Contested Narratives of the Present: Postrevolutionary Culture and Media in Iran

This book review compares Mehdi Semati's Media, Culture, and Society in Iran: Living with Globalization and the Islamic State and Nasrin Alavi's We Are Iran: The Persian Blogs. Both works recognize the significance of media in shaping and understanding contemporary Iranian society. Semati's volume aims to critically challenge the models that have become commonplace in describing and assessing Iran, while Alavi's work provides a compact collection of the kind of narratives that Semati indicates are in dire need of interrogation.