The Iranian regime strategically employs radio and television broadcast media—amplified by the internet—in order to disseminate its ideology, worldview, and values at home and abroad. Iran utilizes state-owned international satellite networks as a tool of state-to-foreign population strategic diplomacy. Iranian networks such as Al-Alam (Arabic), PressTV (English), and HispanTV (Spanish) represent a cost-effective complement to the regime’s geopolitical ambitions, enabling Iran to project influence and amplify pro-regime ideology in pursuit of its efforts to export the Islamic Revolution.

The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting’s (IRIB’s) mission statement describes the world’s media scene as a  “battlefield” in which an “intensifying media war” is playing out in order to win over public opinion. While its news, cultural, and religious programming outputs are often crude and propagandistic, they form the basis of a coherent and concerted global strategy to disseminate the Iranian establishment’s alternate worldview and challenge Western hegemony.