Elite Pakistan Press Discourse on US Drone Policy

Abstract

Scholars in the arena of media and communication have paid attention to the news framing of the controversial US drone policy in the post 9/11 mainly from the Western media perspectives. Scant scholarly heed has been given to examine the media framing of the US drone strikes from the national media perspectives of the targeted countries. The current study attempts to build on the existing scholarship on US drone policy by exploring the news media framing in two elite national newspapers of Pakistan. Using inductive framing as methodological approach and qualitative analysis as methodology, the study analyzed the editorial discourse in the selected dailies on the US drones. The findings reveal that both the newspapers covered the drones using strikingly different frames. The Daily Times constructed the discourse on US drones using the efficacy frame predominantly- that the drones are effective and doing ‘good job’ against the militants. The Express Tribune framed the drones as violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and counterproductive. The discussion elaborates the possible factors for the differential framing of US drones in the two national dailies of Pakistan.

Severity and Reasons Behind Religious Intolerance in Pakistan: Perceptions of Sunnis, Shias, Ahmadis, and Christians

“…Christians are the most mentioned religious group in the media, and are especially mentioned in the newspapers. Mostly, the media projects religious minority groups positively, although the Ahmadis are least mentioned and at times, negatively highlighted (Ali & Jalaluddin, 2010).…”

“…The editorial policy of the newspapers in Pakistan has led to the Christians being more highlighted than other religious minority groups in the media. The Ahmadis, on the other hand, are either not discussed at all or if discussed, then in a negative manner (Ali & Jalaluddin, 2010). The Pakistani educational system is not equal for all.…”

Utilizing attributive patterns as a linguistic classification tool of newspapers

“…In all these indices prescribed, elite newspapers perform the best of the roles and have the best features. For instance, elite newspapers often target the more formally educated readers, have better reputations, have a comprehensive network of distribution that makes them more nationalistic, dictate the content and style of journalism in their countries and observe greater standards of journalistic professionalism and ethical responsibility (Ali et al, 2019;Graham & de Bell, 2021;Stanley, 2012;Tirosh et al, 2022). The roles elite newspapers perform cannot be associated with nonelite newspapers that typically take an interest in publishing soft news related to sex, gossip and infotainment, among others.…”

Minorities Coverage on Minorities of Daily Dawn Newspaper in Pakistan

“…Gul (1999) researched Pakistani minorities and a separate electorate. Ali and Jalaluddin (2010) conducted a content analysis study regarding the two leading Urdu newspapers, daily Jang and Nawa-e-Waqt. They have analyzed the news coverage of Pakistani minority groups for a year.…”