Abstract:
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.
