This dissertation explores media framing of conflict and peace in post-September 11, 2001 Afghanistan. The media selected for this study included: the BBC Pashto Service and Azadi Radio at the international level; Tehran’s Pashto Radio at the regional level; National Radio and Television of Afghanistan [NRTA], Tolo Television and Ariana Television at the national level; and Salam Watandar Network and Hewad Television at the local level.
In-depth interviews were conducted during fieldwork in the summers of 2008 and 2009. Participant observation, textual analysis and documents analysis were the other methods used in this study.
Using comparative frame analysis, this study identified the following main frames: state building, occupation as failure and civilian victims. Other frames identified and available to the media, which were either rejected or only partially supported by this research, were: Jihad, terrorism, ethnic victimization, and peace through negotiation.
The results of this study showed that, except Tehran’s Pashto Radio, all other media outlets used state building as the main frame. The data pointed to the broader socio-political contexts and the political economy of the media outlets as determining factors in adoption of this particular frame. In the frame contestation process, power relation and culture resonance played an important role. Although the dominant media frames were identified using frame analysis, that process did not always explain why those frames were adopted and especially what were the different constraints, pressures and controversies at play. These positions and issues were addressed in this research through a second level of framing the researcher calls “journalistic frames.”
Four different journalistic frames were identified. The two most commonly used by media outlets were: national interest and public interest. The two levels of framing—conflict frames and journalistic frames—together with analysis of environmental pressures, journalistic norms, structural constraints and individual agency led to the formation of the “nested framing” model, which is the innovation of this research. The study concludes with some recommendations for peace activists, parties other than warring groups, and media practitioners.