Zugl.: Hannover, Univ., Diss., 2006

Bachelor's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

Den här uppsatsen analyserar svensk medias rapportering om valet i Afghanistan 2010. Med hjälp av metoder framtagna av Van Dijk har en analys av artiklar som berör valet 2010 gjorts. De teoretiska utgångspunkterna är postkolonialism och orientalism. Med hjälp av de perspektiven och Van Dijks medieanalys analyseras materialet för att tydliggöra strukturer i media.

Afghanistan steht vor einem Wendepunkt. Die Lage beim Abzug der NATO/ISAF-Truppen gibt wenig Anlass zum Optimismus. Zwar wurden gewisse Fortschritte bei der Entwicklung des Landes erreicht, insgesamt ist die Lage jedoch hinsichtlich Sicherheit, politischem System und Wirtschaft beunruhigend. Afghanistan gehört nach wie vor zu den ärmsten Ländern der Erde und ein anhaltender Frieden ist nicht in Sicht. Im Gegenteil: Die Mehrheit der Afghanen fürchtet die Zukunft.

Der Afghanistankonflikt hat seit 2001 deutliche Auswirkungen auf das regionale Umfeld – in Pakistan, Kaschmir, Xinjiang und den zentralasiatischen Republiken. Dies wird sich nach dem Abzug der ISAF-Truppen noch verstärken. Dabei geht es sowohl um die grenzüberschreitenden Folgen der beiden Militärinterventionen als auch um die Wirkungen der innerafghanischen Konflikte auf die gesamte Region. Diese Problematik besitzt ein erhebliches Konfliktpotenzial, das größere Aufmerksamkeit verdient.

In den gegenwärtigen Prozessen in Afghanistan gewinnen die Beziehungen zwischen Afghanistan und seinen Nachbarn in Zentralasien an Bedeutung. Ihre weitere Entwicklung wird einerseits von der Transformation in Afghanistan und andererseits von der Politik der zentralasiatischen Staaten abhängen. Während sich das Drogenproblem erschwerend auswirkt, gibt es einige ermutigende Ansätze im Bereich der wirtschaftlichen Kooperation.

Current theorising of trauma continues to suffer from Post-Holocaust understandings that render trauma as indefinable, yet the myriad representations produced across different discursive domains – testimony, documentary, film and art – challenge such claims. Rather it is difficult to define, plagued by the parameters of trauma – as having no “beginning”, “ending”, “during” or “after” as Laub contends – and is further hampered by its clinically inadequate categorisation as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) within the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM). While the inclusion of PTSD in the DSM-III in 1980 promised to normalise the long history of trauma resulting from combat experience, its increasing and continuing expansion of categories since then has undermined this combat-specific diagnosis. Particularly, it fails to recognise the specific traumas intrinsic to soldiers who wage war as an occupation (specifically the act of killing), and the complex way in which PTSD is triggered in veterans (the political deceit and denial that accompanies the experience of the initial event). With 1 in 5 returned soldiers currently screening for PTSD, and more veterans having committed suicide than have died in combat, it is clear that there is a crisis in the way PTSD is theorised, recognised and understood. This thesis provides a discursive analysis of contemporary media texts, proposing that discourses produced within these domains challenge, undermine and potentially remedy combat trauma’s current “crisis of representation.” While professionally produced documentaries and current affairs programmes were found to align with the political and ideological discourses prominent within the military and psychiatric professions, soldier-produced content – through raw video, art and digital pastiche – functioned as traumatic performances that produced personal articulations of trauma. Moreover, the televisual flashback succeeds in conveying the “traumatised subjectivity” through cinematic and aesthetic conventions that allow the viewer to see beyond the confines of the body and into the flashback as it is experienced by the eye-witness. In doing so, these texts help to construct social and cultural knowledge of trauma and PTSD and facilitate acts of bearing witness. Such articulations allow veterans to understand their own disorder as normal and are influential in the processes of healing and recovery.

The concept of an emerging Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) came to light in American military thinking in the late 1980s, and largely dealt with a new generation of military technologies which promised to alter the nature of modern warfare. In order to exploit these new technologies to their fullest, U.S. military planners set in motion the process of transformation. Significant questions, however, have emerged regarding the utility of RMA technologies and the transformation of the U.S. military and its ability to meet the challenges of insurgency and counter-insurgency (COIN). A central question then emerges as to whether or not the RMA is relevant to COIN? Although the impact of the RMA has failed to give the U.S. an unchallengeable advantage while waging COIN campaigns, it has certainly assisted in developing specific and vital capabilities in such operations.

Can the success of the Sunni Awakening in Iraq be applied to other counter-insurgency conflicts, or is it an exemplary case? Using case studies including Iraq and Afghanistan, it will be examined whether or not militias can be can be used to fight counterinsurgency campaigns in Afghanistan and generally to other conflicts. It may not work in Afghanistan, and certainly presents a Catch-22 situation, but it may be applicable in certain situations in other conflicts under certain conditions.

Globally, research has shown that media coverage of illicit drug issues can play an important role in influencing public opinion and shaping drug policies. However, in Afghanistan, the world’s largest opium producer, very little is known about the media coverage of illicit drug issues. Afghan media, especially radio and television have developed dramatically during the past 11 years. Using the theories of agenda setting and framing, this study explored what drug-related topics were covered in the Afghan news media; how were these topics covered; how were the health and social consequences of drug abuse depicted in the media; and how much time was devoted to drug related topics in the media. Employing content analysis, the study examined primetime news coverage of the two leading media outlets: Azadi Radio and Tolo Television from 1st March 2011 until 31st July 2011. This thesis found the following types of imbalances in Afghan media reporting on illicit drug issues: 1) media reports on drug issues were heavily focused on supply reduction issues (81%) while paying considerably less attention to drug demand reduction issues (19%); 2) media predominantly framed illicit drugs as a law enforcement issue (83%) with only 15% of the paragraphs in the sample framing illicit drug as a public health problem; 3) media reporting on illicit drugs heavily relied on official sources (79%) lacking voices of the public health practitioners and drug addicts; 4) media coverage of illicit drug issues was heavily centered in Kabul (56%) with considerably less reporting from southern Afghanistan, which is the largest opium producing region. This study, which is presumably the first of its kind, provides media organizations, policy makers, and public health officials with a broad picture on the drug-related information available to the public on the leading Afghan news outlets. In addition, it serves as a basis for future research on media coverage of illicit drug issues in Afghanistan.