This research paper shows how the National Unity Government of Afghanistan is using Facebook in order to inform and communication and with people. A combination of quantitative and qualitative content analysis was used to examine the Facebook pages of Presidential Palace and Chief executive Office as two main pillars of Afghanistan National Unity Government in the three-month period from September 01- November 30, 2017. During the research period, 692 posts and 27180 comments that were posted on Facebook pages of Presidential Palace and Chief executive Office was collected and analyzed. The findings showed that during the research period, the National Unity Government of Afghanistan used Facebook as the largest and most popular online tool for one-way communication and do not interact with users. In addition, the study showed that special attention to government international relations and strengthening the political position of government leaders are the main themes used by the National Unity Government on its Facebook posts. Furthermore, the National Unity Government on its Facebook pages needs to talk with citizens and its audiences and users into online environments need attention to increase their trust on government. The National Unity Government should have two-way communication with citizens in social media. Being more active and present in the online environment is more important than ever for this government.

1. Social Media Use by Government:
A Content Analysis of Facebook Pages of
Afghanistan National Unity Government
Researcher: Faisal Karimi, 117200990057
New Media MA Student,
SMD, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
www.FaisalKarimi.com
Dec 19, 2017

2. Research Structure
Introduction
Hypotheses
Data and
Methodology
Findings and
Discussion
Conclusionwww.FaisalKarimi.com
2
Research
Framework
Abstract

3. Abstract
This research paper shows how the Afghanistan National
Unity Government is using Facebook in order to inform and
communication and with people.
A combination of quantitative and qualitative content
analysis was used to examine the Facebook pages of
Presidential Palace and Chief executive office as two main
pillars of Afghanistan National Unity Government in the
three-month period.
September 01- November 30, 2017.
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4. During the research period, 692 posts and 27180 comments that
were posted on Facebook pages of Presidential Palace and Chief
executive office was collected and analyzed.
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Abstract

5. The findings showed that during the research period, the
Afghanistan National Unity Government used Facebook for
one-way communication and do not interact with users.
The study showed that special attention to:
International relations and Strengthening the political position
are the main themes used by the National Unity
Government on its Facebook posts.
5
Abstract
Keywords: Facebook pages; Social Media; Content Analysis; National Unity
Government; Presidential Palace; Chief Executive Office;

6. Social media and fundamental and advanced changes in society.
Social media as a dominant tool of communication
Transformation the process of interaction between:
government and non-governmental organizations and citizens
6
Introduction

7. www.FaisalKarimi.com 7
Introduction
Governments use the most common social media
platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

8. Introduction
After the electoral disputes between Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah
Abdullah, the two candidates in the second round of presidential
elections, the Afghanistan National Unity government political
agreement signed in September 2014 in order to establish a joint
government between two candidates (Rubin & Gagon, 2016: 5).
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9. Determine how the Afghanistan national unity government
including presidential palace and chief executive office uses
Facebook in order to two-way communication and
interaction with citizens.
This paper is addressing the level of Afghan citizen’s
interaction with government through Facebook pages
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Research Objectives

10. Research Objectives
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1-Identify the most used media elements on Facebook posts of National
Unity government;
2-Identify the updates frequency and number of posts of National Unity
Government Facebook pages in daily and monthly basis;
3-Identify How Afghan citizens interact with Facebook posts of National
Unity Government Facebook pages by all reactions, comments, and shares;
4- Identify the themes of Facebook post of the National Unity FB pages

11. Research Objectives
5- Identify the number of used words on Afghanistan National
Unity Government Facebook posts and its average.
6-Identify the level of satisfaction and dissatisfaction of Afghan
online users about government
7- Identify the level of Afghanistan National Unity Government
responding and two ways communication with online citizens
on their Facebook pages.
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12. Hypotheses
Hypothesis 1: It appears that Afghanistan National Unity government use
Facebook Platform for one-way communication with citizens, and don't give
any kind of response to the comments and interactions of online citizens.
Hypothesis 2: It appears that Afghanistan National Unity Government uses
Facebook pages most for sharing news and information of leaders'
international agenda, meetings, political status government and public
announcements.
12

13. Hypotheses
Hypothesis 3: It appears that the text and photos are the main
elements used on Facebook pages by Afghanistan National Unity
Government.
Hypothesis 4: It appears that Afghanistan National Unity
Government uses Facebook to strengthen the government political
status and highlighting the government leader's performance.
Hypothesis 5: It appears that most of the Afghan citizen's
comments on Facebook posts of Afghanistan National Unity
Government are negative.
13

14. Research Questions
RQ1: Do Afghanistan National Unity Government use of
interactive communication features of Facebook for
interaction with Afghan online users and give any response
to the comments and reactions of online citizens?
RQ2: What types of topics most publishes on Facebook
pages of the Afghanistan National Unity Government?
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15. Research Questions
RQ3: What media elements are used in Facebook posts of
the Afghanistan National Unity Government Facebook
page?
RQ4: What is the most purpose of the National Unity
Government to use their Facebook page in order to
communicate with the online citizens?
RQ5: How are the interactions of Afghan online users on
Afghanistan National Unity Government Facebook posts?
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16. Theoretical Framework
This study is based on two communication theories.
Uses and gratifications and Agenda-setting.
According to these theories:
The researcher explains and analysis the citizen’s participation
and their interactions with Facebooks pages of the Afghanistan
National Unity Government.
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17. Concepts Definitions
Social Media: The social media platforms are a kind of
internet applications, including weblogs, microblogging,
online communities, social networking platforms, or
video-sharing, photo-sharing and file-sharing sites or
wikis (Fuchs, 2017: 34).
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18. Facebook as a Commination Pattern
 The Facebook social network was created by Mark Zuckerberg in
February 2004.
18Source: Statista.com
Figure 1: The Special Media Worldwide as of Sept 2017 ranked by
number of active users (in millions)

19. Facebook and Governments
Government organizations usually use the biggest and well-
known social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, and …, to connect with more audiences and
conduct two-way communication with online users.
social media platforms provide new opportunities for online
participation and interaction between government and
citizens in the public sector and also, use of social networks
to facilitates and improve government services (Moore
2013: 1).
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20. Afghanistan National Unity Government
The Afghanistan national unity government was the
result of a U.S.-brokered agreement between Ashraf
Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah after both claimed
victory in the 2014 presidential election.
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21. Therefore, in September 2014, after the election
crisis, Secretary of United State John Kerry mediated
between Ghani and Abdullah. These long
negotiations led to the agreement of establishing
National Unity Government, and power was divided
between tribes.
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22. Internet and Social Media in Afghanistan
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23. Internet and Social Media in Afghanistan
In recent years, users access to internet, especially among the
young has grown rapidly via 3G and 4G internet and
smartphones in Afghanistan.
The internet users in Afghanistan are mainly the youth’s urban
elites.
But still: Television and Radio outlets are more Powerful then
Social media.
23

24. Afghanistan key digital statistical indicators
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25. 0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% 70.00% 80.00% 90.00% 100.00%
Others
Tumblr
Reddit
Google+
LinkedIn
Youtube
Pinterest
Twitter
Facebook
0.42%
0.16%
0.22%
0.18%
0.25%
1.20%
1.37%
2.08%
94.12%
Others Tumblr Reddit Google+ LinkedIn Youtube Pinterest Twitter Facebook
25
Figure 2: Social Media Stats in Afghanistan – Q4 2017
Source: gs.statcounter.com

26. Research Methodology
This study is a content analysis research which studied social
media use by the government.
Content analysis is one of the research techniques used to
interpret and encode text content. the quantitative and qualitative
techniques can be use in the content analysis (Duriau, 2007).
Furthermore, research methods. In the present research, is used
qualitative and quantitative content analysis methods for data
analysis by the researcher.
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27. Data gathering and analysis
Facebook pages of Afghanistan national unity
government (Presidential palace and Chief executive
office) have been analyzed.
Data were collected from September 01, 2017 to
November 30, 2017. The quantitative and qualitative
techniques of content analysis method were used to
analyze the obtained data.
692 posts, 27180 comments were collected and
analyzed.
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28. Units of Analysis
Analysis Units of this research were posts and comments
with all its detailed data and information.
The content analysis included the following categories:
1) Number of posts,
2) Level and numbers of interaction including reactions, comments
and shares,
3) Language of posts,
4) Date of posts,
5) Posts themes,
6) Numbers of user’s positive and negative comments
7) Numbers of government replies
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29. Findings
• Figure 4: Daily Posts Frequency on Facebook pages of Afghanistan National Unity Governmenr
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0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
1-Sep
3-Sep
5-Sep
7-Sep
9-Sep
11-Sep
13-Sep
15-Sep
17-Sep
19-Sep
21-Sep
23-Sep
25-Sep
27-Sep
29-Sep
1-Oct
3-Oct
5-Oct
7-Oct
9-Oct
11-Oct
13-Oct
15-Oct
17-Oct
19-Oct
21-Oct
23-Oct
25-Oct
27-Oct
29-Oct
31-Oct
2-Nov
4-Nov
6-Nov
8-Nov
10-Nov
12-Nov
14-Nov
16-Nov
18-Nov
20-Nov
22-Nov
24-Nov
26-Nov
28-Nov
30-Nov
Number of Posts Presidential Palace Number of Posts CEO Office

30. Average word count:
ANUG Average words Shortest post Longest post
Presidential Palace 58.7 4 278
CEO Office 220.7 12 2099
Average 279.4 8 1188.5
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31. Level of Interaction:
ANUG Reactions Percentage Comments Percentage Shares Percentage
Presidential
Palace
524132 62% 17664 65% 9516 76%
Chief Executive
Office
321616 38% 9516 35% 3352 24%
Total 845748 100% 27180 100% 14039 100%
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32. Findings
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
35000
40000
1-Sep 8-Sep 15-Sep 22-Sep 29-Sep 6-Oct 13-Oct 20-Oct 27-Oct 3-Nov 10-Nov 17-Nov 24-Nov
Reactions Comments Shares
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Figure 5: The level of interaction in the Facebook pages of Presidential Palace

33. Findings
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
35000
40000
1-Sep 8-Sep 15-Sep 22-Sep 29-Sep 6-Oct 13-Oct 20-Oct 27-Oct 3-Nov 10-Nov 17-Nov 24-Nov
Reactions Comments Shares
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The level of interaction in the Facebook pages of CEO office

34. Findings
0
100000
200000
300000
400000
500000
600000
Reactions Comments Shares
Presidential Palace CEO Office
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The Comparison level of interaction in the Facebook pages of Presidential Palace and CEO Office

35. Most Medium used:
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27%
36%
0%
4%
18%
0%
14%
1%
0%
Text and Photo
Text, Link and Photo
Text and Video
Text, Link and Video
Text
Photo
Text and Link
Link
Video
Figure 11: The percentage of the different medium used in the Facebook pages of Presidential Palace.

36. Most used themes
Presidential Palace Chief Executive Office
NO Themes Percentage Frequently Percentage Frequently
1 Official Self-Description 18% 64 %17 60
2 Public Announcement 7% 24 %9 29
3 Participation in Events 7% 26 %12 39
4 International Relations 25% 88 %26 89
5 Official Meeting 22% 78 %12 40
6 Strengthening position 10% 36 %10 33
7 Interaction with Citizens 11% 37 %14 49
8 Total 100% 353 %100 339
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37. Most used themes
18%
7%
7%
25%
22%
10%
11%
Official Self-
Description
Public
Announcement
Participation in
Events
International
Relations
Official Meeting
Strengthening
position
Intreaction with the
Citizens
37
17%
9%
12%
26%
12%
10%
14%
Official Self-
Description
Public Announcement
Participation to
Events
International
Relations
Official Meeting
strengthening
position
Intreaction with the
Citizens
Figure 8: Percentage of using different themes
by Facebook pages of Presidential Palace
Figure 9: Percentage of using different themes
by Facebook pages of CEO Office

38. Most used themes
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Official Self-
Description
Public
Announceme
nt
Participation
in Events
International
Relations
Official
Meeting
Strengthening
position
Intreaction
with the
Citizens
PP 64 24 26 88 78 36 37
CEO 60 29 39 89 40 33 49
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Figure 10: The Comparison themes used by Facebook Pages of Presidential Palace and CEO Office

39. Most Medium used:
27%
36%
0%
4%
18%
0%
14%
1%
0%
Text and Photo
Text, Link and Photo
Text and Video
Text, Link and Video
Text
Photo
Text and Link
Link
Video
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Figure 11: The percentage of the different medium used in the Facebook pages of Presidential Palace.

40. Findings
56%
6%
12%
4%
3%
2%
17%
0%0%
Text and Photo
Text, Link and Photo
Text and Video
Text, Link and Video
Text
Photo
Text and Link
Link
Video
Text and Video
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Figure 12: The percentage of the different medium used in the Facebook pages of CEO Office.

41. Findings
0
50
100
150
200
250
Text and Photo Text, Link and
Photo
Text and Video Text, Link and
Video
Text Photo Text and Link Link Video
Presidential Palace CEO Office
41
Figure 13: The comparison of the medium used by the Presidential Palace and the CEO Office.
.

42. Most commented by users:
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19%
14%
67%
Positive
Comments
Negative
Comments
Others
28%
13%
59%
Positive Comments
Negative Comments
Others
Figure 14: The percentage of users comments on P.P Figure 15: The percentage of users comments on CEO Office

43. Most Language used:
• Figure 16: The percentage of use of different languages in the presidential palace's Facebook posts
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15%
6%
6%
73%
Farsi Pashto English Farsi and Pashto
84%
13%
2%1%
Farsi Pashto English Farsi and Pashto
Figure 17: The percentage of use of different languages in the CEO Office's Facebook posts

44. Findings
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Farsi Pashto English Farsi and Pashto
Presidential Palace CEO Office
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Figure 18: The Comparing use of different languages in the Facebook posts of the National Unity Government

45. The Government Response to the user’s interaction:
The Research findings show that during the research period, the
National Unity Government to 886967 cases of people’s interactions
with government Facebook posts was responded three cases.
The presidential palace did not respond to any interaction of people
on its Facebook posts,
CEO office has only given three responses to the people comments
and reactions
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46. Discussion
The presence of political leaders and government institutions in social
media does not necessarily mean to highlight information along with
a one-way communication.
Instead, they should use tactics and strategies to increase citizens'
political participation, engage them in political forums and interactive
discussions, and respond to citizen’s interactions (Srivastava, 2013).
Therefore, this research paper purposed to examine how the Afghan
National Unity Government uses Facebook as a new communication
platform for information and interaction with citizens.
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47. Discussion
In fact, this is the first research paper on social media
use by government in Afghanistan. So far, no similar
research has been carried out in the country about
social media application in government.
Therefore, this study has opened a new discussion on
the use of social media and Web 2.0 to strengthen E-
governance in Afghanistan and effective interaction of
government with citizens in the online environment.
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48. Discussion
The findings of this study will help policy-makers and government leaders to
assess their activities in social media and examine it. Also, this study will help
them to identify their weakness and have plans to improve and increase the
government interactions with citizens through Facebook.
the research findings help the NUG to learn how to use social media interactively,
especially Facebook and help to understand how online citizens are thinking
about government and how they interact. The findings of this study will help and
support the theoretical and scientific literature of social media use in
governmental affairs in Afghan society and will help new and future researchers
about social media and government institutions in the country.
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49. Conclusion
Based on the findings and discussion of the research paper, it can be
concluded that most of our research hypotheses have been
confirmed.
Furthermore, the National Unity Government on its Facebook pages
needs to talk with citizens and its audiences and users in online
environments need attention to increase their trust in government.
The National Unity Government should have two-way
communication with citizens in cyberspace. Being more active and
present in the online environment is more important than ever.
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50. Discussion
Therefore, research paper was
confronted with limitations such as
lack of sufficient time to conduct
better research, lack of funding for
research and lack of similar
researches and scientific resources in
Afghanistan.
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51. Recommendations
The following recommendations are provided:
• The findings are suggested to all governmental and political
institutions for the better management of their social media pages.
• The findings can be used by the academic community including
students and professors of communication and politics and study it in
the process of education in these academic institutions.
• The Researchers can explore the various dimensions of the use and
impact of social media, especially Facebook, in related areas
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52. Acknowledgements
The researcher would like to appreciate to
Dr. Guosong Shao, Professor of Advanced Topic in
New Media and Communications course for his
instructive guides and encouragements.
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53. Thanks for Your Attention!
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