A Comparative Study of the Role of Mass and Social Media in the Sense of Commitment to Teenagers' National Identity (Case study; Teenagers in Ardabil)

The purpose of this research was to compare the role of mass and social media in the sense of commitment to national identity. The research method was applied in terms of achieving the goal and survey in terms of collecting information. The statistical population of the research includes all teenagers (11 to 18 years old) of Ardabil city, numbering 50,000, of which 380 people were selected as a sample using cluster random sampling method. To collect data, a researcher-made questionnaire for the media and a standard questionnaire by Selgi et al. (2014) were used for commitment to national identity. Face validity was used to measure the validity of the research tool and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used for the reliability of the tool, which was higher than 0.7 for the questionnaires. Data were analyzed through t-test and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) in SPSS software. The results showed that mass and social media play a different role in the commitment of national identity and its dimensions (social, historical, cultural and political) among teenagers. So that the commitment to national identity and its dimensions among teenagers whose dominant media is social is less than teenagers whose dominant media is collective. The results of variance analysis showed that 21.6 percent of cultural affiliation, 29.9 The percentage of historical belonging, 16.9 percent of political belonging and 32.9 percent of social belonging of teenagers is explained through the difference in the effect of the type of media (collective and social). Therefore, it is concluded that the type of media plays a very important role in the commitment to the national identity of teenagers.