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Item Open Access How Kazakhstan’s Media Covered the Nuclear Power Plant Referendum Campaign: A Comparative Study(SDU Journal of Media Studies, 2025) Dariya Zulfukharkyzy; Yelnur AlimovaIn October 2024, Kazakhstan announced its intention to construct a nuclear power plant, a decision that President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev described as “a choice for the country’s future.” The debate surrounding the project extends beyond energy policy, reflecting deeper questions about how public opinion is shaped through the media. This study analyses the coverage of the nuclear power plant issue in Kazakhstani media during the period preceding the referendum to examine how reality was constructed and which frames dominated public discourse. It compares representations in state and independent outlets, identifying whether narratives of government endorsement or critical perspectives prevailed. Through this analysis, the study evaluates the extent to which coverage met international journalistic standards and explores how language, structure, and the absence of alternative viewpoints contributed to a constrained media environment. The findings provide insight into the framing of national policy debates and the implications for pluralism, journalistic ethics, and public deliberation in Kazakhstan.Item Open Access Understanding the Dynamics Behind the Nuclear Referendum in Kazakhstan(SDU Journal of Media Studies, 2025) Zhanel SabirovaAlong the interest of understanding motivations behind non-constitutional referendums, Kazakhstan contributes to the debate with its latest nuclear referendum held in October 2024. The paper argues that the nuclear referendum in Kazakhstan reflects national factors echoed in country’s nuclear memory, and internal political dynamics, including governmental control over public opinion and security concerns. Despite official claims of transparency, comparison with the 2022 referendum and media reporting raises doubts about the vote’s credibility. Therefore, the qualitative research method required analyzing media coverage of nuclear referendum news including headlines from state owned and independent media sources of Kazakhstan. Thematic and framed analysis was done through Taguette software to identify recurring themes and discrepancies between official narratives and public discourse. The result of the analysis demonstrated that the government owned media strongly propagating on the benefits of NPP on the economic, social, and environmental development of the country, independent media significantly focused on opposing state narratives and bringing counter arguments in the pre-referendum public debate. Overall, the 2024 referendum illustrates how the government uses controlled participation to legitimize nuclear policy while limiting genuine democratic processes. The qualitative media analysis of state controlled and independent news agencies of Kazakhstan were evaluated to assess transparency and motivations behind the referendum.Item Open Access Kazakhstan’s Proactive Measures in Addressing the Aral Sea Crisis as a Platform for Enhanced International Representation and Media Engagement(SDU Journal of Media Studies, 2025) Arailym NiyetbekAfter the collapse of the Soviet Union, the countries of Central Asia faced new challenges, including the gradual disappearance of the Aral Sea rooted in the Soviet era. This near disappearance serves as a symbol of the region’s victimisation, as the Soviets diverted the waters of what was once the fourth largest lake in the world to irrigate cotton fields and boost agricultural output. Once spanning 68,000 square kilometres, the sea has shrunk by 90%. Being a key player in Central Asia, Kazakhstan has taken the lead in regional efforts to find solutions to this critical environmental, social, and economic disaster. As a young state striving for recognition, Kazakhstan has come under close attention, implementing various initiatives, including the construction of the first sand dam in the Berg Strait and the Kokaral Dam, the signing of the Almaty Agreement, the establishment of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS) and the organisation of EXPO 2017. The paper attempts to explain Kazakhstan’s efforts in resolving the crisis in the Aral Sea and its impact on its international representation and media engagement. The findings indicate that Kazakhstan’s environmental actions may potentially support not only the restoration of local ecology but also strengthen the country’s image as an important regional player in sustainable development. This paper addresses environmental diplomacy in the context of strategic action for countries seeking better positions globally while seeking solutions for pressing ecological problems.Item Open Access Framing Female Returnees: Media Representations of Women Repatriated from ISIS in Kazakhstan(SDU Journal of Media Studies, 2025) Tumarbike BekitovaThis paper examines how female returnees from Syria are represented in Kazakhstani media through gendered assumptions. It focuses on women repatriated under Kazakhstan’s Operation Jusan following the territorial defeat of the so-called Islamic State. The study draws on around 30 pieces of media content, including news articles from Tengrinews, Khabar, Sputnik Kazakhstan, ZTB News, Inform.kz, Caravan.kz, Azattyq, and Vlast, as well as official press releases from Akorda, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the National Security Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan. It explores how women are framed as victims, wives, mothers, or security threats, and how these portrayals intersect with national policy priorities. Gendered narratives simplify complex realities by relying on socially prescribed ideas of how men and women are expected to act during conflict. The findings show that Kazakhstani media often adopt a humane, state-centered discourse, presenting returnees as vulnerable mothers in need of rehabilitation, while simultaneously reinforcing state legitimacy through a protective, paternalistic tone. State-owned outlets tend to highlight a few “model cases” that confirm the official narrative, depoliticizing the issue and obscuring structural drivers of radicalization, which may may hinder genuine reintegration efforts. By contrast, independent media platforms offer more nuanced portrayals, granting women greater agency and situating their experiences within broader structural and social issues, although these accounts remain relatively limited. The study argues that even benevolent narratives can function as tools of political control. Recognizing the influence of gendered framings is therefore crucial for developing more inclusive approaches to transitional justice, gender equality, and sustainable security and reintegration policies.Item Open Access A Comparative Study of the Effectiveness of Pandemic Information Dissemination between Self-Media and Traditional Media in China and Kazakhstan(SDU Journal of Media Studies, 2025) WanhangYuIn the post-truth era, emotions and positions gradually overtake objective facts and become the dominant factors in public perception. Taking China and Kazakhstan as case studies, this study compares and analyzes the differences in the information dissemination effects of self media and traditional media during theCOVID-19in the two countries through questionnaires. Through quantitative content analysis and audience surveys, it is found that China’s self-media rapidly spread information about the epidemic by virtue of immediacy and interactivity, but some of the content exacerbated rumor dissemination due to excessiveemotionality; traditional media, although subject to policy regulation and control, showed higher consistency, but dominated in terms of public trust. In Kazakhstan, due to the relative concentration of traditional media resources, the authority of traditional media was still dominant in the early stage of the epidemic, but the fragmentation and contradiction of information in the self-media due to lax regulation weakened the public’s recognition of official information. The study further reveals that differences in audience trust in media between the two countries are influenced by political culture, media ecology, and information governance model: the Chinese public is more institutionally dependent on traditional media, while the young population in Kazakhstan prefers to obtain pluralistic information through cross-border self-media. This study provides new perspectives for comparing the mechanisms of post-truth communication in transnational contexts and suggests ways to optimize information governance strategies in public health emergencies.