PORTRAYAL OF THE US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN PAKISTANI AND INDIAN MAINSTREAM NEWSPAPERS: A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF DAILY DAWN AND THE HINDUSTAN TIMES

Abstract

This research paper primarily aimed to explore portrayal of the US presidential election through lenses of quantitative content analysis in the leading mainstream elite newspapers of Pakistan and India. This study has been theoretically linked with media conformity and agenda setting theories. It was found that the newspapers of both the countries published the presidential elections according to their national interest and government foreign policies as the Pakistani government and leaders was in the favor of Hillary Clinton and the Indian leaders and government was in the favor of Donald Trump during the campaign of presidential elections. The results also indicated that the Daily Hindustan Times has given more favorable coverage to the Republican Party candidate i.e. Donald Trump whereas Daily Dawn has published more favorable coverage to the Democratic Party candidate i.e. Hillary Clinton. We can conclude from the discussion that media conformity theory is very much supported according to the finding of the research. Keywords: the US presidential election, Republican Political Party, Democratic Party, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Daily Dawn, The Hindustan Times, Media Conformity Theory.