“Old Media”

The Astana Times is the main newspaper of the current capital city, Nur-Sultan. And, it is published by the Regional Non-Profit Organization Guild of Independent Journalists. This is both a bi-weekly print edition and consistently updated digital edition. They cover a whole range of topics including, but not limited to: business, society, and editorials. This source also includes various profiles for Kazakhstan’s many regions. It is published online in English, so they really are appealing to their tagline which can be seen on every page: “bringing Kazakhstan to the World.”

This is the link: https://astanatimes.com/

I chose this source because they truly cover all aspects of Kazakh life. The fact that the default language is English also helps students like me to gain awareness. However, some of the tabs (like Culture or Official) have not been updated for some weeks. This could be a product of the current climate in Central Asia or for other reasons, but overall, it is still informative.

Karavan is the one of the largest newspapers in the country. This Russian language digital newspaper is a weekly printed paper as well. Founded in 1991, Karavan focuses on mostly the politics and economics side of things. And a large team of editors and journalists under the Kazakhstan Today Agency make this possible. They appear to update pages every 30 minutes, which is fairly regular in the grand scheme of things.

It can be accessed at: https://www.caravan.kz/news/

I chose this source because it provides a Russian language perspective to news. In a country which has massive post-soviet influence, many still speak Russian. Many are also pro-Russia when it comes to geopolitics (with now being an especially divisive time). As such, having this outlook is important for a balanced information network. This newspaper is also headquartered in the nation’s biggest city, Almaty. Being near so many people and in such a happening place is a positive for newspapers.

The Diplomat is an Asia-Pacific focused publication which I used as the basis for my final report. It is in English (but can be easily translated using the browser extension) and covers all the regions of Asia. Since it is not Kazakh-focused/based, they provide an external, but still local, perspective. They have provided very consistent journalism since 2002 and don’t look to be stopping anytime soon.

It can be accessed at: https://thediplomat.com/

I chose this source because its leadership (here, I’m mainly referring to the editors and publisher) hail from all over Asia. And, this is one of the only publications in this list focused on economics/finance. They write about the environment and politics, but the markets and their consequences are most important to The Diplomat.

RT is a Russian-based traditional news media organization. While they cover international stories, they are focused on Russia and former-Soviet nations (which Kazakhstan is). Because of it’s origin, there is some bias (as with any government funded media organization). And, since they are so large, regular/everyday stories may be overlooked

It can be accessed at: https://www.rt.com/search?q=kazakhstan

Generally speaking though, they can be trusted to report on most facts and are great for gauging the Kazakh government’s reaction on international events. Another strength of RT and their Kazakhstan coverage is that it’s relatively easy to search for topics on their website.

“New Media”

World Bank Blogs covers many countries and all sorts of issues. These range from climate considerations and taxes to pandemic relief and natural disasters. As the name suggests, it is made by the World Bank and their Kazakhstan repository has over 80 posts starting from March 2013. Written in English, the posts are well-informed and professional in aesthetic.

It is available at: https://blogs.worldbank.org/kazakhstan?page=0

Since it is published by the World Bank, it’s international perspective is what I was really looking for. Although, it was last updated in December 2021. The individual authors also are managers and industry leaders who work for the World Bank and focus on Central Asia/Kazakhstan. They bring a unique, scholarly, perspective that my information network lacked.

Kazakh Wikipedia is not just a translated Wikipedia. Rather, it is the familiar amalgam of the world’s knowledge, but made for Kazakh speakers. As such, the articles on there (while not as many as those on the English one) represent what Kazakh speakers think is the most important knowledge. This means that it is an excellent source for crowdsourced “new media.”

It can be accessed at: https://kk.wikipedia.org/wiki

Like the other Wikipedia, this one is edited by a team of mostly Kazakh nationals. And, even though the rules differ slightly from English Wikipedia, their policy on bias and completeness persist (namely: little to no bias and multiple perspectives). Also, because of that team, it is fairly constantly updated to reflect the current state of affairs.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has a blog committed to covering Kazakhstan from the perspective of advancing society. Their website is available in all 3 of Kazakhstan national languages and is updated fairly regularly. Now, the United Nations perspective may not be as encompassing as a source from the nation, but the weight of the organization backing it (the UN) makes up for it in being impartial.

The blog is at: https://www.kz.undp.org/content/kazakhstan/en/home/blog.html. And, the main page is at: https://www.kz.undp.org/content/kazakhstan/en/home.html

This information source, however, is hard to peruse, so it isn’t the best for specific information. This is more suited for looking at larger trends in the country relating to their sustainable development goals. Such goals include gender equality, climate action, and more.

Social Media

Kazakhstan’s official Twitter is run by the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They tweet basically every day and discuss official issues as well as topics pertaining to tourism in the country. With over 21 thousand followers, this state-run social media has provided the official opinion of the Kazakh government for well over 5 years.

Their page can be viewed at: https://twitter.com/Kazakhstan

I chose @Kazakhstan for this part of my network because of its official nature, but this can also be a weakness. Given that the account is subject to the whims of the current government, it may be used a platform to propagandize certain things or suppress certain things.

r/Kazakhstan is a subreddit dedicated to the country. With over 19 thousand members, this (mainly) English/Kazakh subreddit can be a good source of information. Even though you do not need to be accredited or have experience to post, news posted have sources of their own and opinions are clearly marked. Often times, in the comment sections, other users will provide context or correct misinformation.

This source can be accessed at: https://www.reddit.com/r/Kazakhstan/

I chose this as my additional source because of the crowd-sourced nature of its information. And, since it operates on the schedule of 19 thousand people, users add to the page constantly. Reddit’s search feature, while less intuitive than Google, also helps in searching for specific post information. However, the subreddit isn’t dedicated purely to information, so there will be memes and irrelevant information.

VKontakte (VK for short) is a Russian-based social media used by over half a billion people. In fact, this platform is one of the foremost social media platforms in Kazakhstan. According to the book Kazakhstan by Paul Brummell and Maria Oleynik, “many Kazakh business use [VK] as their official website page.” This social media can be accessed in most European languages, making it extra attractive to Kazakh users.

The login/signup page is at: https://vk.com/?lang=en

As an information source, social media platforms can be used to get a sense for what it’s like being a regular Kazakh. As an open forum for people to share news and personal stories, there is a lot to be learned. And, with whatever you can find there, it’s never a bad idea to conduct some more research afterwards. One weakness, which is shared by Western social media platform as well, would probably be around censorship. Since VK is a Russian company, they may employ different means to silence certain voices. It may or may not be justified, but it happens anyway. As such, one must take that into account as well.

Data Source

UNData: Kazakhstan is an internationally curated web-based data collection. They collect on many countries, but have several thousands of datasets on the country, all free to access and download. It is run by a department of the United Nations, so they bring a trusted international perspective. It is published in English, but is compatible with Google’s page translate feature (so accessible even to Kazakhs who may not read English). They also have a Twitter, Facebook, and RSS feed.

A page with Kazakh relevant data is: https://data.un.org/Search.aspx?q=kazakhstan

In the wrong hands, data can be manipulated/suppressed, which is why I chose this trusted international collection source for my Data category. Given that this website is dedicated to the storage of data, a weakness may be its ease of use for someone who may not be as tech savvy. Another possible weakness I found was that, at least on the first few pages of results, the latest dataset was from 2019. This is likely a product of the data being unilateral studies and surveys of large, demographic-wide issues. Other sources, perhaps related to open data in the country may have more recent and specific datasets.

OpenData: Kazakhstan gathers virtual all of the publicly accessible data from the Kazakh government and compiles them onto one website. Their datasets range from education and transport to energy and the justice system. The website also has an intuitive user interface which makes searching for data simple. The datasets available are in English, Kazakh, and Russia (since all 3 languages are common in the country).

The main page is at: https://data.egov.kz/

However, in order to view any data, you need to login. That requires a national identification number (called an IIN), meaning international users cannot see the data easily. Also, since the website is basically republishing data the government has collected, there may be some regime-based bias. Kazakhstan is somewhat authoritarian and not as democratic as Western countries, so that may be a consideration if one were to use this site.

World Bank Data: Kazakhstan is a portion of the massive database the World Bank runs dedicated to publish statistics about the country. Almost all of the indicators are a search away and, if you navigate through the page, you can come across a comparison to other countries from most of the figures. This is a major benefit to the database since researchers can easily compare Kazakhstan to other nations in relevant fields.

The main page is at: https://data.worldbank.org/country/KZ

Since the World Bank has compiled this English-language database, we can be fairly confident in saying that there is little to no bias or misinformation present. Also, their website offers handy tool to view the page in some of the world’s biggest languages without having to use an external tool. Even though there is a lot of data just a click away and their GUI is clean, I can see the possibility of not exactly knowing where to start if you didn’t know what to look for.

A/V

The BBC – Kazakhstan page has both news and video journalism. They have been bringing content from their Central Asia correspondents to an audio/visual format for 5 years (as far as I can tell). They add to this page as more digital articles/videos are produced related to Kazakhstan. Unfortunately, the videos are not dubbed in either Kazakh or Russian, just in English. However, some of the videos (since they are filmed on-site) may include English subtitles alongside a Kazakh speaker.

The list can be found at: https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/c008ql15dl7t/kazakhstan

The journalism from the BBC brings another international perspective to issues in the country like the recent protests or their involvement with space travel. A possible weakness of this source would be how little content there is. Also, since we are talking about the BBC here, some local news which did not make it to the international stage would get left out.

Qazaq TV was the first national satellite TV channel in the country. They broadcast everything from tourism and gastronomy to COVID-19. Their news coverage is also extensive, and that is where most of the information will be found.  The website can be locally translated to 5 languages (Uzbek, Kyrgyz, and the 3 national ones). They even have a daily updated news release video feed.

The news portion can be accessed at: https://qazaqtv.com/en/news

The videos themselves are links to their YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTiXJBsDTL_NCU72OQjBNzA) and are generally well made and accessible. Since this is a state-run broadcaster, the same bias may be present and viewers would need to listen to/watch other channels to get holistic pictures sometimes.

DW news’ YouTube Channel covered the January civil unrest to extensive depth. Their videos (free on the platform) were extremely useful for my research on a few things in this course. There aren’t very many of this short videos (only 12), but the general search term also dredges up some videos related to an election in the country and their importance to trade between China/Europe. That is a downside to this source in the long term, but what is there worked like a charm for my understanding of the complex civil conflict.

The search results are at: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=DW+news+kazakhstan

DW stands for Deutsche Welle and is Germany’s preeminent international news service. They have been producing quality video journalism since September 2007. Their YouTube, while in English, can be translated to many languages using the platform’s CC feature.

Additional

Al Jazeera‘s page about Kazakhstan is an excellent place to find their reporting exclusively on the nation. Being from the Middle East (and outside of Central Asia), allows for a perspective of international reporting. This perspective is different from someone like the BBC, but in a way good for the information network.

This (“old media”) source can be found at: https://www.aljazeera.com/where/kazakhstan/

Unfortunately, this source is made in English (but external translators work as well). And, because Al Jazeera is big international media firm, they’ll only cover the main news stories of the day. Smaller, but no less important facts, may be left unreported by them.

Nur.kz is more of an all-encompassing news source for the country. They run stories about traffic collisions, pensioners and retirement prospects, and the current conflict in Ukraine. The point is, they cover news from the layperson’s perspective and issues which are important to them. Since 2009, they’ve been working to create an ecosystem of media to satisfy the needs of the people. They even have their own mobile app.

This (“old media”) can be accessed at: https://www.nur.kz/

I chose this source precisely because of its less formal nature. Even though they do not focus on the government or finance, having a source this close to life is integral. However, there can be some weaknesses to material found on Nur.kz. The material may not be perceived as the most journalistic in nature or too biased. But, if used only for getting into the minds of Kazakh people, this source is excellent.

Human Rights Watch is a multinational watchdog organization. They focus on, as the name implies, human rights violations all over the globe. If you search their page for “Kazakhstan,” you get around 700 hits. This is a good source for my network because of the Kazakh government’s not so democratic past. Often times, news and data sources from the country can be censored by the government, so have a perspective like Human Rights Watch’s is paramount.

The search results for this (“new media”) source can be found at: https://www.hrw.org/sitesearch?search=kazakhstan&sort_by=created&page=0

One disadvantage to this source, however, is that there is a low upper limit to information you can glean from the 700 entries. Also, this method of searching for “Kazakhstan” will include stories that mention the country in passing. (Of course, you can always search for a specific Kazakh city or something like that.)