107 Country Report: Information Network (draft)

“Old Media”

The Astana Times is the main newspaper of the current capital 19city, 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, Alamaty. Being near so many people and in such a happening place is a positive for newspapers.

“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.

Social Media

Kazakhstan’s offical 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.

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.

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.

Additional

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 (social media) 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.

More about my search for these sources:

For more traditional sources of data (like Data or “Old Media”), the search was straightforward. (I even have some extra ones lined up for my final draft already). It was the less conventional means of gathering trusted information where I had to do some digging. Poring through Google helped a bit. Mostly though, it was a quick stroke of inspiration which led me to some of my sources. Generally speaking, finding information on current events in Kazakhstan is easy; finding diverse sources for an information is not. And, I do not know whether this was a product of me not being in that region (since Google differs by region) or whether having access to VKontakte (a Russian-language social media used prolifically in that part of the world) would’ve made a difference.  I think this, and the somewhat autocratic nature of the Kazakh government, is a slight barrier to global information. It was easy to find the big media outlets, but not the more personal avenues. International perspectives were easy to find, but voices from the inside of the country just need to be unearthed. For the final draft, I plan to dig deeper, find those voices, and have a more comprehensive information network.