Investigating the sources of receiving news when the internet is cut off in Iran and its consequences

    The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of Internet disconnection in Iran on the free flow of information and the type of sources of news received by the citizens of Tehran and its consequences. The research method of this survey and variable measurement tool is a standard researcher-made questionnaire, derived from the theoretical structure and on a Likert scale.  While measuring the tendency of people to various media such as radio, television, newspapers, the Internet, social networks and satellites, we received in Iran before and after the nationwide shutdown of the Internet.( A total of 390 people studied in this study ) That is 75.1% of respondents use mobile social networks to monitor news And on average, 59 percent of respondents spend at least three hours a day on social media, The findings also show that, except for the gender variable,  other contextual variables (age, education, and income) are not significantly related to the type of news sources. According to the citizens of Tehran, the main consequence of the disconnection of the national Internet in November 2019 was the "reduction of freedom of expression" and the least consequence was the "disruption of interpersonal communication." Other consequences include increased public distrust, declining social media credibility, disruption of personal and business affairs, escalating divisions and dissatisfaction among the public, and increasing rumors.