Turkey's Delineation in Afghan Online Media Sites in 2019
Mohammad Zaher Dowran[1]
 
Abstract
This study tries to find out how Turkey is depicted on Afghan media platforms, especially on the leading news TV channels and newspapers' online news sites in 2019. There is a dramatic split between Afghan channels in covering foreign policies based on its economic-political structure within the media. The research will uncover ideological messages and approaches of the Afghan news sites in publishing news items regarding Turkey. Research Method: The study collected all news items (total number 101) from the five Afghan news sites, including Taliban's official website, concerning to Turkey in 2019. The news-items are categorized based on its news sources, the tendency of covering bilateral relations between Afghanistan and Turkey as well as its content on political, cultural, sports or economic spheres. Findings: The study finds out that Afghan news sites were keener to address tensions on Turkey's foreign policy rather than bilateral relations between the two countries. Implications for Research and Practice: According to Agenda-Setting Function Theory, developed by Maxwell Mccombs and Donald Shaw in 1972, the media has the power to say people how to think and what to think about an issue. The media has the power to focus public discussion on particular issues. It might focus on one particular aspect of an issue or report about something in a particular way to impact on the conception of its audiences. To expand the study another research is needed to survey how Afghans visualize Turkey. Do they have the same picture of Turkey in their minds which the Afghan news sites represented?
 
 
 
 
 
 
Introduction
Turkey, as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as well as a credible country for Afghan statesmen, is one of the key players in the process of supporting developments in Afghanistan over the past ten years. Afghanistan and Turkey have long-standing cultural and historical ties and currently, 1,840 Turkish forces are stationed in Afghanistan under the command of the NATO (Arvin, 2001). Besides, Turkey has played a significant role in supporting reconstruction in Afghanistan. 
A document obtained recently from the Turkish Foreign Ministry's diplomatic archive indicates that Turkey's political and diplomatic relations with Afghanistan began in August 1920 (Jayhoon, 2017). Media play rule as the most important platforms in maintaining longstanding relationships and strengthening the new ties between countries in contemporary societies. This seminar titled as "Turkey's delineation in Afghan online Media sites in 2019" tries to find out how Afghan media platforms, especially the selected news sites for the purpose of the study depicted Turkey. The study provides readers with the content analyses of the news items reported concerning Turkey in Afghan media platforms.  
 
Literature Review
The widespread emergence of international media, especially digital media, in the last two decades of the twentieth century, has created a new space in the world. In the new environment, the power of the people, culture, the media and the message have diminished the role of military and weapons power. Relations between nations are more influential than political relations in the formation of political and international movements and decisions. Meanwhile, the message from the national, individual and local spheres has reached the international and global stage. In the current era, relations between countries are not determined by governments alone. Rather, the set of governments, public opinion, and information and communication technologies make up the equations of international relations.
Meanwhile, the media have a significant role to play in influencing these relationships by applying techniques. With the advancement of communication technology and the disappearance of spatial distances, a world has emerged that has different characteristics, criteria and standards compared to the past. In today's world, relations between countries are no longer the same as before, with only governments and regimes influencing each other. Rather, in the new arena, in addition to governments, the public opinion of countries, or in other words, the global public opinion, is considered as an influential factor which the media play a great role.
Communication technologies connect the inhabitants of the world within a global village. In this era, the media has become one of the main sources of information for people around the world. The mass media, alongside governments, play a vital and effective role in communications, information, exchange of ideas and images, norm-setting, advertising, behavioural patterns and though-orientation. The media messages have a tremendous impact on the policies and relations of countries.
The media plays an important role in policy-making. Media news is not only an important source of information for political decision-makers but also a channel for communication between governments (Li, 2010, p. 236). The role of the media in highlighting and maintaining strong ties between countries may not be denied.
Media in Afghanistan
The year 1873 coincides with the reign of Amir Shir Ali Khan (1868-1879) can be called the year of the birth of the media in Afghanistan (Hosseinzade, 2007). Shams al-Nahar was the first newspaper in Afghanistan to raise the voice of freedom of expression in the skies of Afghan journalism. The war-torn country's media was almost extinct at the time of the overthrow of the Taliban by US-led forces in 2001. The Taliban group banned almost all media outlets during their rule between 1996 and 2001. An exceptional case was Shariat Radio, the regime's speaker only broadcasted religious programmes and decrees. Watching TV or listening to the radio was a crime and punishable. The country's mass communication infrastructure was almost destroyed. But after the intervention of NATO forces in Afghanistan following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Afghan media were reborn. Huge sums of foreign investment were spent on rebuilding the country, which led to the expansion of the press, radio and television. Following the fall of Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the country's media and press have grown exponentially, with about 75 TV channels, 175 radio stations and dozens of magazines and periodicals operation in the country (Azadiradio, 2013). 
But political, economic and security challenges have always plagued the Afghan media. Security problems are still very serious for the media and their employees. Reporters Without Borders named Afghanistan the world's most dangerous and deadliest country for media work in 2018 (Monitor, 2019).
The Afghan media can be categorized as follow:
Political Party's Media: Many political parties have their own media outlets to communicate with their members, supporters and the general public. These media outlets belong to jihadist and political figures. The figures, which have been at war with each other in the past, have resorted to new forms of space, turning to paper strongholds and thus insisting on continuing their political presence in the country's political competition.
NGO's Media (non-governmental organizations): These media outlets operates with the financial support of foreign institutions, NGOs and embassies. NGOs media outlets have broadcast in line with the satisfaction of its donors and mostly address the issues of women rights, sports and the promotion of foreign luxury goods.
Pro-government Media: The state-run media focuses on publishing news and reports from government officials and commenting and analyzing news and commentary on the positive functions of the Afghan government and government agencies.
Independent and Private Media: These media outlets form a wide range but it is very difficult to define them in the form of independent and irrelevant publications. Private media outlets have been established by some civil society organizations, intellectual circles, young journalists, and individuals interested in journalism. 
But how has the Afghan media functioned to maintain better bilateral relations between Turkey and Afghanistan? What have been ideological messages under the reports and analysis of Afghan media platforms regarding Turkey in their 2019 broadcasts? In this study, five media outlets' reports have been evaluated, including the official Taliban website. The official websites of Afghan news TV channels (tolonews.com), (1tvnews.af), state-run Anis newspaper (dailies.gov.af/anis), private 8am newspaper (8am.af) and Taliban's official website (shahamat1.com) has been selected as the main source of the research.
The first source Tolo News (tolonews.com) is Afghanistan's first 24/7 news channel, owned by MOBY Group. It provides live coverage of local news and international headlines and its news bulletins are available on its website. Tolo News is one of Afghanistan's leading channels which had an impressive role in social and political changes in the country. It is one of the largest and most influential television stations in Afghanistan, holding the largest televised debates with millions of viewers. Presidential and parliamentary candidates were always been keen to appear and speak in Tolo News TV debates. From time to time, investigative reports by the channels has led to the resignation and dismissal of high-ranking Afghan government officials. Tolo News is one of the active media in the Afghan capital of Kabul, which was established in 2010 by Saad Mohseni and is funded by the publication of commercials (Media Guide, 2019).
 
Second, 1tvnews.af as the news-site of the privately-owned commercial television channel, 1TV, with the highest traffic. One TV was founded by Fahim Hashemi in 2008 in Kabul. The television is funded by announcements, programmes and personal budgets (Media Guide, 2019).
 
Third, 8am (Hasht-e Sobh in Persian) newspaper's news-site 8am.af which claims of being Afghanistan's largest independent newspaper with the greatest coverage in the country (8am newspaper, 2007). 8am newspaper was in July 2007 by a number of prominent journalists and human rights as well as media activists in order to further promote democracy in Afghanistan. The Newspaper publishes 18,000 copies daily in Kabul, Ghazni, Bamyan, Nangarhar, Herat, Balkh, Kunduz, Takhar, Baghlan, Badakhshan and Jowzjan provinces. The newspaper is funded by donations, commercials, subscription and sales (8am newspaper, 2007) that employed almost 45 people.
 
Fourth, to create more corpus diversity the Taliban's official news-site shahamat1.com included to the sample list. 
 
Fifth and final news-site is state-run Anis newspapers' site dailies.gov.af/anis which was first published in 1927 and Ghulam Muhayuddin Anis was in charge (Media Guide, 2019). The newspaper publishes 5,000 copies, which are being distributed in most provinces of Afghanistan, including capital Kabul.
 
 
 
 
Data Collection
The study collected news and analysis published related to Turkey in five Afghan news-sites including tolonews.com, 1tvnews.af, 8am.af, shahamat1.com and dailies.gov.af/anis. All reports in the time limit of 01 January 2019 to 31 January 2019 were collected by entering the keyword "Turkey" in the search feature of the news-sites.
Data analyse
Corpus collected are categorized and labelled based on its main them, being political, cultural, sports and economic. In this study, the news or reports which had covered the government stances and provide detailed information about domestic and foreign policies of the states are labelled as political news. Cultural news refers to news that exposes the cultural ties of the countries including music, art and tourism. Sport, reports that cover sports activities. Economic, the new which highlights the recent economic developments between Afghan-Turk or Turkey and the world.
Second, reports are categorized according to their sources into two parts. News derived from news agencies and news written by the selected media organizations. 
Third, reports are divided into three sections from the point of view of processing news related to Turkey. Reports on covering issues and politics of Turkey, reports highlighting Turkey's foreign policy and reports emphasizing on bilateral relations between Afghanistan and Turkey.
The research is not confined with how many reports have been published in the categorized sections in the above rather it dealt with ideological messages of the coverage as well as the news frames. The content and processing of news-sites have been evaluated on issues related to Turkey.
 
 
The theme of Turkey's delineation in Afghan media platforms 
 
 A total of 101 news-items were published regarding Turkey in the five selected news sites in 2019.
Table 1.[2] Shows the number of news items and the thematic distribution of the articles.
 
 
 
 

Table 1. Shows number of reports produced about Turkey in 2019 according to its theme.
 
101
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
As is it clear from the above table that the Afghan news-sites were more concerned with the political aspects of issues related to Turkey. News-sites pay less attention to cultural, sports and economic issues than to politics.
8am.af ranks first with 32 political items followed by tolonews.com with 23 political articles. 1tvnews.af and dailies.gov.af/anis ranks third and fourth with both publishing 19 political reports respectively, and finally, the Taliban's news-site shahamat1.com had only two political items within the time frame of one year.
But in the cultural portion, Afghanistan's news sites performed very poorly. The selected media outlets had not published any reports except the state-run dailies.gov.af/anis which had covered only one cultural news. Afghanistan and Turkey enjoy long-standing cultural ties. As one of the main streets in Kabul is named "Ankara Road" as well as there is also a road named "Kabul Road" in the Turkish capital of Ankara.
 
 
 
The cultural relations between Afghanistan and Turkey officially began with the signing of the first cultural agreement between the two countries on May 1, 1921, according to which dozens of students, including several girls, were sent to Turkey in 2923 for higher education (Arvin, BBC Persian, 2011). Turkey's cultural presence in Afghanistan is not limited to education but has spread to many homes in Afghanistan through its cinematic and television products. Turkish TV series are very popular in Afghanistan. Following the government's imposition of restriction on the broadcasting of Indian films and TV series on private TV channels in Afghanistan, the Turkish TV series marked has warmed up and the number of these series has increased on Afghan private televisions. The selected news sites have not published any sports news regarding Turkey except tolonews.com with one report. It’s about a group of Afghan cyclists who arrived in Turkey riding more than 2,000 kilometres. The group had begun their journey from Herat Province of Afghanistan and crossed into Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
 
Table 2. Shows whether the online news sites has written the reports or derived it from other news agencies.
 
Table 2. Shows number of news derived from other new agencies and news written by the selected news sites in the study.
 
Tolonew.com, 8am.af, shahamat1.com have no economic content dailies.gov.af/anis and 1tvnews.af each has published a report in order.
Derivative news
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
According to Chart 2, 8am.af has the most report based on other news agencies 25 out of 34 reports followed by tolonews.com. But the rest news sites have not relied on other sources. 1tvnews.af, shahamat1.com and dailies.gov.af/anis have their own reports regarding Turkey.
In total, out of 101 news, 29 reports are driven from news agencies and 72 reports were written by the reporters of the selected news-sites.
Corpus published by Afghan news-sites is categorized into three main sections in terms of news selection. First, news related to Turkey's internal affairs, including reconstruction and news discoveries of Turkey in various fields. Second, Turkey's foreign policy, covering political tensions between Turkey and other countries. Third, news and analyzes regarding the bilateral ties between Afghanistan and Turkey. It can assess Turkey's assistance to Afghanistan as well as the new developments in bilateral relations between the two countries.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
As can be seen in the third table, Afghan news-sites have been more interested in foreign policy and political tensions of Turkey. A total of 54 reports out of 101 centralized on Turkish foreign policy and its controversial offensives in Syria. It's apparent from table 3 that 8am.af has produced the most news, followed by tolonews.com on Turkish foreign policy context. State-run dailies.gov.af/anis ranked first in publishing reports related to the bilateral ties between Afghanistan and Turkey. As the processing of the bilateral relations between the two countries is also sluggish not profound, the study will provide more detail in content analysis of the media.
Afghan news sites were less concerned with Turkish internal affairs with only 14 news reports in total.
Content analysis
When an incident happens in a corner of the world, certain and sometimes unknown factors are involved in. The incident will be covered in different headlines, titles and manners with the mass media. Words may be omitted, words may be emphasized, a part may not be said, or may not be mentioned in some media. So very different perceptions, reactions and thoughts are formed from that news in the world. Different mindsets shape variant perceptions regarding the incident. However, it is not possible to have a profound perception of the projection of Turkey via Afghan news sites with only statistics of the news items. The content of these reports need to be carefully analyzed.
Tolonews.com did no published negative news about Turkey but the process of selecting its news items are questionable. It has written more about Turkey's foreign policy, covering its operations in Syria. Only four reports have been published about the commonalities between Turkey and Afghanistan during 2019. Tolonews.com has highlighted mostly the tensions between Turkey, the US and European states. It highlighted reports regarding asylum seekers and terrorist organizations caught in Turkey. For instance, tolonews.com cited a United Nations report that "at least 180,000 people have been displaced by Turkish operations in Syria. There are alarming reports of casualties in operations by Turkish military forces and their "affiliated" militias in northeastern Syria", the report had added. At least 180,000 "civilians" have been displaced. From a journalistic point of view, this report is also one-sided. There is no reaction from Turkish government officials in connection to the allegations. Tolonews.com has acted as a toll of publishing United Nations report. A piece of news should meet journalistic standards.
Many people will drown in the whirlpool of ideologies by reading these messages. In our contemporary community where the media messages and ideology behind it shapes the living conditions and lifestyles of people, we can urge that normalizing power acts in its best. Media producers normalize their intended message on audiences in the long run or short terms. As Foucault had said that the media has normalizing power.
Michel Foucault gives a new way of thinking about power. Foucault has suggested that most power indeed the most important kind of power in our modern society does not repressive at all. It works in a far subtler, less visible way. This power is what he called normalizing power. Normalizing power is a power that determines what we see as normal. It constructs our view of the world and ourselves (Foucault, 1980).
1tvnews.af has reported 19 political reports out of 20 regarding Turkey. Turkish military operations in Syria is at the forefront of its news. There were reports about the influx of Afghan migrants to Turkey and their deaths on the ways of illegal travel. Almost six reports that appear in the search feature of the news-site have been removed later, including "Istanbul Airport will be operational for another month and Ataturk Airport will be closed", "Turkey and Greece end forced evictions of Afghan refugees", and "Turkey is holding a tripartite meeting for peace in Afghanistan".
It is questionable how the links of these reports were damaged or "deliberately deleted". These reports had a more positive dimension compared to other reports of the aforementioned news site. The opening of Turkey's largest airfield, the Russian-Turkish agreement following the US withdrawal in Syria or the annulment of "compulsory eviction" of Afghan refugees are positive and promising signs. Why are these types of reports sorted out over the course of the site's 22 reports? The exact and clear answer to the question can only be given by the news manager of the news site. Since 1tvnews.af is a private news site alongside its TV channel it can operate freely considering its financial benefits. There might be an economic and political side behind this practice. Scrutiny and searching for the exact answer to this question is beyond the scope of this research.
8am.af processing were also more about politics rather than sports, economic and culture. A total of 32 reports were political out of 36 reports regarding Turkey. Most of its news comes from sources of the Western newspaper, including Euronews, the BBC and the Associated Press. Five news items had covered the relations between Afghanistan and Turkey in superficial and few short lines format. Among them are "Turkey's hosting of a peace summit on Afghanistan and Afghanistan's Chief Executive's visit to Turkey by the official invitation of Turkish leader Erdogan". There have been no reports on bilateral agreement or assistance from both countries.
State-run dailies.gov.af/anis stuck on featuring official meetings between Afghan and Turkish officials as well as Turkey's policy toward the Syrian war. Most of its reports consist of bilateral meetings. Reports have been covered in a stereotypical manner for instance; officials of the two states have stressed for further boosting comprehensive ties between to two countries or Afghan official called Turkey as a strategically with long-standing historical relations.
Taliban's official website shahamat1.com have voiced their support for Turkey's stance against the "torture" of Uyghur Muslims in China. The analyze has praised Turkey for defending the rights of Uyghur Muslims.
Considering security and safety of Turkish officers in Afghanistan as well as the analyzes of Taliban's comments in a few years ago, it could be said that the group feels more comfortable and close with Turkey's policy and religious beliefs. Only two Turkish soldiers have been killed in a road accident in Afghanistan's northern Faryab Province in 2009 (Arvin, BBC Persian, 2011), although it commands the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) on two occasions, each time for six months. One of the two soldiers was the commander of a NATO unit in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, other foreign troops, including the US forces, have suffered heavy casualties with doznes of deaths in the Central Asian country.
In an article, published in 2016, shahamat1.com accused Western countries of failing to endure Turkey's progress in different sectors. As Turkey proudly carries a glorious history of Ottoman Caliphate, which has led the Islamic world for several hundred years, enemies of Islamic can not bear it. They refer to the West, always considers Turkey as a global threat.
The article has further added that "the leader of ruling party Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan with his "far-sighted and mature policies" managed to foil enemies' plots.
 
 
 
Conclusion
By assessing the reports published on Afghan news sites regarding Turkey it can be said that the processing of Afghanistan's media sites pays more attention to political tensions. Turkey's contributions to the developments of Afghanistan has not been shaped nor the Turkish culture, technological and scientific developments were discussed. One of the reasons for Turkey's popularity in Afghanistan is its lack of negative background in Afghanistan. Turkey has not been at war with Afghanistan in history and has not done anything to make the government and the people of Afghanistan suspicious. In addition, regional countries do not oppose Turkey's presence in Afghanistan. However, this acceptance has not been reflected in the news sites. Turkey's efforts and assistance in educational, health and humanitarian aids to Afghanistan were not included in the selected news sites for research purpose.
Poor management and lack of proficiency in state-run media can be cited as one of the reasons for dailies.gov.af/anis to not acting in an appropriate and praiseworthy manner in striking media policy regarding international relations. For instance, state-run Afghanistan's National Radio and Television, with a capital of millions of dollars, has never had an online website.
But the issue of private media platforms is different. Afghan media is facing several major problems, which have prevented the media from playing a leading role.
First, private media networks depend on personnel interests. Dependence of the media on the interests of individuals has led to the questioning of their neutrality. Second, the media, especially private media, in Afghanistan has faced a budget shortage. Lack of funding causes the media to always be linked to the interests of individuals, organizations and institutions. The lack of funding has prevented the media from playing an outstanding role in raising awareness, criticizing and reviewing government policies, and holding free debates.
Third, the Afghan media suffers from a lack of professional experts. This study based on sampling five news-sites, including government, private and oppositional, tried to discover Turkey's depiction in Afghan news-sites. To expand the study another research is needed to survey how Afghans visualize Turkey. Is it the same as the Afghan news sites delineation?
 
 References
 
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[1] Mohammad Zaher Dowran is currently pursuing master's degree in Journalism Department of Communication Faculty of Ankara University, Turkey. (zaherdowran@gmail.com), 4 June 2020.
[2] I would like to thank Faruq Mohammadoghlu for his help in shaping the graphs of the research.