This edited volume explores, analyzes, and sheds light to the field, practice, research, and critical inquiry of media, journalism, and mass communications in four countries in Central Asia—Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.

Central Asian post-independence media and communication industries, professional practices, education, persisting and evolving values, and traditions remain critically understudied with a notable scarcity of research and scholarly publications on the complex and increasingly changing communicative ecology landscape of this region. Mapping the Media and Communication Landscape of Central Asia: An Anthology of Emerging and Contemporary Issues addresses this gap in literature by exploring, analyzing, and shedding light to the field, practice, research and critical inquiry of media and mass communication in four countries in Central Asia—Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. This book includes local authors as well as new and emerging researchers from this region to contextualize the issues explored and provide a supportive dialogue between different points of view.

List of Figures

List of Tables

Introduction: Mapping the Communicative Ecology of Central Asia Media: Emerging Trends and Persisting Issues

Elira Turdubaeva and Evangelia Papoutsaki

Part I - Identity, Media and Politics

Chapter 1: Re-Orientalizing Central Asia: Role of Russian Media in Construction and Negotiation of Identity in Tajikistan

Tahmina Inoyatova

Chapter 2: The Evolution of State-Sponsored Television Series in Kazakhstan

Berikbol Dukeyev

Chapter 3: Efforts of Nation Branding in Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan

Venera Narinova

Chapter 4: Media’s Role in Political and Social Transformation in Central Asia

Berdak Bayimbetov

Chapter 5: Kyrgyzstan’s News Media Discourses on Tribalism: 2009-2014

Elmurat Ashiraliev

Part II - Issues: Gender, Religion, Environment, Migration, Activism

Chapter 6: The Media Landscape in Three Central Asian Countries, and its Impact on Key Social and Behavioral Dimensions in the Region

Tatiana Karabchuk, Aizhan Shomotova, and Glenn W. Muschert

Chapter 7: Representation of Islam and Muslims in Kyrgyz Media

Mukaram Toktogulova and Elira Turdubaeva

Chapter 8: Gender and Media in Uzbekistan: Reproducing Gender Role Stereotypes

Nozima Davletova

Chapter 9: Environmental News Reporting in Kyrgyzstan: A Content Analysis of Kyrgyz Press

Gökçe Yoğurtçu

Chapter 10: Reporting on Migration and Representation of Migrants in Kazakh and Russian Media

Marlan Negizbayeva

Chapter 11: Community Media in Kyrgyzstan and their Role in Strengthening Remote Communities Agency

Evangelia Papoutsaki and Elira Turdubaeva

Part III - Digital and Social Media

Chapter 12: Mapping Social Media in Kyrgyzstan

Ahmed Al-Rawi, Tahmina Inoyatova, Elira Turdubaeva and Evangelia Papoutsaki

Chapter 13: Social Media, Online Activism and Government Control in Kazakhstan

Dila Baisembaeva, Evangelia Papoutsaki and Elena Kolesova

Chapter 14: Mediated Public Diplomacy Targeting Kyrgyzstan

Ahmed Al-Rawi, Joseph Nicolai, Tahmina Inoyatova, Elira Turdubaeva, Tolkun Bekturgan Kyzy and Evangelia Papoutsaki

Index

About the Contributors