Online Audiences of Central Asia and Kazakhstan: Choice and Preferences in the Era of Multimedia News Content

Section: Sociology of Journalism

This article presents the results of a study aiming to find out which media platforms are used by online audiences in Central Asia and Kazakhstan to access news, how active Kazakhstani users are on the Internet, and what news content most interests them. The study is based on the results of a large-scale survey conducted by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) in 2019 in four countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. A total of 4,130 people were interviewed, including a number of media experts. An online research method was used, in which respondents were selected among Internet users in real time (river sampling). The study showed that, along with increased penetration of the Internet into Central Asian countries, online consumers of news content in Kazakhstan use social networks and messengers more often than those in other Central Asian countries. It was found that social networks in Central Asian countries tend to replace traditional media for users’ consumption of operational news. At the same time, Kazakhstanis do not pay attention to the source of information, which can contribute to the influence of fake news and manipulations. It was revealed that online news about economy, culture, ecology and a number of other spheres of human activity remain uninteresting for Kazakhstani users.

Bykov I., Hradziushko А., Ibrayeva G., Turdubaeva E. (2018) Messendzhery v professional’noy kommunikatsii zhurnalistov i PR-spetsialistov v stranakh Evraziyskogo ekonomicheskogo soyuza [Messengers in the Professional Communication of Journalists and PR specialists in the Countries of the Eurasian Economic Union]. Journal of the Belarusian State University. Journalism and Pedagogics 2: 4–13. (In Russian)

Fedorov P. (2016) Gendernyy aspekt politicheskoy internet-kommunikatsii [Gender Aspect of Political Online Communication]. Vestnik Povolzhskogo instituta upravleniya 5 (56): 106–112. (In Russian)

Fletcher R., Nielsen R. K. (2017) Are News Audiences Increasingly Fragmented? A Cross-National Comparative Analysis of Cross-Platform News Audience Fragmentation and Duplication. Journal of Communication 67 (4): 476– 498. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12315

Kalogeropoulos A., Nielsen R. K. (2018) Investing in Online Video News. Journalism Studies 19 (15): 2207–2224. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670x.2017.1331709

Kammer A., Boeck M., Hansen J. V., Hauschildt L. J. H. (2015) The Free-to-Fee Transition: Audiences’ Attitudes Toward Paying for Online News. Journal of Media Business Studies 12 (1–2): 107–120. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/16522354.2015.1053345

Logunova O. (2019) Kontseptsii opredeleniya i izmereniya internet-auditorii [Concepts of Evaluating and Measuring an Online Audience]. Zhurnal sotsiologii i sotsial’noy antropologii 22 (2): 230–246. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31119/jssa.2019.22.2.9

Loseva N. (2016) Auditoriya novykh media [The New Media Audience]. In S. Balmaeva, M. Lukina (eds.) Kak novye media izmenili zhurnalistiku. 2012—2016 [How New Media Have Changed Journalism. 2012–2016]. Ekaterinburg: Humanitarian University Publ. Pp. 31–85. (In Russian)

Majó-Vázquez S., Nielsen R. K., González-Bailón S. (2019) The Backbone Structure of Audience Networks: A New Approach to Comparing Online News Consumption Across Countries. Political Communication 36 (2): 227–240. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2018.1546244

Mariscal J. (2005) Digital Divide in a Developing Country. Telecommunications Policy 29 (5–6), 409–428. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2005.03.004

Mikhailov V., Mikhailov S. (2004) Osobennosti razvitiya informatsionno-kommunikativnoy sredy sovremennogo obshchestva [Development of the Information and Communication Environment of Modern Society]. In Sbornik nauchnykh trudov: Aktual’nye problemy teorii kommunikatsii [Current Problems of Communication Theory: a collection of scientific papers]. St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg Univ. Publ. Pp. 34–52. (In Russian)

Mikheev E., Nestik T. (2018) Dezinformatsiya v sotsial’nykh setyakh: sostoyanie i perspektivy psikhologicheskikh issledovaniy [Misinformation on Social Networks: Condition and Prospects of Psychological Research]. Sotsial’naya psikhologiya i obshchestvo 2 (9): 5–20. DOI: 10.17759/sps.2018090201 (In Russian)

Mustaffa N., Sannusi Sh. N., Abu Hasan A. S., Mat Saad M. Z. (2017). Journalism and News Industry in Malaysia: New Media, New Challenges. E-Bangi 14 (6).

Rykov Yu., Nagorny O. (2017) Oblast’ internet-issledovaniy v sotsial’nykh naukakh [The Field of Internet Research in Social Sciences]. Sotsiologicheskoe obozrenie 16 (3): 366–394. DOI: l0.l732з/l728-l92X-20l7-з-з66-394 (In Russian)

Sandoval-Almazán R., Núñez Armas J. C. (2016) Social Media Experiences at County Level: The Case of the State of Mexico. In J. Gil-Garcia, T. Pardo, T. Nam (eds.) Smarter as the New Urban Agenda. Public Administration and Information Technology, vol. 11. Cham: Springer. Pp. 279–295. Springer. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17620-8_15

Shah B. P., Lim N. (2011) Using Social Media to Increase e-Government Adoption in Developing Countries. In ACM International Conference Proceeding Series. Pp. 205–213. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/2072069.2072103

Shcherbinina E. (2015) Ekologiya i ekozhurnalistika: traektoriya sblizheniya [Ecology and Eco-Journalism: the Path of Rapprochement]. Znak: problemnoe pole mediaobrazovaniya 3 (17): 27–29. (In Russian)

Srinuan C., Bohlin E. (2011) Understanding the Digital Divide: a Literature Survey and Ways Forward. In 22nd European Regional Conference of the International Telecommunications Society (ITS): “Innovative ICT Applications - Emerging Regulatory, Economic and Policy Issues”, Budapest, Hungary.