#FreeMahsaAmini on TikTok: A historical and contemporary analysis of the mediation of Iranian protests

This thesis examines the way Iranian protests have been mediated since the Iranian Revolution of 1979. It hereby draws upon media theory in relation to activism, (historical) visual and textual analyses, and perception analysis through video elicitation. The study compared historical protests mediated in newspapers and the recent protests of 2022, focussing particularly on TikTok. In this way, it scrutinises the role of affordances, censorship, and remediation in this process. Data were gathered through various online sources, including a library of historical Iranian newspapers and the TikTok search engine. The results of this study demonstrate how both older and newer media forms use symbolism to frame their narrative and that though newer media forms have been presented as more democratic, both forms have to adhere to certain rules and regulations.