Urdu Newspapers Research Articles

Coverage of Women's Empowerment Issue in Pakistani Newspapers: An Agenda-Setting Perspective

In the current research, a quantitative content analysis of four leading newspapers Dawn, Daily Times, Nawa-i-waqt, and Daily Jang was conducted to investigate the patterns of coverage of women empowerment. The time period for this study consisted of November 2023 to April 2024. The results showed that Urdu newspapers gave more coverage to the issue at hand as compared to English newspapers and Nawa-i-waqt gave the maximum amount of news regarding women empowerment as compared to other newspapers. The outcome of this research revealed that Pakistani Urdu newspapers give suitable coverage to women empowerment-related news, although different newspapers use different agendas to portray news related to women empowerment, such as political empowerment, social empowerment, economic empowerment, and education empowerment. The results showed that more importance was given to political and social empowerment and the common agenda of these four newspapers was social and political empowerment.

A Critique on Rhetorical Devices Used by Pakistani Politicians to Increase their Vote Bank A Critical Discourse Analysis of Urdu Newspapers' Headline

This research study has investigated how Pakistani politicians use rhetoric in their addresses during the election campaigns 2024 to persuade their voters. The sole purpose of this research is to discover the dimensions and power of Rhetorical devices used by Pakistani politicians for their personal objectives. It has explored how politicians grab the attention of the public by using rhetorical choices in their discourses. The best and most frequent uses of Rhetorical devices by politicians are antithesis, allusion repetition, hyperbole, metaphor amplification, alliteration, parallelism, symbolism, allegory, and imagery. The current research study employs the Power, Ideology, and Manipulation Identification (PIMI) model, a novel problem‐ oriented tool designed for the systematic examination of political discourse. This model integrates and adapts elements from two established analytical frameworks (Chilton & Schäffner, 1997; van Dijk, 2006) and is rooted in the theories and methodologies of Critical DiscoursemAnalysis (CDA).

Portrayal of Physical and Sexual Women Violence Issues in Elite Press of Pakistan

This study investigates how leading English and Urdu newspapers in Pakistan cover issues of physical and sexual violence against women. The primary objectives include examining the extent and nature of coverage, comparing Urdu and English newspapers, and analyzing media framing of these issues. The research questions focus on identifying the types and amount of violence reported, the space allocated, the placement of news items, and whether the coverage is favourable or unfavourable. Utilizing framing theory and feminist theory, the study adopts a cross-sectional research design and employs content analysis to examine data from June 1, 2021, to May 31, 2022. The sample includes Daily Jang, Daily Nawa-i-Waqt, The News, and The Nation. Indicators such as the type of violence (physical, psychological, sexual), placement of news (front page, back page, crime page), and column space were coded and analyzed using Chi-Square tests. Results show that Urdu newspapers provide more extensive and unfavourable coverage compared to English newspapers. Physical violence received the most coverage, followed by sexual and psychological violence. Significant findings highlight the media's role in perpetuating stereotypes and biases against women, emphasizing the need for balanced and ethical reporting. Recommendations include enhancing media literacy, promoting ethical journalism, and advocating for policies that ensure fair representation of women's issues in the press.

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.

THE ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND CHALLENGES JOURNALISTS FACE IN PRACTICING PEACE JOURNALISM IN ENGLISH AND URDU NEWSPAPERS DURING PAKISTAN'S CURRENT POLITICAL CLIMATE

Pakistan's media landscape can be easily divided into Urdu and English streams. Since Urdu is Pakistan’s national language and is spoken throughout the country, so Urdu journalism finds a wide readership. Meanwhile, the readers of English journalism are limited to upper-middle and resourceful circles. Both streams appear to follow different foci and working styles. During the past few years (2018-2023), in the polarized situation of Pakistani politics, both media streams performed differently, which has caused ethical considerations and challenges for journalists in practicing peace journalism. The study focuses on the ethical challenges faced by Pakistani journalists engaged in peace journalism, particularly within the context of the political climate prevalent in the country for the selected period (2018-2023). Drawing from Lynch and McGoldrick (2005), this study explores how language barriers and cultural differences shape journalists' approaches to peace journalism in Pakistan. By employing in-depth interviews with journalists of Urdu and English journalistic streams, we also seek to understand the ethical considerations and challenges journalists face practicing peace journalism in English and Urdu newspapers in Pakistan's current political climate.

Political Awakening in Kashmir through Urdu Newspapers from 1924-1975: A historical Study

This paper is intended to bring on limelight the role of some prominent political organizations in Jammu and Kashmir and their internal political development within the state. The paper is an attempt to look objectively into the role of such organizations in raising political awareness among Kashmiri masses through a variety of means and tools in the shape of newspapers, especially Urdu newspapers, which were crucial in raising political consciousness. In this context this paper will make a modest attempt to illuminate the press’s development from its beginnings and their contribution to the national awakening of Kashmir's masses. As we saw how the press encountered a number of challenges at the national level under colonial control, the state press likewise encountered a lot of challenges during this time and was opposed by the state government on every level. The Punjabi newspapers, on the other hand, were essential in raising the voice of Kashmir during early phase of the 20th century, which in turn helped the Kashmiri masses become more politically aware. Additionally, this paper would make a small attempt to investigate how these newspapers unite people socio-culturally and politically. There are large number of newspapers which cover wide-ranging issues so for as the Kashmir issue is concerned. There were a lot of newspapers published in Urdu, but most of them only lasted for about six months once they displayed their political leanings, which the government forbade.

AGENDA SETTING OF PRESS AND POLICY MAKING: THE ROLE OF MEDIA AND PUBLIC AGENDA IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SOUTH PUNJAB

In Pakistan, the argument over the creation of new provinces and the provincial structure has taken center stage. Unfortunately, political point-scoring has often distorted this argument and prevented it from being acknowledged as one of the most important economic, political, social, and administrative issues in Pakistan. So, this study was conducted to compare the media and public agenda on the issue of establishment of new province in Punjab. In order to compare the media and public agenda, mix method technique was applied. Firstly, Content analysis of four daily newspapers; two Urdu and two English newspapers was done and after that to measure the perception of the public a survey of two hundred responded from the three major district of south Punjab was conducted through the purpose sampling technique. The results of the study reviled that Urdu newspapers, Daily Jang, and Nawa I Waqt had a significantly higher frequency of covering these issues compared to English newspapers. Moreover, the effect of media agenda regarding creation of new province in Punjab made a significant contribution in explaining the dependent variable, public opinion about establishment of new province. Keywords: Agenda Setting, Press, Media agenda, Public agenda, Policy making, South Punjab

Political Discourse and Ideology: A Semiological Discourse Analysis of Pakistani Urdu and English Newspapers

Semiotic discourses are an important genre of print media. They are considered a graphic language and are intended for everyone. Caricatures have become a compelling technique of promoting the target audience's chosen ideologies. This study analyses the semiotic discourses of one Urdu (Jung) and one English (Dawn) newspaper from May 1, 2022 to June 30, 2022. The current study adopts an integrated methodology. In semiotic discourses, both visual and verbal activities have been decoded and utilized. The analysis of the researchers has been validated by focus group talks. According to the research, both English and Urdu newspapers are extremely polarized and create semiotic discourses with their target audience in mind. Economy, national politics, foreign politics, social issues, and Pak-army representation are some of the emerging themes in Dawn. Semiological discourses are among the best venues for ideological investment, and the dissemination of desired ideologies in Urdu and English media is polarized.

Cultural Journalism in Pakistan: Decline of Literary Content in National Urdu Newspapers

The crisis of cultural journalism is a contemporary debate in many countries. Various research explores that the media’s focus of cultural journalism is increased on the coverage of pop cultural content (service and entertainment) instead of serious traditional high art forms like theatre and literature. The present study examines the space and coverage of literary content in national Urdu newspapers of Pakistan in the last 6 years (2013 – 2018) through quantitative content analysis. Moreover, findings show a huge decline in the daily national Urdu newspaper’s attention to literature as the size of literary content decreased by 37% from 13824 cm in 2013 to 8848 cm in 2018. The study also gives insights to understand the approaches of newspapers towards the coverage of literary content which are based on their ideological & political alliances and set agendas that as a result used intermittently to shift cultural trends and decline of literary coverage.

Urdu Short Paraphrase Detection at Sentence Level

Paraphrase detection systems uncover the relationship between two text fragments and classify them as paraphrased when they convey the same idea; otherwise non-paraphrased. Previously, the researchers have mainly focused on developing resources for the English language for paraphrase detection. There have been very few efforts for paraphrase detection in South Asian languages. However, no research has been conducted on sentence-level paraphrase detection in Urdu, a low-resourced language. It is mainly due to the unavailability of the corpora that focus on the sentence level. The available related studies on the Urdu language only focus on text reuse detection tasks at the passage and document levels. Therefore, this study aims to develop a large-scale manually annotated benchmark Urdu paraphrase detection corpus at the sentence level, based on real cases from journalism. The proposed Urdu Sentential Paraphrases (USP) corpus contains 4,900 sentences (2,941 paraphrased and 1,959 non-paraphrased), manually collected from the Urdu newspapers. Moreover, several techniques were proposed, developed, and compared as a secondary contribution, including Word Embedding (WE), Sentence Transformers (ST), and feature-fusion techniques. N-gram is treated as the baseline technique for our research. The experimental results indicate that our proposed feature-fusion technique is the most suitable for the Urdu paraphrase detection task. Furthermore, the performance increases when features of the proposed (ST) and baseline (N-gram) are combined for the classification task. In addition, The proposed techniques have also been applied to the UPPC corpus to check their performance at the document level. The best result we obtained using the feature fusion technique ( F 1 = 0.855). Our corpus is available and free to download for research purposes.

PRINT MEDIA AGENDA FOR THE GOVERNMENT STANCE ON COMPOSITE DIALOGUE WITH INDIA

Media is playing an important role in portraying Pak-India relations. In the process of supporting or rejecting the issue, the media can set its agenda for this purpose. The study is basically a content analysis of Pakistani Urdu newspapers. It has examined the coverage of “Composite Dialogue between Pakistan and India” in the two Urdu Dailies – The Jang and The Nawa i Waqt from 1st. October 2018 to 30th September 2019 makes the period of one year. The analysis of 2495 stories from two Urdu newspapers suggests that the overall stance of the government of Pakistan on the war on terror is supported by the Pakistani press. Thus, it supports the main hypothesis that the approach of the Pakistani press is more favorable than unfavorable towards the Pakistani government's stance on Composite Dialogue with. Keywords: Print Media Agenda, Composite Dialogue, India, Pakistan

The Story Of The Revolution Of 1857, Oral By Contemporary Newspapers

Urdu journals in the Indian subcontinent began in the second decade of the 19th century. At the beginning of Urdu journals, the British were laying their tentacles on India. Urdu newspapers and journalists highlighted the spirit of patriotism among Indians. The newspapers of that time gave full coverage to the freedom struggle of 1857. The achievements of The Indians were well played out. News of the defeat of the British was published across India. News of the victory and success of the Indians continued to be published. But when the war of independence was defeated, these journalists faced the atrocities of the British. Despite suffering at the hands of the British, the spirit of journalists did not diminish. Urdu journalism has played a very important role in the independence of the subcontinent. The nation will always remember the role of the stars of journalism who fight the Independence war with bravery.

WHEN ALTERNATIVES EXIST! PROBING TELEOLOGICAL USE OF ENGLISH WORDS IN URDU EDITORIALS

Regionally and internationally, the competition between languages is increased because of globalisation. Both sociolinguistic and Journalistic schools have extensive evidence of how quickly and unpredictably English has expanded over the world in comparison to other major languages. By addressing the grey area between Journalism and Philosophy of Ethics, the study explores teleological use of English words in the editorial contents of mainstream Urdu Newspapers of Pakistan. It categorizes the Urdu words used in two mainstream Urdu newspapers i-e Jang and Nawa-i-Waqt into further categories to take an in depth analysis of their usage. The method used is content analysis. All the hypotheses are proven on the findings of P value as 0.000. The findings revealed that Daily Nawa-i-Waqt used more common English words in their editorial as compared to Daily Jang in the taken universe. Keywords: Teleological, communication and language, deontological, linguistic

CONTENT ANALYSIS OF CARTOONS PUBLISHED IN THE DAILY JANG AND DAILY DAWN: A STUDY OF THE CARICATURED EXPRESSION OF NEWS

The study aims to determine the importance of cartoons in a newspaper. The study uses a content analysis through qualitative data with purposive sampling of the cartoons published in daily Dawn and daily Jang from November 1st, 2022, to November 30th, 2022. Through this data, the researcher determines the cartoons' level of intellect, how well they fit with the news stories, and how the cartoons in English and Urdu newspapers differ. The theories of gratification and Magic bullet support the study's findings. Daily Dawn has established itself as dynamic in its coverage of national and global events in its cartoons, while the daily Jang focuses on domestic political issues. This reflects the viewpoint and general interest of the readers of daily Dawn and Jang.

The Portrayal of Violence against Women in Pakistani Urdu Newspapers

The study aims to highlight the violence against women depicted by Pakistani Urdu Newspapers. According to a recent study, the print media described women as weak, conquered, and deeply drowned in patriarchy. However, violence against women can take many forms, including domestic violence, rape, and honor killings. The study is qualitative in nature and the type of data is primary. The samples contain articles about violence against women from two different Pakistani Urdu Newspapers. Sample contains a total of four articles showing how the newspapers tend to portray violence against women. News that highlight the plight of violence against women comes from two different Urdu Newspapers i.e. Daily Jang and Express. The sampling procedure performed in this study is critical case sample and the study design is cross-cutting. The research tool used in the current study is Lazar feminist critical discourse analysis model (FCDA) (2014). The data is analyzed at various levels. First, it is translated into English using Nida’s Theory of Translation. Then, it is analyzed using Lazar FCDA at the vocabulary, syntax, and paralanguage levels, Lazars model (2014) is applied to effectively assess how the print media portrays violence against women. The results reveal that the Pakistani Urdu Newspapers are very tabloid, trying to portray women as weak, oppressed, oppressed, immobile, and vulnerable to violence. Women are more vulnerable to male violence because of the patriarchal structure embedded in our society.

NEWSPAPER READING HABITS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Through a questionnaire based survey, newspaper reading habits of the students of different faculties of university of Peshawar have been studied, in which a sample size of about 100 students have been used. This study demonstrates that majority of the students read Urdu newspapers, like Daily Mashriq, Ajj, Express and Jang. While, some also read English newspapers as well, like Daily Dawn and The Frontier Post etc. Moreover, the research reveals that; Political section of the newspaper is the most preferred section for the students. It also highlights that, majority portion of the respondents prefer home to read a newspaper, while some prefer to read online newspapers in the hostel or department library.

Analyzing the Portrayals of Child Sexual Abuse of Urdu Newspapers in Developing Countries

Child sexual abuse is serious in any developing country confronting children’s sexual exploitation. Certain factors are liable for fostering child sexual abuse, and the media can play a significant role in eradicating this issue. This research scrutinized the portrayals of child sexual abuse in three Urdu-Pakistani newspapers by analyzing the role of the newspapers concerning the burgeoning prevalence of child sexual abuse based on seven categories proposed by UNICEF. The data were generated in 2019 using a purposive sampling technique and analyzed using content analysis. The results revealed that the newspapers analyzed followed different ethical guidelines in reporting child sexual abuse, indicating that news reports contained details of helplines for victims. Statistically, the study found a strong and significant relationship between child sexual abuse cases and newspapers’ reporting, recommending scrutinizing other aspects of child sexual abuse, especially pornography, to ensure a safer future for children in Pakistan.

Framing of Counter-Terrorism Activities in the Leading Pakistani English and Urdu Newspapers: Post Army Public School Peshawar Attack (2014-2019)

The study “Framing of Counter-Terrorism activities in the leading Pakistani English and Urdu newspapers: Post Army Public School Peshawar Attack (2014-2019)” is focused on the editorials and columns of the English and Urdu newspapers of Pakistan from December 2014 right after APS Peshawar attacks to December 2019. Two English newspapers’ daily Dawn and daily The News whereas Urdu newspapers’ including daily Jang and daily Nawa-i-Waqt were selected during the aforementioned time period. The categories Military Operations; National Action Plan, National Security, Cutting Terror Financing and Funding were analyzed in three point scale from Unfavorable, Neutral to Favorable. The study gets the support of agenda setting and framing theories. The results show that overall positive stance to all selected categories was given followed by neutral stance whereas least negative stance was observed in the study. The study approved all the hypotheses and confirmed that Pakistani print media supported the government and militarily operations in the country to curb terrorism activities to protect the lives of its nation.

COVERAGE OF PAKISTANI PRINT MEDIA ABOUT TRANSPARENCY OF JUSTICE: A CASE OF PAKISTANI JUSTICE SYSTEM REGARDING CORRUPTION

This research explores how leading English newspapers “Dawn”, and the Urdu newspaper “Jang” covered the judicial proceedings of political corruption cases in the light of Agenda Setting and Framing theories. News stories on the front and back pages and editorials of these two newspapers for two years (December 1, 206 to December 1, 2018) were selected. Corruption Cases (Panama gate case, Ephedrine case, Al- Azizia steel mill, Ashiana Iqbal Scam, Saaf Pani Case, Paragon housing society case, Fake Bank Accounts, and Nandipur case) were taken for data collection. The researcher used the Content Analysis method for gathering data. The Result indicates that Daily Dawn and Daily Jung covered judicial proceedings of mega political corruption cases differently. The findings reveal that Daily Dawn blamed all sides for corruption while Daily Jung blamed state institutions. The view of Daily Dawn in this regard is Objective, while the idea of Daily Jung is Subjective. The researcher suggested that the dailies should play a neutral role, and the content of dailies should be critical despite being absurd or baseless. Moreover, Dailies should convey reality to the public. Keywords: Political Corruption cases, Newspapers Coverage, Judicial Proceedings, Media Activism, Judicial Activism

Remembering Malan: reading representations of domestic servants in colonial Bihar

ABSTRACT This paper will discuss the construction of the ashraf identity through the representation of servants by a nineteenth-century Urdu poet of Bihar, Shad Azimabadi (1846–1927). Shad considered exclusivity of language and the distinctiveness of the master–servant relationship as a part of the adab culture (code of conduct) and the exclusivity of the ashraf. This exclusivity, however, underwent significant change amidst the economic decline that set in motion in the late nineteenth century within ashraf families. One of the significant changes was the redefinition of the master–servant relationship along the lines of caste. The transition from adab to caste will be traced through the memoir of Shad written by his grandson, Naqi Ahmad Irshad, and texts published in an Urdu newspaper, Al Punch, that contested the very claim of exclusivity of the ashraf.