Violence at the border: Exploring portrayals of violence in news articles reporting the border conflicts between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan

Abstract: Using Nixon’s (2011) conceptualisation of slow violence, this study explores how violence is portrayed in English-language news articles reporting the Kyrgyz-Tajik border conflicts in April 2021 and September 2022. This study aims to discover the ways in which violence is communicated to English-speaking audiences, and, in a larger context, it contributes to the understanding of violence produced in border conflicts. The study analyses 50 news articles from four different media outlets through thematic analysis. The findings from this study suggest that the news reporting on the border conflicts focuses on casualties and “visible” violence, aligning with Nixon’s arguments that slow violence, the gradual degradation and suffering, is being marginalised in the public discourse. Moreover, the study finds that slow violence is best communicated in articles that build on personal interviews with the people living in the border communities.