Setting Narrative through Instagram Posts: A Study of BBC’s Reportage on Afghanistan

Abstract

Media organizations have an immense role to play in disseminating information and shaping perspectives across borders. Though the information revolution provides us with many new opportunities, it also helps in establishing a single narrative through the cultural cultivation of popular media over time. Orientalism, in this manner, presents an image that the West created of the Near East centuries ago and these second-hand experiences are enhanced over the years by the powerful states and media organizations to maintain the established hegemony. This current study focuses on understanding the British Broadcasting Corporation’s narrative and its ability to include and exclude certain historical facts while reporting on the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan through Instagram posts. The study found BBC portraying a favorable image for the role played by the NATO allies in Afghanistan and described the Taliban as a sheer group of terror, barbaric, and inhumane organization, following extreme Sharia laws.