The Experience of Cultural Policy in Afghanistan: the Afghan Star TV Program

Introduction: In the era of cultural globalization, one of the important media issues is the transnational exchange of television production, which has been named "television formats". "Idol" is one of the most popular television formats with the theme of singing competition, started in British program "Pop Idol". Adapted to Idol TV format many official copyrights and more than that unofficial copies have been produced around the world. This research deals with this phenomenon from the perspective of cultural-media policy and is defined in the theoretical framework of the concept of globalization and reception theory. The research is about Afghanistan. Culturally, Afghanistan has ethnic and linguistic diversity.  The diversity of ethnicities and the historical conflicts between them have caused the absence of a strong "national identity" in the country. In addition, the ups and downs history of Afghanistan in the last half century and the experience of different types of governance and the presence of foreign forces in different periods in this country have made the study of Afghan society a complicated matter.
Research Question: The experience of an unofficial copy of the TV Idol format as "Afghan Star" before 2021 in Afghanistan and before the re-establishment of the Taliban is studied here (during the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan era). The main question is "How has the Afghan society received this copied format" and "to what extent these receptions have been in line with the goals of the country's policy".
Research Hypothesis: This is a qualitative study and there is no hypothesis in the usual routine of quantitative studies.
Methodology (and theoretical framework if there are): For this purpose, the "case study" method has been used to answer the main research question. The main focus of the research is on only one television program and the content and audience of this program have been analyzed. Many cultural phenomena in the era of globalization are often viewed through the lens of the theory of cultural imperialism. Here a different theoretical framework, the reception theory, is used. In reception theory, it is said that the audience has an active response to the media message and the production and reception stages (encoding and decoding) are independent. This means that messages may be perceived differently at the receiving stage than the original intentions of their creators at the production stage. Results and discussion: Afghan Star seasons were produced in Afghanistan since 2005. TOLO TV channel, a commercial television station in Afghanistan, has produced "Afghan Star". Until 2021, 15 Star seasons and three Superstar programs were produced and broadcast from this program. Each season of this program was produced and aired during one year. The program was broadcast on Thursday and Friday nights on Tolo TV. The program also had its own website and social pages on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and it has communicated online with its audience in these ways.
Results and Discussion: The findings of this study showed that the "Afghan Star" program, despite its similarity to the global versions of the Idol TV format, has been able to be effective in the local context and become a successful product in the global-local market to attract the audience. But beyond the commercial aspects, the success of this program was hindered by the possible cultural-media policies of its creators. Afghan Star and Ethnic Challenge, Afghan Star and Traditional / Modern Challenge, Afghan Star and Gender Challenge, Afghan Star and the issue of foreign troops, and Afghan Star and Diaspora issue are aspects of glocalization of Idol TV format in Afghanistan society as well as fields of different reception for the audiences.
The local versions of "Pop Idol" even in the developed countries have created controversies in the area of ethnicities and races. Therefore, the ethnic challenges surrounding the local version in Afghanistan are not exceptional issues, but they are more important in the challenging and critical context of this country. It seems that although the structure of the Afghan Star program has created this opportunity for people of all ethnicities, but due to the existence of deep ethnic conflicts and nation-building crisis in this country, instead of reducing the conflict, this opportunity led to fueling new ethnic differences and tensions in Afghanistan.
Conclusion: Before the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan in 2021 and the domination of the Taliban forces in this country, the results of the historical analysis in Afghanistan showed that despite several historical periods, efforts have been made to develop democracy, especially since 2002 and after the fall of the Taliban, but this country has not achieved an institutional democratic government. The results of the Afghan Star Program study are consistent with the results of these analyses. Some ethnic events in the Afghan Star seemed to be a sign of the incomplete democratization process in Afghanistan. For example, sometimes the singing competition looked like a political election campaign. Optimistically, the Afghan Star can be seen as an exercise in the process of democratization.  On the other hand, with a pessimistic view, it can be said that this television program, by strengthening ethnic, gender, traditional/modern, etc. divisions and contradictions, provided an opportunity for the emergence and strengthening of extremist groups and became a factor in weakening the democratization process in Afghanistan. With the withdrawal of foreign forces from this country and the collapse of the social political order of the twenty-year period of the "Islamic Republic of Afghanistan" it can be said that the second view was realistic. The socio-political collapse in a very short period of time showed how far the cultural-media policies related to the security and economic policies for this country have gone in the wrong direction.