After mapping out the main islands of Kazakhstan’s media archipelago in the previous article, from national TV channels to bloggers and radio stations, it’s logical to turn to the next question: how are media preferences divided across social groups? Who chooses television, and who prefers Telegram channels? Are there media platforms that unite generations, and others that set them apart? This time, we look at the spring survey conducted by the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies (KazISS) through the lens of gender, age, education, income, and type of settlement.
Aigul Zabirova. Photo credit: KazISS
Every day, figuratively speaking, we sit down at the information table. For some, it is a hot dinner in front of the television. For others, it is fragments of news in messengers, and others have their morning coffee with online media. But what shapes this choice? Age, environment, education, or an inherited rhythm of life? In other words, if a young man starts his morning with Tengri News, scrolls through Telegram during the day, and ends the evening with Netflix, while his father does the exact opposite and what explains this difference?
In this article, we zoom in to see who inhabits which “island,” and why. Where do we find more young people? Where is the older generation? Where are people living in cities, and where are people living in villages? Who chooses Telegram, who prefers Kazakh television, and who tunes into the BBC?
These questions hold a key to understanding not only how society consumes news, but also why the very same fact may sound so different to different people. As French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu has shown, even the most ordinary practices of consumption, whether food or media, reflect deep social distinctions, expressing stable tastes and habits, or habitus.
So, the socio-demographic analysis of the empirical data revealed a number of notable differences in how Kazakhstan’s citizens consume media.
Gender lens on the media landscape
Men and women in Kazakhstan show similar, though not identical, media profiles. Women are more likely to trust national TV channels (63.7% versus 54% of men) and print media (10.2% versus 8.1%), while men tend to follow bloggers and opinion leaders (9.6% versus 7.9%) as well as foreign media (4.7% versus 2%).
It can be assumed that women still preserve more traditional media habits, particularly among the older generation, which prefers tried-and-tested formats. Men, on the other hand, appear more willing to experiment and seek out information independently.
Lines of division and points of convergence across generations.
In this survey, age emerged as one of the strongest factors of stratification. The data show that television grows in importance with age, rising from 54.3% among those aged 30–45 to 68.6% among respondents over 60.
Social networks, by contrast, lose trust sharply with age, dropping from 44.9% in the youngest group to just 20.8% among older respondents. Online media show a similarly youthful profile: 38.3% of 18–29-year-olds prefer them, compared to only 20.7% in the 60+ group.
Print press gains relevance with age (7.8% among 18–29-year-olds versus 12.8% among those 60+), reflecting an informational habit formed before the digital era. Generational preferences are least pronounced among audiences of national TV channels. To borrow from Bourdieu, the choice of one form of media consumption over another is shaped not only by available options but also by the patterns of perception, taste, and orientation in the world that are embedded in the body and mind.
City and countryside. Is there a digital divide?
In cities, the media landscape is more diversified and digitalized. Overall, social networks and messengers top the list for urban residents. Internet media consumption is notably higher in cities (33.6% versus 25%), as is the use of social networks (37.2% of city residents compared to 30.6% of rural residents).
In rural areas, by contrast, television (62.7%) and print press (10.6%) continue to dominate. Another gap is visible in the trust placed in bloggers: 10.1% among urban residents versus just 4% in rural areas.
These rural-urban differences likely go beyond questions of infrastructure access. They point to deeper disparities in cultural capital. Following the logic of Pierre Bourdieu, city residents are socialized in more complex environments and therefore develop the ability to interpret a wider range of sources. The stronger reliance on TV in rural areas reflects a continuation of media practices that align with life trajectories shaped earlier.
Thus, the media landscape mirrors the social structure of society, where cities tend to practice eclectic news consumption, while rural areas remain carriers of more institutional preferences. This divide calls for particular attention not only to the question of access, but also to the social meanings embedded in the choice of media.
Educational stratification
The data show that education most clearly reproduces the overall hierarchy of trust in news sources while also offering a rather predictable picture of preferences. National TV channels remain the leaders of media trust across all educational groups, yet their share declines as education levels rise, from 63.8% among those with incomplete secondary education to 37.2% among respondents with degrees.
As people accumulate cultural capital, they increasingly turn to information sources that involve reflection, analysis, and alternative perspectives. Media practices associated with online outlets, for example, demand more cognitive effort. It is not just passive reading, but comparison and navigation across platforms. Trust in online media also correlates with education level, rising from 23.1% among those with incomplete secondary education to 46.5% among respondents with degrees.
Such users are able to “read between the lines,” distinguishing informational reporting from propaganda. Most importantly, the more educated tend to seek not just the news itself, but its interpretation. And that marks a significant shift.
Social networks and messengers, meanwhile, reflect the trajectory of mass experience, being most popular among groups with secondary education (36.2%). Still, they also attract a considerable share of people with higher education. Undoubtedly, social media today serves as a hybrid media diet, blending the official and the unofficial, the rational and the emotional.
Perhaps the most interesting case is about bloggers. Trust in them grows with education level (from 8.1% among respondents with incomplete schooling to 20.9% among those with degrees), challenging the stereotype that educated people consume media superficially. In Kazakhstan, the blogosphere seems to be evolving into a zone of expertise, where specialists read specialists, and where analysis, education, and politics converge in a distinct media style.
Meanwhile, the audience of foreign media turns out to be surprisingly diverse, ranging from vocational school graduates to holders of prestigious diplomas.
In closing this detailed examination of education levels, and drawing on Bourdieu’s ideas, we can say that in choosing media, we also reveal the social stratum to which we belong, the symbols that matter to us, and the cultural code we carry within ourselves.
Media and social strata
Viewed through Pierre Bourdieu’s lens, it becomes clear that media consumption in Kazakhstan is not simply a matter of choice but a reflection of deeply rooted life experience, habitus. Some remain on the familiar “islands” of television channels, while others have long set sail into the digital sea, placing their trust in Telegram. For some, online media are a regular harbor, while for others, they represent the search for new routes.
Kazakhstan’s media archipelago is layered, with each person on their own island, following their own navigation. Yet the route we choose to sail says a great deal about who we are, where we come from, and where we are headed.
Aigul Zabirova is a chief research fellow at the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of Kazakhstan (KazISS). She is a doctor of sociology and a professor.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of The Astana Times.
