Disseminating Jadidism through media in the early twentieth century. Print culture and the emergence of a public sphere in Turkestan

Abstract

This article examines how Jadid ideas were disseminated through media in the early twentieth century under colonial administration and censorship constraints. Focusing on print culture, it treats newspapers and magazines not merely as information channels but as tools for public persuasion and norm-building: editorial choices, recurring rubrics, forms of address, and even advertisements are analyzed as parts of a coherent communication strategy. Drawing on key examples from the Turkestan press, the study argues that Jadids used media to promote educational modernization, social responsibility, and a wider horizon via news from the Muslim world, while also creating spaces for legal debate on public issues. The limited reach of the press – subscription numbers, literacy, and administrative hostility – is acknowledged, yet its longer-term impact is emphasized: the gradual formation of a public sphere where “knowledge” functioned as a resource of collective mobilization and cultural authority.