Evaluating the Afghan Media System in the route of Nation-Building

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Yousof Ahamdi 1
Mahdi Montazer Qaem 2
1 Communications Department, faculty of social science, university of Tehran
2 Department of Communications, Social Faculty, University of Tehran
10.22034/jcsc.2022.120249.2068
Abstract
This study, based on the belief that mass media have symbolic power and can contribute to nation-building by developing social cohesion capacity and empowering public opinion, evaluates relevant and consistent documents in the context of media activity and answers the question of why nation-building has not yet taken place in Afghanistan despite the free media activity. The Afghan media, which for nearly two decades achieved freedom of expression and media pluralism with the support of the constitution and the mass media law, could have a dramatic impact on politics through creating a cultural or literary domain and bring about a great change in society by preventing ethnocentric policies in the structure of power. Failure to do so prompted us to use a critically-acclaimed qualitative research method to answer the question of why, for more than a decade and a half, with the presence and operation of a free and pluralistic media in Afghanistan, a common national identity has not been yet formed and what has the media system been doing wrong hereof. Therefore, theories of mass media development and nation-building models, as well as documentary study and thematic analysis techniques have been used. Adopting such an approach could thus further reveal the contradictions and gaps in the context of Afghanistan's mass media activities as well as the network relation of the country's political and media system.

Keywords

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Cultural Studies & Communication
Volume 20, Issue 77
Winter 2025
Pages 35-65