The engagement of Hawzeh media with Artificial Intelligence as a modern technology

Alikhani, Zohreh; Malekmohammadi, Hanieh; Gholami, Farzad

doi:10.22059/jcss.2025.406840.1206

The engagement of Hawzeh media with Artificial Intelligence as a modern technology

Document Type : Original article

Authors

Department of Social Communication Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

10.22059/jcss.2025.406840.1206

Abstract

Background: Background: In Iran, following the introduction of modern technologies, various social groups have responded to them, among whom “Tolab” constitute one category. Due to their religious authority within Iranian society, seminarians exert both direct and indirect influence on people’s social lives.
Aims: This study aims to explore how Hawzeh members engage with artificial intelligence (AI) as a manifestation of modern technology, by examining Hawzeh media such as journals and news agencies, and to explain its relationship with modernity and technological application approaches.
Methodology: 122 texts from Hawzeh media over a two-year period were selected and analyzed using thematic analysis. Ultimately, three main categories were identified: “Understanding the Nature of Artificial Intelligence among Hawzeh Members”, “The Relationship between Power and Artificial Intelligence among Hawzeh Members”, and “The Operational Attention of the Hawzeh to Artificial Intelligence”.
Findings: Hawzeh media perceive AI as having a variable nature, which can be utilized depending on the intention, design, and use by its users.
Conclusion: The experience of the People of the Hawzeh with AI demonstrates that the systematic form of religion can also be integrated with technology as a product of modern science, because it is not entirely anti-modern, nor is it modern and subjective in the sense of defining its existence solely as a specific mode of being.

Keywords

Main Subjects

media

Main Object: Media

References

Acemoglu, D. & Johnson, S. (2023). Our Millennium-Long Dispute over Technology and Well-being. Translated by Beheshti Shirazi, S. & Farhadipour, M. Tehran: Tarjoman. [in Persian]

Beltramini, E. (2023). “When religion meets history of technology: Secularism and the problem of the sacred”. History and Technology. 39(3-4): 316-327. https://doi.org/10.1080/07341512.2024.2314804.

Braun, V. & Clarke, V. (2006). “Using thematic analysis in psychology”. Qualitative Research in Psychology. 3(2): 77-101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa.

Borgmann, A. (1984). Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Boroumand, Kh. & Hosseini, H. (2015). “Escaping the dominant technological space in Andrew Feenberg’s critical theory of technology”. Hekmat va Falsafeh. 11(41): 7-28. https://wph.atu.ac.ir/article_1576.html. [in Persian]

Campbell, H. (2010). When Religion Meets New Media. New York: Routledge.

Coeckelbergh, M. (2022). The Political Philosophy of AI: An Introduction. Translated by Raeiszadeh, A. Tehran: Doxsa Publisher. [in Persian]

Davari Ardakani, R. (1999). “Considerations on technique”. Nameh-ye Farhang. 32: 184-200. https://ensani.ir/fa/article/265972/%D9%85%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AD%D8%B8%D8%A7%D8%AA%DB%8C-%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%A8-%D8%AA%DA%A9%D9%86%DB%8C%DA%A9. [in Persian]

Dreyfus, H. & Spinosa, C. (2009). “On affirming technology”. Ettelaat Hekmat va Ma’refat. 4(7). https://www.noormags.ir/view/fa/articlepage/566361. [in Persian]

Ellul, J. (1964). The Technological Society. New York: Vintage.

Feenberg, A. (2002). Transforming Technology: A Critical Theory Revisited. New York: Oxford.

---------------. (1990). The critical theory of technology. Capitalism Nature Socialism. https://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/books/critical_theory_of_technology.pdf.

Fransen, M.; Van Locherst, G. & Van Pool, W. (2016). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Philosophy of Technology. Translated by Hashemian, M. Tehran: Ghoghnoos Publishing Group.

Heidegger, M. (1994). “The question concerning technology”. Arghanoon Quarterly. 1. https://www.noormags.ir/view/fa/articlepage/30057. [in Persian]

Leung, K.H. (2019). “The picture of artificial intelligence and the secularization of thought”. Political Theology. 20(6): 457-471. https://doi.org/10.1080/1462317X.2019.1605725.

Nasiri, M. (2019). Sociology of Science and Technology. Qom: Hawzeh and University Research Institute. [in Persian]

Shaheen, M.; Pradhan, S. & Ranajee, R. (2018). “Sampling in qualitative research”. In Qualitative Techniques for Workplace Data Analysis (pp. 25-51). Pennsylvania: Business Science Reference.

Shahghasemi, E. (2025). “AI; A Human Future”. Journal of Cyberspace Studies. 9(1): 145-173. https://doi.org/10.22059/jcss.2025.389027.1123.

Sheikhzadeh, M. & Bani Asad, R. (2020). Theme: Concepts, Approaches, and Applications. Tehran: Logos Publications. [in Persian]

Singler, B. (2025). Religion and Artificial Intelligence: An Introduction. New York: Routledge.

---------------. (2022). “Origin and the end: Artifcial Intelligence, atheism, and imaginaries of the future of religion”. In Sollereder, B. & McGrath, A. (Eds.). Emerging Voices in Science and Theology: Contributions by Young Women (pp. 105-120). New York: Routledge.

---------------. (2018). “An introduction to artificial intelligence and religion for the religious studies scholar”. Implicit Religion. 20(3): 215-231. https://doi.org/10.1558/imre.35901.

Singler, B. & Watts, F. (ed). (2024). “Introduction”. In The Cambridge Companion to Religion and Artificial Intelligence (pp. 1-14). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://assets.cambridge.org/97813165/16034/frontmatter/9781316516034_frontmatter.pdf.

Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (2017). Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. Tehran: Ney. [in Persian]

Szerszynski, B. (2005). “Rethinking the secular: Science, technology, and religion today”. Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science. 40(4): 813-822. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9744.2005.00709.x.

Taghavi, M. (2012). “Two levels of alternative thinking for technology”. Methodology of Humanities Research Quarterly. 18(73): 53-84. https://method.rihu.ac.ir/article_183.html. [in Persian]

Thompson, J. (2020). Media and Modernity: A Social Theory of Media. Translated by Ohadi, M. Tehran: Soroush. [in Persian]

Umbrello, S. (2023). “The intersection of Bernard Lonergan’s critical realism, the common good, and artificial intelligence in modern religious practices”. Religions. 14(12). https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14121536.

Woodward, Y. (2018). Understanding Material Culture. Translated by Madani Lavasani, S. Tehran: Logos Publishing. [in Persian]