War And Peace Journalism: A Critical Analysis Of Newspapers Coverage On Operation Rah-E- Haq III And Rad Ul Fasad In Pakistan

Authors

  • Ms. Fatima Kiran, Dr Muhammad Osama Shafiq

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46568/jmcd.v26i1.219

Abstract

Pakistan has a pitted history of dealing with insurgencies and extremism. Since the catastrophe of 9/11 Pakistan has regained the status of frontline state and adopted both military and non-military based counter terrorism strategy. Thus, in the time of war and conflicts the news media are considered a significant force. Whether the impact of news coverage is constructive or destructive this can be determined by the nature of journalism presented to the warring sides. News content that focuses on violence is likely to worsen the situation, on the other hand sustained reportage on the possibilities and need for peace could contribute to a climate suited for peace negotiations. This article aims to examine the news coverage given by the newspapers namely Daily Ummat and Dawn of Pakistan to Operation Rah-e-Haq III and Operation Radul Fasad that were initiated by Pakistan Military agencies to counter terrorists in the territory. This study expands on the work in operationalizing Johan Galtung’s classification of peace journalism and war journalism by describing and comparing the news coverage of 254 editions of Dawn and Daily Ummat. This article is based on two research techniques: Quantitative content analysis is to find out the dominant frames of newspaper while covering both the operations and Qualitative critical discourse analysis to further examine what messages newspapers intending to send to public and how these messages are crafted. All sampled news, editorials, features and cartoons to some extent have characteristics of both peace and war journalism. The Daily Dawn being from leftist ideology covered less and it supports military operation and portrayed militant as a threat to the peace of Pakistan. With contrast to it Daily Ummat give extensive coverage to both the military operations with conflict formation and no coverage attempted to explore the issue from a grass root level.

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Published

2022-06-30

How to Cite

Ms. Fatima Kiran, Dr Muhammad Osama Shafiq. (2022). War And Peace Journalism: A Critical Analysis Of Newspapers Coverage On Operation Rah-E- Haq III And Rad Ul Fasad In Pakistan. Journal of Mass Communication Department, Dept of Mass Communication, University of Karachi, 26(1). https://doi.org/10.46568/jmcd.v26i1.219