KAZAKHSTAN THROUGH THE PRISM OF THE AMERICAN PRESS

Abstract

The article examines the specifics of Kazakhstan’s representation in the American press during the period 2020-2025 in the context of transformations in international media discourse and intensified geopolitical competition. The increased attention of American media to Kazakhstan is driven by the changing role of central Asia in global politics, as well as by internal and external processes that have influenced the country’s positioning on the international stage. Media coverage of these developments contributes to the formation of stable interpretative models that shape foreign audiences’ perceptions of Kazakhstan.

The aim of the study is to identify the dominant discursive frames and narrative strategies through which the American press constructs the image of Kazakhstan during the specified period. Particular attention is paid to the dynamics of the media image, shifts in thematic and evaluative emphases, and differences in interpretation shaped by the editorial policies and ideological orientations of media outlets.

The methodological framework of the study combines corpus-based content analysis, thematic-discursive analysis, and elements of critical linguistics. The empirical corpus consists of 25 publications from leading American media outlets (The New York Times, CNN, Reuters, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, etc.) selected on the basis of chronological representativeness and thematic diversity. The data were processed using the AntConc software, which made it possible to identify frequent lexical items, key concepts, and collocations.

The findings indicate that the media representation of Kazakhstan demonstrates a shift from crisis- and protest-oriented frames toward reform-oriented, diplomatic, and pragmatic interpretative models. Discursive ambivalence is identified, whereby critical and pragmatic interpretations coexist, creating an effect of evaluative balance. The scholarly value of the study lies in the systematization of the frame structure of American media discourse on Kazakhstan and in revealing the mechanism through which the country’s international image is constructed. The practical significance of the results lies in their applicability to research in media discourse studies, public diplomacy, and strategic communications.