Pakistani News Research Articles

Pakistani News Classification Based on Headlines

In information dissemination, media plays a vital role, a huge amount of information is spread quickly through social media and news platforms. The online news outlet and frequency of the huge number of headlines creation demand automatic classification tools. In this overwhelming domain, different countries explored classification algorithms for their news. However, very limited research is done on Pakistani news headlines in terms of classification. There is also a lack of a Pakistani news headlines benchmark dataset. This research is intended to find a suitable model to classify Pakistani news headlines automatically. Moreover, in this study, we designed a benchmark NCE-2D (News Classification and Emotion Detection Dataset) of 2429 Pakistani news headlines extracted from different news websites using ParseHub, which includes five types of categories. First, to minimize the noise from the dataset is undergoing some pre-processing steps including punctuation, stopwords, null entries, and duplication removal. In the next step, extract the feature by two different methods Count-Vectorizer and TF-IDF Vectorizer, and then apply a set of 10 different learning algorithms for both types of features extracted. The best performing algorithms for Pakistani news headlines out of the set of implemented algorithms by both combinations included Support Vector Machine (SVM) when implemented over the TF-IDF features and Multi-Layer Perception (MLP) when implemented over the CV features. Based on the results, both these algorithms are compared to choose the most suitable from them. The combination of SVM is investigated most appropriate classifier with 82.16% accuracy than 81.75% accuracy of MLP.

New media and political protest: Framing analysis of news content on Twitter

This article examines the frames used by Pakistani news media while covering a political protest in 2019 on Twitter. The study deploys quantitative content analysis based on thematic framing, episodic framing, genre, types and subject matter of tweets. In recent years, there has been growing recognition of the use of Twitter in political and protest communication. Twitter is a platform with the potential to manage and coordinate protest activities and movements effectively. The current study is carried out to demonstrate the importance of one of the aspects of political protest communication. Tweets (N = 498) posted between 20 October and 20 November 2019 by three mainstream Pakistani media organizations ( Dawn, The News, Express Tribune) were collected and analysed. Results show that straight news was used more in episodic frames by the media organizations on Twitter. Results of the study add to the increasing body of studies showing that media outlets have also embraced modern media to use frames while covering political issues.

Converged journalism: practices and influences in Pakistan

Based on the hierarchy of influences model, we explored journalists’ understanding and perceptions about media convergence in Pakistan’s media industry and its influence on journalistic practices and routines. In-depth interviews with Pakistani news practitioners revealed several challenges hindering the successful implementation of media convergence in Pakistan. These challenges included the lack of resources for incorporating digital technologies, the lack of financial incentives, and stringent journalistic work routines, we found that technology-induced routines have severely affected both the personal and the professional lives of media practitioners. The adoption of convergence in Pakistan has been largely based on economic and commercial concerns rather than attempts to improve the quality of media content. Overall, the work contributes to the media convergence literature by providing insights from an emerging non-Western media system.

Image of Pakistan Armed Forces Portrayed by the News TV Channels: A Comparative Study of Public Perception of Two Metropolitan Cities

This study is an effort to examine the image of Pakistan Armed Forces in the eyes of public with the lens of News Channels especially after the General Election 2018 in Pakistan. This study tries to measure opinion of the public about image building coverage given by the news channels to the events and operations of Pakistan Armed Forces. This study hypothesized that news channels give insufficient coverage to the armed forces as compared to the coverage given to the armed forces in other countries. The study employed quantitative research technique of survey to collect public opinion from the sample of 400 respondents including males and females from two major cities of Pakistan including Islamabad and Lahore because of heterogeneous population residing in both metropolitans. A questionnaire with close ended questions were distributed through young adults to measure their opinion while employing cultivation theory as theoretical framework. The study found out a high level of reliability among the research items and the findings show that Pakistani news channels give position coverage to the armed forces.

Reporting Conflict: Appraising Journalists’ Voice in Pakistani Newspaper Discourse

This paper aims at evaluating journalist voice in the Pakistani print media discourse. Journalists are supposed to make valuefree reporting, but the analysis of newspaper texts shows that the journalists appraise and the news reports voice newspapers’ stance (Bednarek, 2006). Therefore, media discourses always present a particular left or rightwing stance loaded with subjective evaluations (White and Thompson, 2008). While previous studies have focused on reportage phenomena of different news genres and perspective comparisons with a primary focus on language in the context of politics for an ideology, this paper explores evaluative patterns - based on the appraisal framework (Martin and White, 2005) of discourse analysis developed within Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2014) with a focus on appraisal domains of attitude, engagement and graduation - in Pakistani news reporting to find a reporter voice. The analysis shows that the said news reporting is not value free.

An Analysis of Viewers’ Perception Regarding Role of News Media in Promoting Peace Between Pakistan and India

The relations of Pakistan and India have always been critical since the partition due to unresolved issues. Although both have tried to find mutual ground and reap the benefits of peace through bilateral dialogues and agreements but a state of the cold war has always been a reality. This research paper highlights the role of Pakistani news media as perceived by the public. The role of media is very important in highlighting the issues and make public perception (Wanta et al., 2004). This study investigates whether and to what extent Pakistani news media play its role in promoting friendly relationships. The major objective of this study is to compare the role of private News media regarding Pak-India relationship through coverage of issues like Sports, Water, Kashmir, Line of control, Trade, Showbiz, and Terrorism etc. For that purpose, three foremost watching Pakistani news channels were selected i.e. Geo News, ARY News and Dunya News and perception of their audience has been analyzed. A methodology based on survey has been used for this study by taking a sample of 300 respondents. The convenience sampling technique has been applied to collect respondents’ views. Finding illustrates that viewers were gratified with the coverage of Geo news over other channels and its role in de-escalating ties between Pak-India. The study also elaborates that media has been doing great discussion on terrorism, sports and showbiz. The audience thinks that both media and dialogues are important factors for promoting peace and friendly relationship between India and Pakistan

Evaluating war and peace potential of Pakistani news media: Advancing a peace journalism model

This study analyzes the scholarship on the classification of war and peacemaking potential of media in the conflict-ridden milieu of Pakistan. Borrowing from peace studies and the existing journalistic practices in the country, the researchers present and empirically test a new model for evaluating conflict journalism in terms of its escalatory and de-escalatory trends. For this purpose, news stories telecasted in two leading TV channels (PTV and Geo News) relating to seven deadly conflicts were analyzed. We found support for our model—the higher the intensity of a conflict, the higher the escalatory trends in coverage. Patriotic and elite-controlled media produced more escalation as compared to conflict in which journalists were using relatively free media. Despite the dominance of escalatory coverage, we also found some traces of peace journalism in the reporting of conflicts. The study recommends that to promote peace journalism in Pakistan and elsewhere, the local context of a conflict and the journalistic environment should be studied. A mere replication of Western scholarship on peace journalism in non-Western settings would render it an impracticable ideal in real conflict scenarios.

Notes from a Pakistani Newsroom

The essay describes how and why various parts of the state in Pakistan, especially its security and intelligence agencies, have embarked on a campaign to censor and silence news media through mostly quasi-legal and extra-legal measures. It does so by offering a personal account as well as narrating many other impersonal examples collected from across the Pakistani news media. It also provides a historical and commercial context to the ongoing censorship and self-censorship in the country’s newsrooms to show how the present is both similar to and different from the past.

Audience Preferences and Popular Program Patterns on News Channels in Karachi

This research aims to study the factors that influence the viewership of leading Pakistani News Channels including Dunya, Samaa, Express, Geo and ARY. It examines the impact of content, presentation style, channel positioning and anchors, alongside overall news viewing patterns, on the public image of the identified news channels and their viewership with focus on Express News. Following a qualitative research approach, a representative sample of 51 news viewers is identified and interviewed, with a proportionate weight to geographical areas and socio-economic classification of the audience, based on recent Census and People’s meter, an audience measurement tool. The respondents are investigated through a comprehensive questionnaire, comprised both closed and open-ended questions. This study focuses on three categories of viewers including Express News Viewers, Express-News Lapsers and Competitive Channels Viewers. One-on-one interviews reflect the mindset and viewing patterns of news channels’ audience. It is also instrumental to highlight the factors that hinder Express-News ratings against its competing channels. Findings of the study indicate that the programme content, presentation style, and cable positioning of news channels significantly influence its viewership that results in the quantum of recall for Express-News, and how its viewership and ratings are presumably affected by the very factors.

Examining Pakistani news media discourses about China–Pakistan Economic Corridor: A corpus-based critical discourse analysis

The paper examines the construction of China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) through corpus-based critical discourse analysis of news in the Pakistani press. Overall, Pakistani newspapers show Ch...

Emerging Trends of TV Talk Shows and Increasing Frequency of Political Discussion: Content Analysis on Talk Shows of Leading Pakistani News Channel

Inception of talk shows has revolutionized the information for all age viewers to political/ regional/ extra regional challenges (just a click away). Besides connecting the talk shows viewers to one TV channel, another objective of these Talk shows is to sell the particulars responsible and literary persons own views and comments regarding the on going and current hot issue or particular matter. Till now the concluded results of these Talk shows are more likely to maintain centric approach rather broad approach with regard to strengthen Social Capacity Building(SCB) in all field of life. Present study main focus is just to know that which type of issues are being discussed in these talk shows and which type of impact these talk shows have on the Pakistani people. its another focus is identify that if we found some sort of gaps which these talk shows are not fullfilling so either we can achieve those set goals and objectives or not to improve the objectives of these talk shows. if the Talk Shows planners revisit their ongoing strategies a social and cultural change can be brougt in these talk shows regarding these concerned i.e. political, education, health, law & orders, religious etc. following are the gaps which researcher have identified in these talk shows and those are: Limited information regarding the focused topic which is discussed during these talk shows on Pakistani TV channels. Talk shows mainly focus on the important issues and challenges, with respect to Historic and Future aspect of any situation are left over which are not discussed during the discussion due to biasness or tv channel polices so which creat a gap for idenifying the meaning full information. Due various controllable and controllable limitations; today talk shows are seem to maintain reactive response rather than Pro-active.

Language, Media, and Ideology: Critical Discourse Analysis of Pakistani News Bulletin Headlines and Its Impact on Viewers

Television is a penetrating medium, capable of creating false consciousness among the viewers. The present study examines the ideological constructions in Pakistani news bulletin headlines and thei...

Audience Credibility on TV News Channels: A Case Study of Geo & ARY News Channels

The boom of Pakistani channels started after the PEMRA issued licenses to many private channels and later on questions were raised on the credibility of Pakistani news media. Measuring the audience’s credibility on the news channels is the most important aspect as credibility is said to be the backbone of the entire media system. The credibility of news channels is becoming an increasingly important area to understand, to expand knowledge in this domain, a survey study was conducted out that investigated people’s perception of the credibility of two news channels namely ARY News and Geo News. The research explores the perception of the news audiences on the credibility of the news channels. A survey is administered with the help of a convenience sampling technique and a selected sample of 200 audiences from Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan. The researcher assessed the credibility perception of the audiences toward the two news media channels: ARY News and Geo News. The credibility is measured with the help of two different components: source and medium. To measure these constructs a 12-scale factor developed by Gaziano and McGrath (1986) with additions from Infante (1980) and Jacobson (2012) is incorporated. The findings suggested that the audience perceived the credibility of a source in a different way whereas both channels as a medium are perceived to be similar. The data showed the negative linkage between age, gender, education, occupation, and the news media channel’s credibility but shows the positive relationship between political affiliation and credibility perception of the news channels.

Mediated public diplomacy: US and Taliban relations with Pakistani media

This article provides a unique perspective on US–Pakistan and Taliban–Pakistan media relations in the context of the regional war on terror. Based on mediated public diplomacy and news construction literature, the authors explore some of the key challenges and opportunities that both sides face as they aim to influence Pakistani media coverage and win the political support of the Pakistani people. Eighteen online interviews with Pakistani media practitioners explore their perceptions of wartime media relations involving five main categories: US–Pakistani media relations, Taliban–Pakistani media relations, Taliban/extremist groups’ understanding of Pakistani news routines, US officials’ understanding of Pakistani news routines, and social media/internet as sources of information for Pakistani journalists. The study’s key findings are discussed in the context of wartime media relations and mediated public diplomacy.

Service Quality of News Channels: A Modified SERVQUAL Analysis

Current study investigates the service quality offered by Pakistani news channels through employing a modified SERVQUAL scale. Further to this, the SERVQUAL and its applicability to measure the service quality of news channels has been presented. A 29-item SERVQUAL based instrument was administered to a sample of 318 randomly selected respondents. The descriptive analysis revealed a ‘gap analysis’ model to infer meaningful results. The results reveal several gaps between expected and perceived service quality. In particular, ‘Responsiveness and Assurance’ dimensions had the highest gaps. However, the SERVQUAL scale has been a good fit while measuring the service quality of news channels in a developing country context. This research originally contributes to the existing service quality literature as the SERVQUAL scale has never been used to measure service quality of TV channels. The recommendations will be helpful in minimizing the service quality gaps and also can trigger channel loyalty by offering services in accordance with the viewer expectations.

PRESS CLUBS, THE JOURNALISTIC FIELD AND THE PRACTICE OF JOURNALISM IN PAKISTAN

This article reports original research findings about the role of press clubs in Pakistan and shows how media systems and social structures are powerful shaping influences on the practice of journalism. Drawing on Bourdieu's field theory the article examines field dynamics in Pakistani journalism and the means by which journalists protect themselves and their collective interests. A key element in the Pakistani news world is the press club. The empirical data collected via a survey of 576 journalists and focus group discussions show that divisions in the journalistic field between autonomy and heteronomy are not always clear cut. In Pakistan the press club system helps journalists to pursue their self-interest. This is a reminder that to understand news production and journalism and how they are performed and accomplished, it must be acknowledged that they are forms of social organization that are historically, culturally, and socially situated.