Construction of honor in Pakistani media: an exploratory study of television dramas

Abstract

Social structure of Pakistan puts honor as a central value for the people regardless of religion, gender and socio-economic status. The study aimed to explore the ways in which honor is constructed in Pakistani media. Moreover, whether the construction of honor was reinforcing the already existing norms of masculinity and femininity and the trend of construction of honor during the time period taken for the study. The population was Pakistani Urdu dramas which were aired on private television channels. The purposive sample taken, which was dramas which had got highest audience ratings from 2013 to 2017. Total 5 dramas were analyzed using coding sheet and 638 acts were recorded as acts of construction of honor. Theoretical foundation for the study was based on Hyper-masculinity and Feminist Media theory. The theoretical framework helped in making the study holistic. Since literature already showed a gap in terms of exploration of construction of honor, as well as with the perspective of both male and female gender. The result showed that the most ways in which honor was constructed were societal norms, societal rules and gender. The least used way to construct honor was religion. The results depicted consistency in the trend of construction of honor through societal norms and family values, slight decline in construction of honor through gender and visible decline in construction of honor through religion and societal rules. The results also proved that the construction of honor is reinforcing the notions of masculinity and femininity in Pakistani society