Strengthening national unity through media in Kazakhstan: A case study of qazaqgrammar

Abstract

This study aims to examine the role of the social media as one of the most significant instruments contributing to the reinforcement of Kazakhstan’s ethno-linguistical national identity. The study of new media tools reveals an entirely new dimension of national identity formation that fundamentally differs from traditional top-down approaches to identity transformation, as it enables ordinary individuals themselves to actively participate in shaping the ethno-linguistic nationalist discourse in the digital and social platforms.  More specifically, this research seeks to investigate why qazaqgrammar demonstrates a strong preference toward the use of the Kazakh language in managing its blog and how the informational content published on the platform generates the sense of national belonging. For the purpose of conducting a more detailed analytical investigation, a sample of twenty consecutive newest posts published during the data collection time period on the qazaqgrammar page between 4 March 2026 and 12 April 2026 were selected, alongside the most popular comments posted beneath these publications, in order to examine the relationship between user interactions and the published content.  The results of the data analysis demonstrated that all twenty sampled publications, as well as the comments posted beneath them function as an important ethno-linguistic marker aimed at reinforcing linguistic nationalist values, thereby contributing to the growing prominence of cultural solidarity. This study strongly argues that social media platforms such as Instagram on the example of qazaqgrammar represent significantly influential bottom-up mechanisms of identity formation among social groups in the contemporary Kazakhstan.