Pakistani Media Research Articles

“We don’t believe in [the] Coronavirus; we believe in Allah. Whatever happens, it happens from Allah”: Pakistani media’s response to countering conspiracy theories during the COVID-19 pandemic

This study examines the coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic by the four leading newspapers of Pakistan—Dawn, The News, Daily Times and The Nation—when they were responsible for informing and educating the public during a health crisis hit by conspiracy theories. The researchers utilized content analysis to analyze 1,124 news stories. The findings reveal less emphasis was placed on scientifically investigating the causes, precautions and care of coronavirus and dispelling public misconceptions.

Revisiting Public Perception towards Police Behavior: Role of Media in Maintaining Law and Order in Pakistan

The core objective of the current study was to dig out the public perception of police behavior from students of Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan-Pakistan. A cross-sectional survey was conducted from n=385 university students through a systematic sampling technique. Data were collected by adapting Mastrofski's model (1999) based on six dimensions i.e. attentiveness, reliability, fairness, manner, responsiveness, and competence. Findings showed that overwhelming respondents had negative perceptions towards police behavior due to their biases. Moreover, a large majority was of the view that though the role of the police department is pivotal and undeniable in maintaining the law and order situation in the country however Pakistani media is not playing its due role in this regard and this could be a pertinent contributing factor in creating such a negative public perception. This study concluded public perception of police behavior is complex, with significant implications for law enforcement.

Influence of News Media Contents on Policy Makers

The research explores the influence of news media content on policymakers, using Indexing Theory and the Cascade Model to provide an empirical basis. Policymakers were interviewed, and the resulting data was analyzed through thematic analysis. The study found that media content has a significant, multifaceted impact on policy-making, particularly during the agenda-setting phase. Policymakers noted an increasing trend of media interactions affecting their decisions. While media attention can shape policy priorities, there is also a concern about the sensationalism prevalent in Pakistani media. Policymakers believe that if this sensationalism can be regulated and brought under control, the media could become a more credible and valuable source of information. This would enhance its role in contributing to sustainable governance. The study highlights the dual role of media as both an influencer and a potential partner in governance. Further research is recommended to delve deeper into these dynamics and to develop strategies for leveraging media influence constructively. The findings underscore the importance of understanding media's impact on policy-making and the need for a balanced approach to media consumption and regulation to support informed and effective governance.

Reporting Climate Change: Factors Affecting Media Coverage of Climate Change in Pakistan

Climate change is posing challenges to every nation. Its effects are already being witnessed in different parts of the world. Extreme weather conditions and other climate-related disasters have forced world leaders to look for possible solutions. Media is of great assistance in this regard. It can not only highlight the issue but create awareness among people. Among the nations most at risk from global warming, Pakistan comes in at 8th position. However, its media has been witnessed to be ignorant towards the crucial issue. Therefore, this study focuses on the factors affecting Pakistani media coverage of climate change. A qualitative approach was used in the form of interviews from a defined sample of the population comprising ten climate journalists in Pakistan. The findings of the study suggest that agenda setting, economic interest, political inclination, corporate interest and media policy are among the top factors that influence the reporting of climate change in Pakitsan’s mainstream media.

Sexual Assaults: A Pakistani Women and Sexual Harassments in Universities and Recent Scandal of Islamia University of Bahawalpur

Without a doubt, human beings are viewed more favorably by educational pedagogy as educated individuals than stupid ones. The educational system makes a distinction between humans and other animals and portrays humans as noble beings. In an Islamic climate where, serious scandals are occurring daily, it has become very challenging. According to Pakistani media, Islamia University, Bahawalpur, Pakistan reported 5500,5400 or maybe 400 obscene video records of dormitory ladies during the time of July 2023. The largest example of sexual exploitation in Pakistan to date is the one involving Islamia University. An earlier event of a such nature at Gomal University in Dera Ismail Khan resulted in the professor's honorable release. According to media reports, the vice chancellor of IUB was only forced to quit because to this incident. Although the Crime Bureau's assessment claims that there is no origin and not even one, chaos quickly spread throughout Pakistan.

Climate Displacement in Pakistan: (under) reported Frame in Media Discourse on Climate Change in Pakistan

Climate disruption has brought irreversible damage to the world. Since global communities are being widely affected by these changes, masses of the populations are facing climate induced displacement. Such displacements involve internal as well as cross border migration. Climate change is marginalized issue in the hand of media in Pakistan, making climate induced displacement doubly underreported. This study focuses on the media coverage of climate change displacement in Pakistani media discourse. The key research objectives include; to find frequency of climate related news during flood coverage in Pakistan, to assess the nature of themes covered while reporting flood related news during defined period of time and to find climate change induced displacement in media coverage of floods in Pakistan. This study uses content analysis as a research method. Time frame focused in the current study involves 15th June 2022 to 15th September 2022, when flood hit major part of Pakistan. Findings of the study reveal that during defined period of time climate change induced displacement remained under reported in Pakistani newspapers (Dawn, The Nation and The Express Tribune). Moreover, while covering irregular weather events pertaining to climate change, main focus remained on damage, government criticism and aid related process.

Breaking the stigma: the joint effort of the government, print media, and citizens toward transgender education equality (2018–2022)

The issue of transgender education and equality has long been neglected in Pakistan, leading to a lack of awareness and acceptance of the transgender community. The present study focuses on the joint effort of the government, print media, and citizens toward breaking the stigma and promoting transgender education and equality. This study employed a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative content analysis of articles from three prominent Pakistani media outlets with a quantitative public opinion survey to evaluate the extent of media coverage and public attitudes toward transgender education and equality. This coverage helped create awareness and understanding of the transgender community. The government also took significant steps (Transgender Act 2018) by passing policies favoring the transgender community. Furthermore, the study showed that citizens have a positive attitude toward transgender equality, a sign of creating an inclusive society. The study also concluded that joint efforts between the government, print media, and citizens can help people break the stigma and promote transgender education and equality. This approach will pave the way for a more inclusive society that recognizes and values the rights of all individuals, regardless of their gender identity.

Gender Through Media: Images of Contemporary Masculinity in Two Pakistani Movies

Gender and its media representations inform us about a specific culture. This research paper is an in-depth qualitative study of the representations of contemporary masculinity and queerness in the Pakistani media and popular culture. The paper analyzes two Pakistani movies: Sarmad Khoosat’s Zindagi Tamasha (Circus of Life) (2019) and Saim Sadiq’s Joyland (2022). The aim of the study is to explore the concept of masculinity in the Pakistani society and its media representations in popular culture and cinema. Masculinity is interlinked with physical appearance, social norms and religious values in the Pakistani society, whereas queer behaviour is generally condemned because of cultural stereotypes and religious injunctions. The study analyzes the impact of social customs and stereotypes on the perception of masculinity in the male characters with special focus on the queer inclinations manifested in their behaviour. The analysis of the two movies is conducted through contemporary masculinity theories to identify current manifestations of masculinity in the Pakistani society through the media representations. The findings of the research indicate that contemporary masculinities in the Pakistani society and media depict a wide range of variation from hegemonic masculinity to hybrid masculinity, inclusive masculinity and queer masculinity.

Analyzing the News Coverage of the Marginalized Group of Transgender People in Pakistani Media

The researchers analyzed how Pakistani media report issues relating to transgender people in their routine news coverage. After selecting the reputed English-language newspapers Dawn and The News, the researchers employed content analysis to examine the media approach toward transgender people thoroughly. The findings of the study revealed a 'soft approach' of media toward this marginalized group, as both newspapers highlighted their issue more favorably, supporting the stances of transgender people, especially regarding the security or threats being faced by them. According to Gillig et al. (2018), watching stories about transgender people decreased the [negative] impact of political ideology on the opinions of viewers. As a result, the main findings of this study reflect the supportive attitude toward transgender people in Pakistani media. This approach of media in Pakistan will help to reduce negative perceptions about transgender people because more conservative viewers' perceptions have changed as a result of seeing more positive media representations of these individuals. Nonetheless, there is a need for more positive news coverage because transgender related issues received a minimal amount of coverage—106 news stories over a year in both of the selected newspapers—which appears to be an insufficient amount of coverage of this population.

Civilized Global North versus rebellious Global South: a socio-semiotic analysis of media visual discourse

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the ideological, social, economic, and political aspects of life on planet Earth. This study examines the visuals associated with COVID-19 published in Pakistani English newspapers. Visual data were collected through purposive sampling, analyzed using social semiotic theory, and discussed through a post-colonial lens. The visual data were grouped as Global South and North owing to socioeconomic and political categorization among countries. The results show that the Pakistani media portrayed the Global South as rebellious, miserable, and noisy against the government. However, the Global North is depicted as civilized, stress-free, and abiding by all the instructions of the authority. Analysis shows that the two realms are visually represented as remarkably divergent from each other, and media portrayal has attached stereotypes identities to the nations. Pakistani media follows a basic restricted code of conduct, which should be extended to avoid labelling and politicizing groups and nations.

Media Discourse on the Kashmir Conflict after Abrogation of Article 370

The study tries to unfold how the Kashmir conflict is constructed in the Pakistani media after the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. To understand the media discourse a Critical discourse analysis of the news stories published about Indian held Kashmir (i.e. that part of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir occupied by India post the 1947 partition, notably the valley of Kashmir) in the e-paper of Dawn was carried out. The findings reveal a distinctive narrative strategy employed by Pakistani media in response to the abrogation of Article 370. This strategy accentuates the negative aspects of the Indian government's actions in Kashmir while simultaneously highlighting the voices of Kashmiris advocating for their right of self-determination. The findings also indicated that media discourse revolved around challenging the legitimacy of the Indian Parliament’s act of abrogating Article 370 and also focused on the casualties and losses which took place as a result of clashes between the Indian security forces and the Kashmiri separatist fighters. The media also gave significance to social media trends about Indian held Kashmir and also to posts of Kashmiri and Pakistani politicians. Negative actor description was used to highlight Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s propaganda regarding the return of normalcy in the Indian held Kashmir whereas positive actor description was used for the Kashmiri separatist fighters.

Exploring Audience Trust in Journalism: A Comprehensive Survey Study

This comprehensive study explores the variables that affect media credibility and perceptions while examining the present levels of audience trust in journalism. It has never been more important to understand trust dynamics in light of growing concerns about partisanship, skewed reporting, and misinformation. We employ a mixed-methods approach in our research, mixing qualitative interviews with quantitative surveys to collect data from a wide range of participant demographics. Our objective is to determine the fundamental factors that promote trust, including accuracy, objectivity, credibility, and influence. The study also looks at the perceptions of news sources among various age groups and sociopolitical backgrounds. For this matter, 200 participants were selected on a non-random basis based in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Social Responsibility Theory was utilized to see the research study. The study explored that the usage of social media is much more than traditional media, it has also been noted that people find the news on the internet more credible. Many of the respondents feel that the influence of political interest does go into the construction of news stories, we applied chi-square to check and it has shown that the majority of them feel tremendously high. Overall, the results show that people have less trust in Pakistani media.

Pulwama Attack: A Content Analysis of Media Framing in Indian and Pakistani News Papers' Websites

The coverage of media about the attacks by the terrorists plays a vital role in shaping the masses' understanding of the issue. The Pulwama attack is one of its kind, which opens the door for researchers to study various aspects. The incident was carried out on February 14, 2019. This attack is known as a major and big horrific violent attack in the context of Indo-Pakistan relations that provoked a record-high amount of tension between the two countries. The tension between the two countries escalated right after the attack and it jeopardized the whole aspect of peace and prosperity between the two countries. The media of both countries played a great role in setting their own perspectives among the masses.This study mainly focuses on analyzing the content about the attack, published in the print media. The study includes the analysis of framing the attack differently by both the countries’ respective print media. In order to examine the coverage of the attack, the researcher selected one of the topmost newspapers of both states. Daily Dawn from Pakistan and Times of India from India. The researcher studied the content of the stories published from February 14, 2019, to March 31, 2019, and then analyzed them through a qualitative content analysis strategy.This study seeks to evaluate the attack in order to find the answers to the basic research objectives. The main objective of the study is to examine the coverage of the Pulwama attack in Dawn and Times of India and how they both differ in framing the attack respectively. Another objective of this research is to identify the sources and references used by both newspapers in reporting the Pulwama attack. The findings of the study show that the Indian print media covered and present the clashes of both neighboring countries in a negative and provoking manner whereas Pakistani media neutralize the incident and focused on facts only. The frames chosen by Indian media promote sensationalism in the audience.

Analyzing the Implementation of Press Council of Pakistan Codes: A Sociological Perspective

Mass media wield significant influence over human social, economic, and cultural realms. The formulation of media laws and ethics aims to regulate the press, with ethical codes playing a crucial role in decision-making. This study focuses on two ethical codes of the Press Council of Pakistan (PCP): unethical reporting and the projection of crime news. Employing quantitative content analysis, the research examines whether Pakistani newspapers adhere to the PCP code of ethics and the extent of unethical reporting. Two prominent Urdu dailies, Jang and Duniya, are analyzed, revealing that Duniya News publishes more news items in line with PCP ethics, while Daily Jang exhibits a higher intensity of unethical reporting, particularly in crime news. This study contributes to understanding ethical considerations in Pakistani media with its practical implementation of societal norms.

Language Variation in Print Media: A Study of Code Switching Patterns in Pakistani Urdu ‘Express’ Newspaper Editorials

The current study explores the problematic background of language variation within the print media domain, specifically exploring code-switching patterns in the editorials of the Pakistani Urdu' Express' newspaper. Code-switching is a linguistic phenomenon involving alternation between two or more languages within a single discourse that reflects the dynamic interaction of cultural and communicative factors. The study put into practice a sociolinguistic lens to analyze the frequency, types, and functions of code-switching employed in the Urdu editorials of the 'Express' newspaper. The study applies a qualitative descriptive method; it produces descriptive data in the form of code-switched sentences from the editorial of Pakistani Urdu newspaper. 'Express' is selected for this purpose. One week of newspapers is collected for the current study from 1st October 2023 to 7th October 2023 to analyze code-switching in editorial sections. The analysis of data from the newspaper shows that the types of code-switching are intra-sentential, word code-switching, and total integrated Urdu. The most dominant type of code-switching observed is Intra-sentential (80%). The findings are expected to contribute to understanding how language is strategically employed in print media, shedding light on the role of code-switching as a tool for effective communication and cultural expression. This study holds significance in media discourse, as it exposes the linguistic choices made by writers and editors in the 'Express' newspaper, offering insights into the complex relationship between language, culture, and journalism. The results of this research are anticipated to inform future discussions on language dynamics within the Pakistani media landscape and contribute to the broader field of sociolinguistics.

Investigating the Differences & Similarities: A Comparison of Turkish and Pakistani Media Educational Systems

This article is an attempt to compare the Pakistani and Turkish media educational systems with the view of revealing the similarities and differences between them. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that there are no previous studies attempted at examining and comparing Pakistan’s and Türkiye’s media educational systems. The study comprises 10 media faculties/departments of public sector universities from each country under study and applies descriptive content analysis to investigate the underpinned research subject through the websites and prospectuses of the faculties and/or departments. The present research lays out theoretical dimensions and statistics of Türkiye and Pakistan’s media educational systems, comparing and contrasting the statistical figures in terms of Ph.D and/or non-Ph.D faculty members, foreign Ph.D faculty members, male-female ratio, degree programs, facilities (campus radio station, TV station), publications, the ranking of the media faculties and departments. This comparative study aims at highlighting the gaps and proposing solutions for improving the quality of Pakistan’s media educational system, as media is an integral part of our society and it is the fourth estate.

From Mosque to Media: How Saudi Arabia Implements Its Soft Power Strategy in Pakistan

This article examines the various soft power strategies implemented by Saudi Arabia in Pakistan, with a particular focus on the role of religious and media institutions. Through financing the construction of mosques and religious schools, the Saudi government has been able to exert significant influence over the religious landscape in Pakistan. In addition, Saudi Arabia has also invested heavily in Pakistani media, through the establishment of news channels and funding for local media outlets. By cultivating these cultural and religious ties, Saudi Arabia has been able to gain a foothold in Pakistan and increase its soft power in the region. However, these efforts have not been without criticism, with many Pakistanis expressing concern about the potential negative impact of Saudi Arabian influence on their society. This article highlights the complex interplay between soft power and cultural imperialism in the modern world.

Hollywood comes to Pakistan: Churails’ appropriation of Hollywood detective genre

This research study employs Bordwell, Thompson, and Staiger’s classical Hollywood narrative framework to investigate how the Pakistani web series Churails appropriates and redefines the conventions of the traditional Hollywood detective genre by incorporating local cultural and social contexts. The study’s findings provide significant insights into the emergence of new narratives in Pakistani media that draw inspiration from global genres while also reflecting local realities. The analysis contributes to the larger discourse on the global impact of the genre on contemporary media and has the potential to inform and influence media production and consumption practices, both in Pakistan and beyond.

Exploring the Role of Educational Vlogs between Push Factors and International Mobility: A Case Study of Pakistani Media Students

The current educational landscape has witnessed a transformative shift in how youngindividuals acquire knowledge. Educational Vlogs have emerged as a captivating medium for learning, yet they remain understudied in academic research. This study aimed to address this knowledge gap by surveying 350 Media students from esteemed institutions in Lahore. Using the push and pull model, the survey explored the reasons behind students' preference for Educational Vlogs in relation to International Media Student Mobility. Statistical analysis utilizing Smart PLS and SPSS provided valuable insights. Findings revealed the potential of Educational Vlogs in mediating the relationship between Push Factors and International Media Student's Mobility. However, self-efficacy does not significantly moderate this relationship. Emphasizing the development of Educational Vlogs tailored to students' needs is crucial. This research contributed to understanding the role of Vlogs in education and laid a foundation for future investigations in this field.

Online Harassment and Trolling of Political Journalists in Pakistan

ABSTRACT This study examines the online harassment faced by political journalists in Pakistan on Twitter, specifically focusing on the actions of users affiliated with various political parties. By selecting the 12 most active journalists on Twitter, we combined both content and textual analyses to examine comments posted on their tweets. Drawing upon the theoretical framework of the practice-based theoretical approach, the findings reveal that these journalists predominantly encountered negative comments encompassing personal abuses, culturally sensitive expressions, and attacks on their professional lives. Commenters associated with the populist political party, Pakistan Tehreek Insaaf, were more likely to engage in uncivil comments compared to those affiliated with traditional political parties. Interestingly, both male and female journalists received a comparable number of comments on their tweets; however, the nature of the comments differed significantly. Male journalists were primarily criticized for their perceived lack of professionalism, whereas female journalists were subjected to gender-targeted offensive comments. The study highlighted how socio-cultural conditions were exploited by political parties and netizens to suppress critical journalists. Overall, this research sheds light on the multifaceted dynamics of harassment faced by journalists in the digital age, emphasizing the need for effective measures to safeguard freedom of expression and counteract online abuse within the Pakistani media landscape.