The case of “homelessness in Iran” presents empirical evidence to demonstrate “how a small media organization affects and changes social discourse.” The study investigates how the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) embodied the view of a news agency as having a role not only in the coverage of events, but also as an active agent of social change through discursive interventions. The process by which ISNA reconstructed homelessness and its empirical consequences is compatible with the five accepted stages labeled by Blumer. Homelessness represents the different ways in which ISNA has intervened in the social discourse in Iran: foregrounding a social issue, thematizing a discourse and problematizing social issues in order to open up a new kind of discourse.

¹ In Iran, during the Khatami era (1997–2005), ISNA (Iranian Student News Agency) emerged in 1999 as the second Iranian news agency. ISNA rapidly became one of the major sources of news, information and content in Iranian media; expanded poly-vocalism and gained broad recognition among Iranian media professionals and users. ISNA was a student-run organization (students mainly from low income families) that in name and some principles is similar to citizen journalism and in other principles follows traditional media.

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¹⁰ ISNA, “Gozaresh-e tasviri 3; Shab-e bi sarpanāhān key be pāyan miresad,”ISNA (2004),http://www.isna.ir/ISNA/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-453460 (accessed 24 February 2010); ISNA, “Shab-e bi sarpanāhān key be pāyan miresad,”ISNA, 11 August 2004,http://www.isna.ir/ISNA/FullNews.aspx?SrvID=Photo&Ndate=11-08-2004 (accessed 28 December 2009).

¹¹ ISNA, “Pāyan-e shab-e darbedari-ye yek million bikhānemān dar harimhā-ye kāghazi key farā miresad,”ISNA (2004),http://www.isna.ir/ISNA/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-453518 (accessed 28 December 2009).

¹² ISNA, “Sokhangu-ye dolat: Kartunkhābi padide-ye talkhi ast ke barā-ye hallash eqdām mikonim,”ISNA (2004),http://www.isna.ir/ISNA/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-467717 (accessed 28 December 2009).

¹³ IRNA, “Daneshjuyān-e mo'tarez be marg-e kartunkhābhā be behesht raftand,”IRNA (2004),http://news.irna.net/persian/newsdetail.asp?nid=1317488&ln&ln_p=13 (accessed 18 January 2009).

¹⁴ Ibid.

¹⁵ ISNA, “Rae'is jomjur: Jān-e ensān har kasi ke bāshad, che fāseq che fājer che hānif, in jān moqaddas ast,”ISNA (2004),http://www.isna.ir/ISNA/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-468281 (accessed 28 December 2009).

¹⁶ ISNA, “Shab-e bisarpanāhān key be pāyan miresad.”

¹⁷ IRNA, “Ekhtelāf-e saliqehā va zarurat-e hamāhangi dar hemāyat az dar rāh māndehā va kārtunkhābhā,”IRNA (2005),http://news.irna.net/persian/newsdetail.asp?nid=1357549&ln_p=13 (accessed 18 January 2009).

¹⁸ IRNA, “Gozāreshi az bāztāb-e padide-ye kārtunkhābi dar matbuāt-e dākheli,”IRNA (2004),http://news.irna.net/persian/newsdetail.asp?nid=1336461&ln_p=13 (accessed 18 January 2009).

¹⁹ ISNA, “Negāhi be sarmaqāle-ye ruznāme-ye jomhuri-ye eslāmi,”ISNA (2004),http://www.isna.ir/ISNA/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-470255 (accessed 28 December 2009).

²⁰ ISNA, “Sokhangu-ye dolat: Kartunkhābi padide-ye talkhi ast ke barā-ye hallash eqdām mikonim,”ISNA (2004),http://www.isna.ir/ISNA/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-467717 (accessed 28 December 2009).

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