstances of addressing common history of two countries in this old radio. Therefore, using content analysis, the three month historical programs of this audio media examined through whole counting method based on coding technique. Programs have been evaluated by 2 agenda setting category and 7 framing variable. Findings show that especially from the framing point of view programs are far from optimal limit. Statistical analysis confirms that agenda setting of historical issues is not a priority of media and does not have enough political priority for the policymakers of this audio media. For a more comprehensive enlightenment of various levels and layers of audiences’ thought it is suggested that while increasing the number of historical programs, the use of cognitive framework, such as the simultaneous narrative of two-state events, indirect speech, multivoiced and interactive programs, should also be encouraged. Re-defining historical knowledge and increasing self-awareness of Azeri civil activists will be effective in promoting the conformity and convergence of the two countries.