Portrayal of Kazakhstan: Sentiment and Topics in Online Media (2022-2023)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1504.10Keywords:
corpus linguistics, media framing, news, worldAbstract
This paper sought to delineate how English media frame Kazakhstan. We employed co-occurrence network and sentiment analysis across 130 newspaper pieces published in 2022 and 2023. The results showed that the news in the UK and Qatar often associated Kazakhstan with Russia and China, and also referred to it as a Muslim country, which until the events of January 2022 was considered a peaceful and quiet country. Among the prevailing terms, there were “Kazakhstan,” “country,” “Tokayev,” “Russia,” and “protest”. Kazakhstan was represented as a country ruled by an influential leader (Tokayev), maintaining diplomatic relations with countries in Europe and Asia. Kazakhstan’s image suffered due to the violent crackdown on protests during the January events and accusations of supporting Russia to circumvent sanctions, which the government denies. However, the January events awakened a wave of foreign media interest in Kazakhstan, which gradually subsided over time. The sentiment analysis unearthed that the peak of positive sentiment coincided with events such as scientific achievements, cultural successes and progressive changes, while the decline was characterized by coverage of problems within the country facing serious challenges, including worker safety issues, political suppression, economic instability and questions about the legitimacy of elections. Resultantly, a rather ambivalent portrayal emerged.
References
Aguirre-Unceta, R. (2023). Kazakhstan: Extractive resources, governance and inclusive development. Journal of Social and Economic Development. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40847-023-00252-1
Bączkowska, A. & Khokhlacheva, Y. (2019). The world’s coldest, newest and most re-mote capital – the perception of Astana by the British and American quality press: a corpus-assisted analysis. Scripta Neophilologica Posnaniensia, 19, 9-23. https://doi.org/10.14746/snp.2019.19.01
Bączkowska, A., Gabdrakhmanova, S., & Akhmetova, G. (2020). The representation of the capital of Kazakhstan in Central Asia online news coverage: A corpus-assisted analysis. Annales Universitatis Paedagogicae Cracoviensis. Studia Linguistica, (15), 16-31. https://doi.org/10.24917/20831765.15.1
Bakieva, M. (2023, November 1). “Povyshennoe vnimanie k Kazahstanu”: pochemu Makron priletel v Astanu? [“Increased attention to Kazakhstan”: why did Macron fly to Astana?]. Liter. Available at: https://liter.kz/povyshennoe-vnimanie-k-kazakhstanu-pochemu-makron-priletel-v-astanu-1698834132/ (accessed 9 January 2024).
Cansun, Ş., & Arık, E. (2019). Uluslararası medyada ülkelerin temsilleri: BBC’de Türkiye örneği. İnsan ve Toplum Bilimleri Araştırmaları Dergisi, 8(1), 515-536. https://doi.org/10.15869/itobiad.511706
Chernjavskaja, V. E., & Molodychenko, E. N. (2017). Rechevoe vozdejstvie v politicheskom, reklamnom i internet-diskurse. [Speech impact in political, advertising and Internet discourse]. Moscow, LLC “Lenand”, 160 p. (In Russian). Available at: https://www.elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=29040005 (accessed 9 January, 2024).
Gazizov, T. The Image of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the United States. Doct. Diss. Miami, 2017. Available at: https://scholarship.miami.edu/esploro/outputs/graduate/The-Image-of-the-Republic-of/991031447958902976 (accessed 9 January, 2024).
Hedlund, S. (2023, July 18). Kazakhstan helps Russia evade Western sanctions. GIS. Available at: https://www.gisreportsonline.com/r/kazakhstan-helps-russia-evade-western-sanctions/ (accessed 9 January, 2024).
ICP Zakon.kz. (2014, June 22). Kazahstan na mirovoj arene: Glavnyj prioritet – doverie [Kazakhstan on the world stage: The main priority is trust]. Zakon.kz. Available at: https://www.zakon.kz/redaktsiia-zakonkz/4634115-kazakhstan-na-mirovojj-arene-glavnyjj.html (accessed 9 January, 2024).
IP Kazpravda.kz (2023, December 27). Kazahstan aktivno vovlechen v reshenie prakticheski vseh mirovyh problem [Kazakhstan is actively involved in solving almost all world problems]. Kazahstanskaya Pravda. (In Russian). Available at: https://kazpravda.kz/n/kazahstan-aktivno-vovlechen-v-reshenie-prakticheski-vseh-mirovyh-problem/ (accessed 9 January, 2024).
Jiang, X., Mao, T., & Tian, J. (2022). The application of digital technology in the complex situation of news dissemination from the perspective of new media art. Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience, 2022, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/1685430
Kozhakhmetova, A. (2020). Axiological component of text world view (on the samples of Kazakhstani press). Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski, 11(2), 175-189. https://doi.org/10.31648/PW.6501
Kuash R. & Kabylgazina, K. (2023). The image of Kazakhstan in Chinese periodicals (based on the analysis of news content in the newspaper “Zhjen’min’ Zhibao” from 2018 to 2022). Al-Farabi Kazakh national university. Herald of Journalism, 68(2), 113-129. (In Russian). https://doi.org/10.26577/hj.2023.v68.i2.10
Nwambam, M., Ngene, A. H., & Gana, H. (2023). Rethinking the social relevance of mass communication in the era of digital communication. BOHR International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research, 2(1), 53-61. https://doi.org/10.54646/bijsshr.024
SPN Time.kz (2022, November 16). Kazahstan blagodarja Tokaevu stal bolee privlekatel’nym dlja investicij [Thanks to Tokayev, Kazakhstan has become more attractive for investment]. Vremja. (In Russian). Available at: https://time.kz/news/mirovye-novosti/2022/11/16/kazahstan-blagodarya-tokaevu-stal-bolee-privlekatelnym-dlya-investitsij (accessed 9 January 2024).
Taylor, A. (2022). Audience agency in social performance. Cultural Sociology, 16(1), 68-85. https://doi.org/10.1177/17499755211029604
Thumpakattu, J. The BBC’s Portrayal of India: An Analysis of how the International News Coverage of India Changed in the Digital Era. Unpublished Doct. thesis. London, 2021. Available at: https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/27033/ (accessed 9 January, 2024).
Warjri, S., Pakray, P., Lyngdoh, S. A., & Maji, A. K. (2023, February). Fake news detection using social media data for Khasi language. In 2023 International Conference on Intelligent Systems, Advanced Computing and Communication (ISACC) (pp. 1-6). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/ISACC56298.2023.10083518
Wintour, P. (2023, January 20). UK MP and peer on Kazakhstan visit denied access to opposition leader. The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/20/uk-mp-and-peer-on-kazakhstan-visit-denied-access-to-opposition-leader (accessed 9 January, 2024).
Xing, Y., & Jin, C. H. (2023). The impact of cultural values on attitude formation toward cultural products: mediating effects of country image. Sustainability, 15(14), 11172. https://doi.org/10.3390/su151411172
Zharkynbekova, S. K., Smagulova, B. G. (2023). Obraz strany v persuazivnom prostranstve diskursa smi [Image of the country in the persuasive space of media discourse]. Tiltanym, 2, 137-147. (In Russian). https://doi.org/10.55491/2411-6076-2023-2-137-147
