By Bilquees Daud (18 April 2020)
“We would continue accelerating our Afghan army training. We would devote nation-building efforts to the northern and western regions, where, unlike the Pashtun areas, people are not conflicted about accepting U.S. help and not systematically coerced by the T.There might even come a time when a stronger Afghan National Army could take control of the Pashtun areas” (Robert D. Blackwill).
Nearly 20 years ago United States and its allies embarked on the ‘war on terror’ in the aftermath of 9/11 purportedly ensuring that Afghanistan does not pose a threat to them in the future. However, little has been achieved so far even as the US is working on rapid exit plan with the signing of a deal with the T. One of the key stumbling blocks to this end has been the lack of deep cultural and sociological understanding of the country. Mass media has played a critical role in the post-T era, not only in terms of overstating progress but also by setting the discourse on Afghanistan to suit political ends.
News from Afghanistan has been framed and reframed to initially show a gravely repressed populace liberated by Western soldiers in 2001. Lately Afghans are portrayed as savage, conservative and medieval people with no appetite and understanding for modernism, democracy and freedom. Afghan society, seen for instance in the quote above, is categorized into neat ethno-political compartments that are portrayed as overlapping with the country’s political geography. The reality is far more complex. It is argued here that the Western media, contradicting the realities, has chiefly pinned violence and barbarianism among others as the main attributes to Afghanistan, consequently shaping a false world opinion of the country.
All three fields of political communication, “framing, agenda setting, and priming operate”, are the fundamental models predominantly used by media now-a-days. Media was created with the purpose to enhance existing attitudes of people, not to change them. However, the field of political communication went through many changes in 20th century, leading to the “cultivation” theory of Noelle-Neumann and George Gerbner. Cultivation theory stresses media’s strong effect on people’s opinions, but both scholars opposed political agendas. In 1980s and 90s, the dominant version of political communication was introduced as ‘‘negation models’’ which demonstrated the idea “…that mass media had potentially strong attitudinal effects…depended heavily on predispositions, schema, and other characteristics of the audience that influenced how they processed messages in the mass media “(Tewksbury). In addition, agenda setting talks of a strong relationship between the importance media gives to a topic and people’s attention to the same topic. Priming is an “extension of agenda setting” that persuades people to use certain indicators for evaluating politicians. Alternatively, framing emphasizes on presentation of certain news reports and how they manipulate people’s psyche in order to change their preferences. Finally, both agenda setting and framing deal with creating messages to be broadcasted in the media.
On the other hand, Noam Chomsky presents another form of media called “elite media” which serves high ranking politicians and privileged people. He argues that elite media construct a “framework within which others operate”(Chomsky, 1997). For instance, New York Times gives an outline of tomorrow’s news a day earlier which forces editors of other newspapers to follow the path and do not get off the track. Thus, he believes that power plays an important role in agenda-setting and framing the news that in return serves the big bosses sitting behind the screen for watching and hearing their favorite news.
In the words of Edward Said, current Western media is more like “an east-west clash” rather than a simple source of information that ought to be free of judgments and biases. Said in his book Orientalism states that, “perhaps the most important task of all would be to undertake studies in contemporary alternatives to Orientalism, to ask how one can study other cultures and peoples from libertarian, no repressive, non-manipulative perspective” (Said, 1994).Unfortunately, the Orientalist trap still exists in some literature and media products produced outside of these countries. For instance, Turban, Burqa, women’s rights, rape, and domestic violence are the headlines coming out frequently out of Afghanistan. No matter what incident is reported from Afghanistan, the moment it is about violence, an image of turban makes it next to the news piece. Whereas, Turban is a normal clothing in Afghanistan as jeans in Europe or northern America. It is worn in all parts of Afghanistan, in different forms, colors and sizes and it has been there for centuries. Turban is a sign of respect and honor; thus, usually elderly men and almost all men in rural areas wear it. But as T continued to make headlines in Western media, the turban became a hallmark of them. It was an image created for them by Western media, carved in the minds of their people. Based on which, it is assumed that whoever wears a turban is an extremist militant. The fact of the matter is that not all T wear turbans, for example, T of eastern provinces of Afghanistan. The turban image has actually led to attacks on Sikhs living in the West. Those wearing turbans can perfectly be ordinary people going about their normal lives even if there is“kohl under their eyes and [they wear] silky white or black turbans on their head, [they can be seen] strolling between the vegetable stalls and clothes traders” (Saidan, 2206). There is also a low-level effort to confront this imagine. Websites such as “in America good guys wear Turban”(Good Guys wear Turban.com) have tried to change this perception.
Likewise, the Burqa is associated with T regime’s repressing women. No doubt that it was T who made wearing Burqa compulsory and women were beaten inhumanly for not following it. “In Kabul, far fewer women wear the burqa today than on my previous visits. But several women told me that they were keeping burqas at home — just in case” (Kristof, 2010). Ironically, T never attempted at making women wear burqas in villages. The phenomenon was confined to urban settings. Wearing burqa is a tradition that still exists in the countryside, and has been around for centuries, particularly in Northern and Eastern parts. Even now, under the so-called democratic regime in the country, many women continue wearing it due to various reasons, such as, religious belief, lack of security and hiding identity. Some women feel comfortable wearing it because they see it as a protection against unwanted gazes and in order to avoid being recognized.
Certainly, all people do not believe what media tells but majority do. As the authors of agenda-setting function of mass media argues that mass media forces people’s attention to certain issues by issuing the images that strengthen your thoughts on the matter. Hence, the mass media has little influence on what a person does but more influence to set an agenda for public to think about. “In choosing and displaying news, editors, newsroom staff, and broadcasters play an important part in shaping political reality” (Shaw, 2011). Similarly, Pashtuns, a major ethnic group in Afghanistan and Northern Pakistan is portrayed in the media as the most violent and backward people who are mostly T or supporters of T. “I felt that he wouldn’t kill me. He was Pashtun…a tenet of Pashtunwali, their tribal code….fighting is in their blood, as it was in the blood of their ancestors” (Dyk, 2011). Faisal Devji, in his article, “The Terrorists in Search of Humanity”, argues that Al-Qaida has become a “brand name”(Devji, 2008); hence, any local activities are linked to it without having any ideological similarities between local fighters and international ones. Today, any violent act committed in Afghanistan are automatically and unknowingly associated to Pashtuns since all T are thought to be Pashtuns, and all Pashtuns either T or their sympathizers.
Certainly, Pashtun-dominated areas are under direct threat from T and to some degree they get local supports but there are many other factors behind the support that are never mentioned in the media. First, Afghanistan’s central government has always had a weak presence and access to these provinces; thus, people never had sufficient public services. Second, low illiteracy rate, lack of proper infrastructure, lack of fertile soil for agriculture, unemployment and government’s inattention to the development contributed to terrible economic situation in these areas. Third, crimes committed by government security personnel and widespread corruption drive local people to seek help of the insurgents. A major issue in Afghanistan is ineffectiveness of judicial institutions. Therefore, people are increasingly turning to T for speedy dispute resolution and justice.
In “T and the Pashtun Identity”, Ijaz Khan mentions that, in fact, T has killed many Pashtun leaders and banned Jirga as system of conflict resolution in area they control, and they are eliminating Pashtun’s way of living. “Talibanisation is de-Pashunisation of the Pashtun” (Khan, n.d.). The Western media uses Pashtuns and T as synonyms and the tribes are glorified as cruel and conservative people. Actually, classification of Afghans based on ethnicity is a product of Western media which not only increases ethnic tensions but also gives a wrong image of certain ethnicities as superiors and inferiors.
Finally, in Afghanistan, demonization and glorification have been masterly used by Western media to achieve their political goals. Warlords become national heroes, civilians become insurgents and a one-time symbol of democracy and progressive trends becomes a corrupt, self-serving and weak president – Hamid Karzai’s story is a fascinating account of how Western media glorified and demonized the same person in the space of only a few years.
What Western media misses in Afghanistan is “glocalization”, globalization exists but it lacks linkages to local realities. There is a great need for combining global and local realities, values, traditions, structural arrangements in order to understand and interact with a particular society. Western media is professional, having reporters all over the world, but in Afghanistan they do not have broader access to all provinces. Either due to lack of access, they report a few things highlighted most without having proper understanding or purposely deliver an unrealistic picture for political reasons. In each case, media ethics are violated which are about informing public morally and in unbiased manner. But even media ethics are controversial because news agencies make money and claim that editors have the right to edit news and even sensor it. However, I would still argue that an ethical journalist should present all news truthfully and properly to public without any prejudice and political overtones. Unfortunately, in today’s world, everything including media is commercialized and news is manufactured as other materials according to the choice of vendors and customers.
(Bilquees Daud is currently teaching at Jindal Global University. She holds a Graduate degree in Social Sciences from the American University of Afghanistan and a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy, University of Erfurt Germany. She has extensive work experience with local and international organizations, universities and research centers in Afghanistan and abroad. She is the author of several research and analytical articles, published by different sources including Project for Democratic Union, The Diplomat, BBC Pashto and IIC Quarterly. Views expressed are personal.)
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