Government-media relations in crisis communication in Kazakhstan

Abstract

Over its relatively short independence period (since 1991) Kazakhstan has suffered from a number of natural and human-made crisis events. Nevertheless, there are only a few materials and academic analysis about crisis management in Central Asian countries. This study contributes to the knowledge about crisis communication efficiency through the lens of the mainstream and social media relations of the Kazakhstan government. It addresses the question of how the collaboration of the government with traditional media affects the content of publications in social media during crisis situations. This paper is based on the analysis of media content during two cases: terrorist attacks in Aktobe and in Almaty cities in 2016. The findings of this research indicate that social media has greater informational impact during crisis situations. The conducted analysis confirmed that delayed or inaccurate information provided to the traditional media by government during crisis events triggers critical materials or negative publications by social media users. Moreover, primary data analysis identified some important factors affecting the dissemination of negative, unreliable and fake information in the social media during crisis situations such as massive release of unreliable information by individuals via social networks, delayed provision of the official information by the authorized bodies, bureaucratic procedures hindering the communication process, lack of public trust and, finally, lack of government openness and transparency. Based on the qualitative analysis of primary and secondary data the paper suggests Kazakhstan Government developing specific crisis communication rules with mass media for the authorized state bodies, expressing personal empathetic attitudes by state officials in their speeches and reports, and empowering Government official representatives with more autonomy in sharing relevant information with stakeholders.