Trump’s Afghanistan Policy: How Afghan Mainstream Media Borrowed
Official US Narratives to Frame the Myth of Peace
Sher Baz Khan
Bahria University, Islamabad
Qaisar Khan
Bahria University, Islamabad
Abstract
This study draws from scholarship in framing theory and mediated collective memories for the analysis of the adoption of official narratives of US President Donald Trump’s Afghanistan policy as ready-made news frames by Afghanistan’s Tolo TV’s popular current affairs program as Tawde Khabare (Hot Talks). Collected through purposive sampling technique, a comparative qualitative analysis of selected programs of Tawde Khabar and the text of President Trump’s Afghanistan policy suggests that the post-Taliban US-established Afghan media system has largely adopted and borrowed ready-made news frames and official narratives disseminated by the US government to domestic and global media. The findings suggest further that official frames of Donald Trump’s Afghanistan policy received greater acceptability in the Tolo TV coverage of the concerned issue. The study has raised several questions regarding the credibility of the post-Taliban Afghan media system and as do similar systems in other post-conflict societies established through the financial and technical help of the US and allied states after 9/11.
