http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/188 Sun, 12 Jul 2026 23:00:15 GMT 2026-07-12T23:00:15Z http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/21298 Dependency on Social Media and its Effects on Users Fiza Zia Ul Hannan, 01-285181-004 The current study aims to observe a relationship between temporal aspect and patterns of social media usage, social media dependency and resultant psychological and behavioral implications. In-depth it investigates in (1) examining a relationship between social media usage and social media dependency, (2) analyzing a mediating role of social media dependency between social media usage and its effects, and (3) exploring a relationship between social media dependency and cognitive and pro-social outcomes. Founded on Media System Dependency Theory (MSDT) from a micro-scale perspective, a quantitative approach was opted to measure the variables. Data was collected from students of two major universities, Bahria University (E-8 campus) and Quaid-i-Azam University, and was later analyzed using regression and mediation techniques. It was found that social media usage patterns significantly predict dependency goals among users. Male respondents showed a prolonged social media usage from historical perspective, whereas female respondents were found to be highly engaged with social media on daily basis. Furthermore, social media usage of male respondents revealed instrumental patterns in comparison to female respondents whose higher frequency of social media usage led to purposeful but leisure usage too. The dependency goals, understanding and orientation, were found to be strongly inter-connected. Also, the mediating analysis demonstrated significant intermediary linkage between patterns of social media usage and cognitive and pro-social outcomes. Overall, the findings underscore a dual role of social media dependency, both as a behavioral driver and a psychological influence. Supervised by Dr. Shabbir Hussain Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/21298 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/21297 Analyzing Propaganda Strategies on X By India and Pakistan on Kashmir Conflict and Fall of Kabul Abdul Wadood, 01-285201-001 This study examines state-sponsored propaganda campaigns orchestrated by India and Pakistan on X (formerly Twitter) investigating two significant regional crises in parallel: the aftermath of the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir's special status and the Taliban's recapture of Kabul. The research analyzes official accounts of key Indian and Pakistani officials on X (formerly Twitter) to identify key propaganda strategies, utilizing two datasets comprising 34,055 English-language posts collected between August 15, 2021, and January 14, 2023. A robust hybrid methodological approach combines supervised computational content analysis—measuring the prevalence of techniques from existing literature—with unsupervised topic modeling to discover emergent themes. The study reveals two novel propaganda strategies: urgency and blaming. Findings reveals that both states dynamically adapt their messaging to geopolitical developments. The substantial engagement (reposts) generated by certain techniques, particularly India's people-centric approach, provides a valuable measure of their reach and resonance on the platform. Pakistani propaganda adopts an authoritative tone and elite driven narratives aimed at establishing credibility for official perspectives. While Pakistan emphasizes trust-building through authoritative claims, India officials adopted mass-oriented strategies, emphasizing populist appeals disseminated primarily through political and defense institutions. Temporal analysis indicates both countries effectively adapt their propaganda tactics in response to regional developments, demonstrating responsiveness to public sentiment, geopolitical contexts, and optimal timing. Study also explores the transferability of techniques across distinct contexts, while acknowledging that its scope invites future research into deeper qualitative analysis of audience reception to further refine understanding of persuasive effectiveness. Both countries employ contradictory themes wherein humanitarian concerns, security narratives, domestic political agendas, and geopolitical considerations interact in complex configurations to structure their propaganda campaigns while simultaneously exploiting regional geopolitical vulnerabilities Supervised by Dr. Shabbir Hussain Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/21297 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/21296 Media Coverage of Populist Leaders of Pakistan and India: A Comparative Study of Elite and Popular Press Anbreen Waheed, 01-285191-001 This study examines the coverage of populist leaders in the newspapers of India and Pakistan, focusing on how the newspapers frames the populist leaders in both pre-election and post-election phases. By analysing key framing strategies, media-genic attributes, and issue types, the research aims to highlight the distinct approaches taken by the newspapers during critical political phases. The study employs a quantitative content analysis of coverage from four selected newspapers: Dawn (Pakistan), The News (Pakistan), The Hindu (India), and The Times of India (India). Framing theory serves as the theoretical framework for examining the primary discursive strategies. The findings reveal that among the Approach-Based Frames, the most prominent strategies were the "People-Centric" and "Anti-Elitist" frames, while "Nationalism," "Moralism," and "Personalization" were less commonly used. The "People-Centric" frame was predominantly applied during the pre-election coverage of populist leaders in both India and Pakistan. In contrast, the "Anti-Elitist" frame emerged as the most common in post-election coverage. Additionally, in the Language-Based Frames, there was a shift from the "Emotive Language" frame in the pre-election period to the "Demonizing Language" frame post-election, with the latter being frequently used to describe populist leaders in both countries. In the pre-election period, the tone of the press was generally supportive, but it became more critical after the election. Throughout both phases, various media-genic attributes were ascribed to populist leaders, with "Human Interest" attributes being the most frequently used. However, after the election, there was a noticeable increase in the use of "Controversial Attributes." Overall, this research contributes to the understanding of how the newspapers in these two neighbouring South Asian countries shape political narratives around populist figures, providing insights into the relationship between populism and media framing. Supervised by Dr. Shabbir Hussain Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/21296 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/20505 An Analysis of the Taliban Conflict in the Pakistani Press: A Perspective on Political Contest Theory Imran Ul Haq, 01-285181-002 This study has analyzed the role of the Pakistani press in terms of conflict reporting in an environment of diverse and contesting voices when Pakistan changed its policy toward Afghan Taliban and later in the case of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan from 2001 to 2015. Through a quantitative content analysis of prominent English and Urdu language newspapers’ coverage and by availing the conceptual frameworks of the political contest theory. The theory posits that at one corner of the scale, the ‘press serve as faithful servants to the authorities’, at the middle point of the scale, ‘the press performs the as ‘semi-honest brokers’ by providing challengers ample time and space and at the third corner, it may serve as advocate of the underdog by amplifying claims of challengers. This study examines how the contesting viewpoints of the political sources were mediated through the journalistic agency (Journalists’ professional judgement). The study examined coverage patterns during the three phases of the Taliban conflict. Although empirical findings indicate that the selected press provided proportionately more space to official sources during the conflict period, the results also suggest that dissenting voices got room to a considerable extent. The findings also reveal that the press treated the government and dissenting sources differently at different points in time. For instance, during the policy-shift phase, the government and opposition sources received 35% and 42% share respectively while during the Negotiation Phase, government received 47% and opposition sources received 23% share only. The scholarly domain of press-state relations has primarily examined the press performance (autonomy of press) of advanced countries during times of wars and conflicts. Most of the theories in this area have been developed in the United States and the two-party political environment. This dissertation goes some way to address this gap by examining the press performance in a multiparty political environment. The findings imply that governments in a multiparty political environment need to approach, engage and utilize the press in more nuanced ways to garner press support and political consensus. Secondly, so far, years-long studies that could map the press-state relations in conflicts (other than the Indo-Pak conflict) have been limited in the context of Pakistan. This thesis has thus also attempted to address this critical gap. Supervised by Dr. Shabir Hussain Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/20505 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z