Online comments - an instrument for extracting public opinion about urban planning in Kazakhstan : Thematic analysis of comments in social media about the controversial transport construction
Kobzhassarova, Diana (2023)
2023
Bachelor's Programme in Sustainable Urban Development
Rakennetun ympäristön tiedekunta - Faculty of Built Environment
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2023-06-14
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202305296264
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202305296264
Tiivistelmä
Public opinion has always been an important tool to achieve the sustainability of urban planning. By considering public opinion, planners, decision-makers, and the government can anticipate potential risks, predict the future of a project, and address public concerns and needs when making decisions.
In recent years, the development of the Internet allowed researchers to use it as a tool to extract public opinion, especially in countries with limited democracies like Kazakhstan. The functions of social media enable individuals to express their opinions in countries where freedom of speech is a concern. Even though Kazakhstan is one of the countries with lim-ited democracy, there is still a need to understand public perception about the urban pro-jects that influence society’s well-being.
This thesis aims to identify public opinion about the controversial urban project Astana LRT via social media’s online comments. This urban project has faced controversy due to its lengthy construction and corruption scandals, but the government has decided to continue the process of building. Thus, it is necessary to understand public perception regarding this construction because of its previous controversy. Due to this, it is essential to use the po-tential of online comments to extract public opinion regarding significant transport construc-tion that influences society’s well-being.
A thematic analysis of comments was conducted to determine public opinion by identify-ing the themes mentioned by citizens. The comments were gathered from Instagram, Ka-zakhstan’s most popular social media platform. The data was collected from comments sec-tions of several posts on news portals` official pages. Comments were analysed in a themat-ic approach that helped to identify three themes.
These themes are: 1) the expression of indignation, 2) alternative suggestions, and 3) the excitement for the outcome.
These themes showed that people are not positively related to the project and the gov-ernment; they suggest alternative ideas instead of continuing construction, and only some people expressed their positive relation towards the construction. Moreover, for them, the project is associated with previous controversial corruption scandals, and some people sug-gest demolishing the construction. The research outcome gives evidence of the project with a low reputation and a lack of public support. It might result in more aggressive opposition and unsuccess after its completion.
In Kazakhstan, citizens feel that their voices are not being heard, and they cannot influ-ence the government’s decisions. As a result, protests have become the only way for them to express their opposition. The project has the potential to spark more citizen-led protests. Moreover, the research has revealed that the comments were highly insightful because the public provided valuable information, suggestions, and concerns about urban construction. This data can be considered and used for improving urban construction. Based on this re-search, there is evidence of the potential advantage of online comments as an instrument to identify public perception about many different topics, projects, and events in a country with limited freedom of voice.
In recent years, the development of the Internet allowed researchers to use it as a tool to extract public opinion, especially in countries with limited democracies like Kazakhstan. The functions of social media enable individuals to express their opinions in countries where freedom of speech is a concern. Even though Kazakhstan is one of the countries with lim-ited democracy, there is still a need to understand public perception about the urban pro-jects that influence society’s well-being.
This thesis aims to identify public opinion about the controversial urban project Astana LRT via social media’s online comments. This urban project has faced controversy due to its lengthy construction and corruption scandals, but the government has decided to continue the process of building. Thus, it is necessary to understand public perception regarding this construction because of its previous controversy. Due to this, it is essential to use the po-tential of online comments to extract public opinion regarding significant transport construc-tion that influences society’s well-being.
A thematic analysis of comments was conducted to determine public opinion by identify-ing the themes mentioned by citizens. The comments were gathered from Instagram, Ka-zakhstan’s most popular social media platform. The data was collected from comments sec-tions of several posts on news portals` official pages. Comments were analysed in a themat-ic approach that helped to identify three themes.
These themes are: 1) the expression of indignation, 2) alternative suggestions, and 3) the excitement for the outcome.
These themes showed that people are not positively related to the project and the gov-ernment; they suggest alternative ideas instead of continuing construction, and only some people expressed their positive relation towards the construction. Moreover, for them, the project is associated with previous controversial corruption scandals, and some people sug-gest demolishing the construction. The research outcome gives evidence of the project with a low reputation and a lack of public support. It might result in more aggressive opposition and unsuccess after its completion.
In Kazakhstan, citizens feel that their voices are not being heard, and they cannot influ-ence the government’s decisions. As a result, protests have become the only way for them to express their opposition. The project has the potential to spark more citizen-led protests. Moreover, the research has revealed that the comments were highly insightful because the public provided valuable information, suggestions, and concerns about urban construction. This data can be considered and used for improving urban construction. Based on this re-search, there is evidence of the potential advantage of online comments as an instrument to identify public perception about many different topics, projects, and events in a country with limited freedom of voice.