Impacts of Social Media on Public Policy Development in pre-Taliban Afghanistan

Autor/innen

  • Hazrat Bahar Universität Leipzig, Deutschland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.60678/gmj-de.v13i2.246

Schlagworte:

social media, effect of social media, public policy, agenda-setting, Facebook, Twitter

Abstract

The impacts of media, mainly social media, have attracted greater scholarly attention. However, their effects on public policy development and the decision-making procedure of a government have not been examined so far. Thus, this study examines such effects in pre-Taliban Afghanistan before August 2021. Theories of signal detection and agenda-setting are adopted. Five variables (problem identification, media attention, perceived change, social media intensity, and relevance of social media) were conceptualized and operationalized to understand and measure the impact. Two data sets, qualitative and quantitative, were chosen on the eve of a presidential election (September 2019). For the first data set, a 63-question questionnaire was developed and piloted, and a purposive sample was chosen (N = 385). The second set contains in-depth interviews with government employees and bloggers. Findings show that social media influences public policy formulation and decision-making procedures. The results further reveal that social media are an essential vehicle for governance, have the potential to provide a networked public sphere, and bridge the communication gap between government and the public in a fragile state like Afghanistan.

Autor/innen-Biografie

Hazrat Bahar, Universität Leipzig, Deutschland

Hazrat M. Bahar is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Communication and Media Studies at Leipzig University. He is also partially supported by the Institute of International Education (IIE). His research interests include the impacts of (social) media, media systems, media in fragile states, and media assistance, mainly focusing on Afghanistan. Currently, he studies the media system of Afghanistan in the past two decades. He has published in, among others, Media Asia and Cross-Culture Communication.

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Veröffentlicht

2024-02-01

Zitationsvorschlag

Bahar, H. (2024). Impacts of Social Media on Public Policy Development in pre-Taliban Afghanistan. Global Media Journal - German Edition, 13(2). https://doi.org/10.60678/gmj-de.v13i2.246

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Rubrik

Peer-Reviewed Artikel