THE PERIODICAL PRESS AS A HISTORICAL SOURCE FOR REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT: A THEMATIC CONTENT ANALYSIS OF THE SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL LIFE OF THE SURKHANDARYA REGION (UZBEKISTAN), 1930s–2020s

Abstract

This article examines the periodical press as a primary historical source for the study of regional development, using the Surkhandarya region of southern Uzbekistan as a case. Through a qualitative thematic content analysis organized around three domains — social, economic and cultural life — the study traces how the regional press represented the region from the 1930s to the 2020s, drawing chiefly on the regional flagship newspaper (Zarya Surkhana, today Surxon tongi, published since 1935). The analysis treats the newspaper simultaneously as a mirror of regional life and as an instrument of ideology, and it foregrounds the methodological problem of censorship and selective framing under different political regimes. The findings show that the relative weight of the three thematic domains shifted systematically across the Soviet, independence and post-2017 periods, and that the medium itself — its format, ownership and platform — is itself a form of historical evidence. The paper contributes a source-critical framework for using regional newspapers in the socio-economic and cultural history of Central Asia.