Coverage of Indo-Pak Cricket Matches: Exploring War & Peace Journalism

Abstract

The study analyzed the coverage of Indo-Pak cricket matches in leading English newspapers of Pakistan and India. By adopting the war and peace journalism model of John Galtung, the study used war and peace indicators in order to evaluate the orientation of journalism in both countries print media. 208 news stories were taken from the Dawn (Pak) and the Hindustan Times. The study found that war journalism was prominent in both the newspapers as compared to peace journalism. Hindustan Times published more war-oriented stories whereas the Mean story length of Dawn news was higher. “Here and now centered” indicator was significantly more prominent in war-oriented stories published by Hindustan Times. The study suggests that both the countries’ media give more space to peace-oriented frame for sports journalism in order to de-escalate the impact of conflict already exited in the two countries unresolved separation agenda of the subcontinent.