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HOW THE PAKISTANI PRESS FRAMED THE EXECUTION OF SADDAM HUSSEIN?
Farish Ullah Yousafzai (Ph.D) Bakht Rawan (Ph.D)
ABSTRACT
This study has examined the contents published on the editorial pages of the three widely-published newspapers that how the execution of Saddam was perceived by the Pakistani
press. The study found that majority of the editorials and columns have criticized Saddam regime as well as condemned his execution. The study has categorized the criticism made by the press. The press suggests that Saddam ruthlessly crushed his political opponents and brutally massacred Shiite and Kurd population in Iraq; the trial was not fair and
conducted under the influence of US; insult of Saddam by the executioners and its video recording was the gross violation of law and morality; the execution will fuel the ongoing
Shiite-Sunni violence; and selection of the day of Eidul Azha for hanging Saddam is a collective insult of the Muslims by the Iraqi and the US administrations.
INTRODUCTION
More than five years after the US–led attack and Bush’s 1st May, 2003 speech announcing ‘the end of major combat operations,’ and ‘mission accomplished’ dozens of
deaths remain the daily norm in Iraq (Ali, Dawn, 2007; Hammond, 2005). Hanging of Saddam is also an old story but the number of attacks on coalition forces is continuously increasing. The deaths of US troops crossed the number of 4000 in 2008 since the Iraq war started in March 2003. On the other hand, Iraq’s religiously and ethnically based
political parties show little sign of consensus and the Sunnis charged US forces in Baghdad for victimizing them. The US forces confessed that 60 percent of Baghdad is out of its control (Associated Press, 2007). The media reports show that the situation is worsening more and more for both the Iraqi population and the US forces in Iraq. The
U.S. administration is in a very difficult position because the war is getting quite unpopular among the American public and is strongly opposed by the Democrats who are
in control of the U.S. Senate. According to Associated Press (2007), “the public's patience for the war has long eroded.” Blair, a strong U.S. alley against ‘war on terror’ is
no more prime minister (Lane, 2007). Immediately after the event of 9/11, the congress unanimously authorized President Bush
to use all necessary force against those nations, or organizations, which planned, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks (Ahmad, 2003, p. 21). And on the name of ‘war on terror’ and ‘doctrine of preemptive strikes’ the U.S. initiated a global conflict that can be directed against any country (Thussu & Freedman, 2003). This situation has adversely affected the overall international security environment (Thussu, 2006). More than seven years have been marked by continuous conflicts and violence that can be traced directly to the post 9/11 period. The war on terror will continue to shape contemporary history.
According to an editorial appeared in the daily Dawn (2007), the U.S. forces are facing tough resistance from the insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq, bringing public pressure on
the Bush administration to plan an exit strategy.The U.S. administration considered Saddam regime “to be an imminent threat and in possession of weapons of mass destruction” (p. 19) but the war was opposed by many
countries particularly veto powers, and failed to secure U.N. approval for attack (Maslog et al., 2006). Before the invasion, the U.S. had advanced three reasons for securing U.N.
approval for attack on Iraq: threat posed by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction; the links between Saddam regime and Al Qaeda; and the crimes of the Saddam regime against the Shiites and the Kurds in Iraq. Pirzada (Dawn, 2007) argues that after facing failure on the
first two counts, the whole thrust of the Bush administration had been to get rid of Saddam. However, many Muslims believe this war as an assault on innocent Iraqis, and Islam, and many see it as being fought for control of oil resources (Maslog et al., 2006;
Thussu & Freedman, 2003).Saddam occupied the power in 1979 and became an exclusive ruler and absolute dictator till March, 2003. After fall of Baghdad, he disappeared from the scene and was captured
on Dec. 13, 2003 from an underground hideout near Tikrit. A suit was lodged in war crimes and ethnic cleansing against him and 11 other leaders of the Baath Party. He was
convicted by a panel of judges working under Iraqi constitution. Death penalty was ordered on Nov. 5, 2006 for the killing of 148 persons in Dujail in 1982. His petition was rejected on Dec. 26, 2006 and was executed on Dec. 30, 2006. He was hanged after a trial
which legal status was questioned from several aspects. This study is designed to examine that how the execution of Saddam was
perceived by the Pakistani press. It has focused the main issues like the ruling of Saddam—mass killing of his political opponents. The establishment of tribunal, the legal
procedure followed by the tribunal, and the time of the execution are the focal points of this inquiry. The study also includes the manners --- video recording of the execution and insult of Saddam during the event and its effects on the Shiite-Sunni relationship in Iraq.
REVIEW OF THE RELEVANT OPINION PAGES OF THE PAKISTANI PRESS
Press criticized Saddam’s regimeIn its editorial, the daily Nation (2007) criticized Saddam that he had been one of the U.S.
most trusted agents in the Middle East and attacked Iran to please the U.S. and to stop Iran as an emerging power on the scene. The daily blamed him for invading Kuwait; crushing all his political opposition and even killed his two sons-in-law for speaking
against him. Niazi (Nation, 2007) believes that Saddam was responsible for bloodshed and sufferings of his own people. He massacred Kurds, Shiites and political opponents.
On commenting Saddam regime, Lone (Nation, 2007) expressed that he was a brutal tyrant and killed thousands of Iraqis just for political reasons.
Gauhar (Nation, 2007) severely criticized Saddam for dropping nerve gas on Kurd population, killing thousands of people. Mirza (Dawn, 2007) also made Saddam’s regime
responsible for the killing of Kurd and Shiite population. He believes that Iraq’s Arab neighbors as well as the Reagan and Thatcher administrations supported his war efforts.
Fatemi (Dawn, 2007) believes that Iraq’s history is brutal and bloody beyond belief because Saddam himself never believed in the sanctity of law. He maintains that some
Arab rulers and Western sources extended financial support to Saddam in the war against Iran. Shaikh (Dawn, 2007) condemns him for bad ambitions that reduced the most
prosperous country into a living hell. Baig (Jang, 2007) expressed that Saddam used poison gas against Kurds that killed innocent people including children and women.
Laghari (Jang, 2007) lamented his role as a U.S. agent and invaded Kuwait that provided justification for establishing U.S. military basis in the region. Hussein (Jang, 2007) as
well as Razi (Jang, 2007) criticized his unwise and irresponsible ruling that enabled Israel to attack atomic reactor of Iraq.
Pakistani press criticizing executionPakistani press criticized the execution of Saddam on several counts: the U.S. influence on trial; video recording and insult of Saddam during the execution; its effects on Shiite-
Sunni tension; and the hanging of Saddam on the day of Eidul Azha.
The status of the tribunal Saddam was sentenced to death by an Iraqi elite court constituted and working under the
Iraqi constitution. But Qureshi (Jang, 2007) as well as Sajid (Jang, 2007) believe that hanging of Saddam was an integral part of the U.S. conspiracy and the trial did not fulfill
the least requirements for justice. The guardian (2007) cited in the Dawn, reports that Saddam was tried by a special tribunal shaped and directed by Western forces. Patel
(Jang, 2007) holds that occupation of Iraq was an illegitimate act and courts functioning there were illegal and their verdicts had no legal status. Haq (Jang, 2007) and Qureshi,
(Jang, 2007) observe that his hanging is an extrajudicial killing because the trial could not meet the international standards in the judicial process and the main task of the U.S.
constituted tribunal was to eliminate him. Bhaie (Jang, 2007) pointed out that impartial judges were terminated and Saddam’s lawyers assassinated.
Umar (Jang, 2007) expressed that Saddam’s execution was a matter of concern for the Human Rights Organizations because the legal procedure was full of flaws. Editorial
appeared in the daily Nation (2006) strongly criticized the execution as saying that it was an act of revenge, not a delivery of justice. Human rights groups and former U.S.
Attorney-General Ramsey Clark made it clear that the trial was not fair and justice was not delivered properly. According to Ayazuddin (Nation, 2007), the Americans imposed
a judgment on the Iraqi tribunal. Gauhar (Nation, 2007) suggests that the procedure of the execution was like a man convicted of murder being handed over to the victim’s family to kill him as they please. Lone (Nation, 2007) asserted that Saddam’s hanging was a crime for he was not allowed to defend himself. He maintained, “Saddam was in fact
hanged without having been legally convicted of an offense,” and that the U.S. refused to allow a trial in an international tribunal that has tried Milosevic and other war
criminals. Ali (Dawn, 2007) comments that the trial fell well short of acceptable legal norms and the style of execution reinforced the impression of a pure revenge. Mirza
(Dawn, 2007) described the trial as bogus and totally prejudiced. He maintains that many Western legal experts, human rights and civil organizations including the U.S.-based
Human Rights Watch condemned the legal aspects of the trial. Harassing and persecution of the defense lawyers and removal of the independent judges were also criticized by the
press. The press also reveals that Iraqi administration is run by Shiites and Kurds, who are Saddam’s political enemies. The press comments that several observers, including the
American commentators, claim that the execution was carried out swiftly and several judicial aspects were ignored (Fatemi, Dawn, 2007).
Shaikh (Dawn, 2007) cited an Arab observer in his article, “Important evidence were not disclosed to them during the trial, and Saddam was prevented from questioning witnesses
testifying against him. Several of his lawyers were threatened or assassinated, and the trial was subjected to continuous political interference.” Shaikh argues that Iraqi law
requires signatures of the president and vice-president for the death penalty but the Prime Minister did not secure their signatures for the execution.
Videotaping and taunts by the executionersVideo recording of the event of execution was a strange phenomenon and condemned by
many article writers. They believe that making video of the event was violation of the law. They also condemned the taunting of Saddam by his executioners during hanging
(Nation, 2007; Khayal, 2007). According to Mirza (Dawn, 2007), shocking scenes were brought to the world and released on the internet. He cited the British Vice President,
John Prescott who told the BBC that the manner of Saddam’s death was “quite deplorable, and to get this kind of recorded messages coming out is totally unacceptable.”
The Daily Dawn (2007) writes that it was justice delivered in its crudest form and “the video tapes are shocking and terrible.” Shaikh (Dawn, 2007) suggests that the
execution was a “sectarian killing rather than the dispensation of justice.” The Daily Jang (2007) terms the video taping as an illegal, immoral act. Muhayyuddin (Jang, 2007)
condemned the video recording in which indecent language had been used by the executioners. Ali (Dawn, 2007) argues that video showed that Saddam was subjected to
taunts from the guards and the assembled audiences.
Eidul Azha factorThe hanging of Saddam on the day of Eidul Azha was another aspect of the event
criticized by the Pakistani press. It is commonly believed in the Muslims that the Bush administration planned the event on the occasion of Eid to insult the Muslims
collectively. The press pointed out that execution on the day of Eid indicates their insensitivity towards Muslim beliefs and practices. Qayyum (Nation, 2007) also criticized the U.S. by choosing the sacred day of Eid for the execution. He maintained that they do not care about Muslim religion. Similarly, the press believes that execution on Eid was a collective insult of all Muslims, and has violated the Iraqi law. The press cited a senior Iraqi judge who remarked that the local law forbids execution during Eid (Ayazuddin,
Nation, 2007; Lone, Nation, 2007). Mirza (Dawn, 2007) warns that the hanging of Saddam on Eid day is the beginning of a new war in the region.
Baig (Jang, 2007) accused the Iraqi and the U.S. administrations and added that hanging on Eid day was a collective insult of more than one billion Muslims across the world. Muhammad (Jang, 2007) remarked that such act indicated the moral degradation and tension of the Iraqi and the U.S. administrations. Some articles predict that hanging of
Saddam on Eid bring many negative consequences to the region because it is a matter of
concern and anger for the Muslims. Such events will make the situation more difficult for the Iraqi and U.S. administrations (Haq, Jang, 2007; Butt, Jang, 2007).
Sectarian tensionSunni-Shiite tension in Iraq is already very high and hundred of Iraqis are being tortured
and killed on daily basis. Since, Saddam was a Sunni leader, hanged by Shiite led administration, therefore, Sunni population blames Shiites for his execution. The press
predicts that hanging of Sunni’s leader will further intensify the ongoing war between the two sects and the situation would be worst in the coming days.
The hanging of Saddam will intensify the ongoing bloodshed, deepen sectarian and ethnic divide and push the country towards disintegration. Shiite-Sunni divide has got
worst and Saddam’s hanging has driven a dagger into the heart of Shiite-Sunni relations (Gauhar, Nation, 2007; Qayyum, Nation, 20077)). The press predicts that Saddam’s
execution will turn the Shiite-Sunni violence into a civil war because Iraqi Sunnis are likely to evaluate Saddam’s execution as an evidence of their further marginalization
(Fatemi, Dawn, 2007). The press alarms that Saddam’s hanging will further accentuate the sectarian divide and perhaps destabilize the entire gulf region (Jang Editorial, 2007;
Laghari, Jang, 2007; Haq, Jang, 2007).
Justice by the criminalsThe press also criticized the social and ethical aspects of the Saddam’s execution and questions the integrity of the U.S. administration for involvement in the crime against
humanity. The press claims that the U.S. administration is responsible for the killing of thousands of civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, South-East Asia and Latin America (Ali,
Dawn, 2007; Mirza, Dawn, 2007). Mirza (Dawn, 2007) cited two writers with the following statements:
The shameless, outrageous, covert military support which the US and Britain gave to Saddam....And now Saddam, who knew the full extent of that Western support given to him while he was perpetrating some of the worst atrocities since the Second World War — is dead” (Robert Fisk). “Saddam was a tyrant is beyond dispute, but what is
conveniently forgotten is that most of his crimes were committed when he was a staunch ally of all those who now occupy the country (Tariq Ali).
The press argues if Saddam have killed Kurds and Shiites, the U.S. resorted to carpet bombing and killed thousands of civilians indiscriminately in Afghanistan and Iraq. Bush
and his allies are more criminal for occupying Iraq for its natural resources, widening sectarian tension and killing thousands of Iraqis (Qureshi, Jang, 2007; Sajid, Jang, 2007).
The press asks that Saddam was hanged for the killing of 148 people but the U.S. is
responsible for the killing of 450000 and injuring two million civilians in Iraq for the sake of occupation of Iraq’s natural resources (Umar, Jang, 2007; Patel, Jang, 2007).
International reaction to the executionSaddam’s execution evoked mixed reactions worldwide. President Bush called it “an
important milestone on course to Iraq’s becoming a democracy” The OIC, the Muslim world’s representative body termed it a tragic event that could intensify the ongoing
Shiite-Sunni tension. Pakistan also termed the execution as a tragic incident and dangerous for the Iraq stability. Iran and Kuwait hailed the act while European countries criticized the hanging mainly because of opposition to the death sentence on principle, not for any other reason. Russians regretted that it would further intensify the already
tragic situation in the region The Vatican City condemned the hanging and warned that it would intensify the ongoing violence in the region. Human Rights Watch denounced the
event as an inhuman, immoral, and illegal. US political analysts Riddle and Nolan note that execution of Saddam proved that
Bush administration has declined the option of solving the problems through peaceful dialogue and political negotiation (Muhayyuddin, Jang, 2007). Libya denounced the
execution (Mir, Jang, 2007) and an Egyptian newspaper, Al Ahram warned that the event would adversely affect the entire region. UK voice president, Prescott and the Prime
Minister, Gordon Brown denounced the event as an illegal act. A prominent Iraqi novelist expressed that hanging of Saddam was a crime and situation in Iraq would be worst under
the US occupation (Bhaie, Jang, 2007).
RESEARCH QUESTION
News events are explained and evaluated within the society’s normative structure and brought to the media within the framework of journalistic norms (Daniel, 1995). Time
Magazine’s poll shows that majority of the Asian opposed the war on Iraq but their governments supported this US-led adventure for some military and economic reasons (Beech, 2003). Masloge et al. (2006) believe that coverage given to Iraq war by Asian
media may have serious implications in the future. The execution of Saddam is one of the major events happened in the Iraq war scenario. It may also bring some adverse
consequences to the regions, particularly to Iraq geographical integrity due to the ongoing intensive Shiite-Sunni violence. A British think-tank said, “Iraq is on the verge of
becoming a failed state, leading to a process of fragmentation” (Dawn, 2007). However, the present study examines the opinion pages of the Pakistani press-- the three national
dailies-- regarding the execution of Saddam. The main question this study has posed is that “How Saddam Hussein’s execution was perceived by the Pakistani press?” The question was answered after reviewing and
analyzing the opinion pages of the three selected national dailies.
METHODOLOGYNews events are framed to influence audience members’ perceptions of the social reality
(Khan & Farish, 2005). But how much the media is successful in influencing the perceptions of the audiences is a matter of proper investigation. Many studies have been
conducted on the extent and nature of coverage given by the press to various national and international issues. Some have examined the flow of foreign-news stories into United States (Mujahid, 1970). Some have compared foreign news in the dailies of the United
States and South America (Markham, 1959). Some have studied the flow of news between countries (Hart, 1963; Merrill, 1962) and some have examined the coverage of
the news stories by the US magazines (Khan & Farish, 2005). Most of these studies have used the methods of content analysis as space occupied, length and width of columns,
length and size of headlines, page location, and number of words in the text. Some studies have adopted this approach by coding the adjectival or other verbal and adverbial terms (Hashem, 1995). But coding such terms without attention to a complete sentence and paragraph of the text could be misleading because the term makes a complete sense
only within a complete sentence and paragraph (Khan & Farish, 2005). The contents published in the opinion page needs to expend the area for analysis to the whole text.So, for this study, content analysis approach was utilized to examine and evaluate the
perception of the Pakistani press about the event of Saddam’s execution. Opinion page-- editorials and columns-- of the three widely circulated national dailies were selected for
this study. Two dailies were selected from English and one from Urdu newspapers (national language). They were selected from well-established groups of newspaper
published in Pakistan: The daily Dawn was selected from the Dawn group of newspapers; The daily Nation from Nawaiwaqt group of newspapers; and The daily Jang form the
Jang group of newspapers. The study also included those articles published on the editorial pages of these dailies that had been taken from the foreign press because principally, it can be counted as an integral
part of the Pakistani press on the issue. The contents in editorials and columns on or about Saddam and his execution in these three dailies formed the unit of observation. The
units of observation were determined according to the formula introduced by Twohey (Twohey, 1941). According to this formula, these contents were first classified as
‘relevant or irrelevant.’ Relevancy was decided on basis of discussing Saddam’s regime and/or his execution with special reference to the particular event of execution. The
relevant contents were then classified in the following fashion:
1. editorials and columns criticized Saddam’s regime only; 2. criticized execution only;
3. slightly criticized Saddam regime and fully criticized execution; 4. fully criticized Saddam regime and slightly criticized execution; and
5. criticized both Saddam regime and execution equally.
This classification was decided on the basis of analysis of the theme, and the theme was judged from the editorials and columns as a whole. This approach is appropriate because
the words or sentences (favorable/unfavorable) without analyzing the entire body of the text can be misleading.
Time frameContents published in fourteen days, from Dec. 31, 2006 to Jan. 15, 2007 were analyzed to address the research question. The dailies were not published on January 2nd and 3rd
due to Eid holidays, therefore the period constitutes fourteen published days in total. Dec. 31, 2006 was chosen as the first day of the study because Saddam was executed on the
daybreak of Dec. 30, 2006, and editorial and opinions had to be appeared on the next day. January 15, 2007 was chosen as the last day because no editorial or column was
published after that date on the issue of execution. The fourteen days is an enough time to analyze the issue within the framework of the above developed classification.
RESULTS
Finding-1. The three national dailies published four editorials in the specified period on this issue and all of them criticized both Saddam regime and his execution equally.
Finding-2. Thirty-two columns were relevant to the issue of Saddam’s execution and his regime published in14 days in the three national dailies. The finding shows that 3.125 percent of the columns have criticized Saddam’s regime only. Over 56 percent of the
columns have criticized Saddam’s execution only. 31.25 percent have slightly criticized Saddam’s regime and fully criticized his execution. Over 9 percent of the columns have
criticized Saddam’s regime and his execution equally.
See details for number of relevant columns in table-1; for relevant lines in table- 2.From Dec. 31, 2006 to Jan. 15, 2007 -------- ------------ Total published days: 14
Table-1. No. of relevant columns
Names of Dailies The Dawn The Nation The Jang Total Percent
No. of total relevant columns 07 06 19 32
No. of columns criticizing Saddam regime only Nil Nil 01 01 3.125
No. of columns criticizing execution only Nil 04 14 18 56.25
No. of columns slightly criticizing Saddam regime and fully criticized execution
06 02 02 10 31.25
No. of columns fully criticizing Saddam regime and slightly criticized execution
Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil
No. of columns criticizing Saddam regime and execution equally 01 Nil 02 03 9.375
Table2- No. of relevant columns’ lines
Names of Dailies The Dawn The Nation The Jang Total Percent
Lines of total relevant columns 684 423 1423 2530
Lines of columns criticizing Saddam regime only Nil Nil 81 81 3.20
Lines of columns criticizing execution only Nil 244 1045 1289 50.95
Line of columns slightly criticizing Saddam regime and fully criticized execution
554 179 121 854 33.75
Lines of columns fully criticizing Saddam regime and slightly criticized execution
Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil
Lines of columns criticizing Saddam and execution equally 130 Nil 176 306 12.10
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONThe press has evaluated the event of Saddam’s execution with the relevant background. It has analyzed the present situation and established its relations with the past two decades.
The press suggests that Saddam was a strong U.S. ally in the Gulf and worked for the U.S. interest in the region. He was responsible for the deadly war against Iran and Kuwait
which killed some one million people and destroyed their economies. Support of the
U.S., U.K. and some neighboring Arab countries for these wars was severely criticized by the Pakistani press on this occasion. Majority of the writers contributed in the press
believe that Saddam was encouraged by the US ambassador to invade Kuwait. The press criticized the sanctions against Iraq that caused the death of half a million people
particularly children in need of medicine. The overall analysis of the relevant columns gives a strong impression that the present
war against terrorism is actually a war against Muslims to establish American hegemony in the region. Saddam was hanged just to please the Shiite population in Iraq that could expedite the ongoing Shiite-Sunni tensions, and consequently will disintegrate Iraq into different ethnic and religious pieces. According to the contributors of the opinion pages
of the three dailies, this Balkanization of the country would enable the U.S. administration to easily control the region for the interest of oil resources. Latest situation prevailing in Iraq has partially proved the accuracy of the analysis made and predictions given by various writers. Killing and kidnapping has become a daily norm. No security
strategy is working in Iraq and the country has collapsed into an absolute civil war. Allied forces are also facing tough resistance. Head of the U.S. forces in Iraq said that U.S.
casualties had mounted because Sunni extremists are starting to fight very hard. He said, “This is a skilled and determined enemy. He’s ruthless. He’s got a thirst for blood like
I’ve never seen anywhere in my life. And he’s determined to do whatever he can” (Associated Press, June, 30, 2007).
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dr. Farish Ullah Yousafzai is an associate professor in the Centre for Media and Communication Studies, International Islamic University Islamabad, Pakistan. He carries over 23 years teaching and research experience at university level. His research interest includes health communication campaigns and media effects. His research articles have
been published in national and regional journals. He has completed his post-doctoral research fellowship from the WKW School of Communication and Information, Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore.
Bakht Rawan (Ph. D) is working as Assistant Professor in the Department of Mass Communication, Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), Islamabad. He has done his Ph.D from the University of Leipzig, Germany. He is a DAAD scholar. His area of
interest in mass communication research is ‘media sociology, and uses and effects of the mass media content’. He has also worked in a couple of national daily newspapers. He
may be contacted on: [email protected]
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PORTRAYAL OF PAKISTAN IN NEWSWEEK,THE TIME AND THE ECONOMIST AFTER 26/11 INCIDENT IN MUMBAI:
A CULTURAL DIFFERENCE APPROACH
Muhammad Ashraf Khan (PhD)
Fatima Imran
ABSTRACTThis study examines the cultural difference theory that argues, journalists and writers of different culture are always orthodox as their dough rises from their own region. They do not have a positive impression about other countries while writing editorials or articles. They use negative language and expressions for different regions. This study investigated
the portrayal of Pakistan in the Newsweek The Time and The Economist within the context of Mumbai attacks November 26th, 2008. The expectation of this study was that the coverage of Pakistan in term of slant would reflect the cultural difference. The study
conducts the content analysis of the total number of articles on Mumbai attacks of Newsweek, The Time & The Economist since 26th November 2008 to May 2009. A total 19 articles, 6 in Newsweek, 4 in The Time and 9 in The Economist were analyzed. The findings depict that Pakistan do not have a positive image in international magazines
after 26/11 Mumbai attacks, The findings supported the cultural difference theory in this case.
INTRODUCTIONIt is generally assumed that Pakistan is confronting with a lot of problems such as
political disharmony, leadership crisis, security risks, economic crisis and above all its distorted image. Jamil (2008) says that the negative perception about Pakistan’s image is increasing in the international arena instead of trying earnestly to project positive and soft aspects of Pakistani nation. In aftermath of 9/11, Jamil (2008) emphasizes that the image
of Pakistan has blacklisted and coupled with the term “Terrorism”. Musharraf has displayed ample courage and acumen since Sep 11, 2001, not only rescuing Pakistan’s
bettered international image but improving its viability as a state as well. Adeney (2008) tells that Pakistan is blamed for harboring Al-Qaeda terrorists, tension with India, the training of fighters in Afghanistan and for exporting nuclear
technology in international market. Ernst (2000) describes the common perception in America that Muslims are fundamentalist and terrorists, which is due to the ignorance about Islam and the Muslims by American. He further stated that a common American
knows only about the “Osama-a terrorist”, they do not know about the Islam and Islamic scholars. The international media is playing a role of a catalyst that fasten the process of creating negative portrayal of Pakistan in worldwide, due to this negative impression one
can blame Pakistan easily. According to Wikipedia, the 2008 Mumbai attacks were a series of ten coordinate terrorists attacks across Mumbai, India’s financial capital and its largest city the attacks which began on 26th November 2008 and ended on 29th November2008, killed at least 173 people, wounded at least 208. According to the New York Times, Indian authorities
have said that Lashkar-e-Taaiba (LET) militants inside Pakistan directed the Mumbai attacks. American agencies also agree with this attribution.
Khan (2004-05) analysis that the Indo-Pak relation has always been marked with uncertainty and simultaneous pursuance of positive and negative interaction. In spite of
the expression of good intention and noble sentiments for each other, by both the countries, they have remained deep seated apprehension and historical experiences which
shape their outlook on each other that is why excepting for a short period, indo-Pak relation is a story of mutual distrust and disharmony. The main cause of joining CEATO & CENTO was to protect the boundaries of Pakistan from the furious clutches of India
because India did not accept Pakistan as an independent country. The Indian leaders admitted that this was the only way to get rid of British Raja and Pakistan could never
separate from India. They believed to rejoining the both countries and they are still dreaming.
On the other hand Khan (2004-05) describes that the national security, economic interest, Islamic solidarity peaceful co-existence, non-alignment and bilateral negotiation are the determining factors of Pakistan foreign policy. Geholt & Satsangi (2004) tells that Kashmir has since then been the main source of discord that has resulted into the three-
armed confrontations as well as the Kargill War. According to the Wikipedia the aftermath of Mumbai attacks caused widespread anger among the Indian public and
government along with centre state relations within India, Indo-Pak relations, domestic impact within Pakistan, on the united states relationship with both countries, the US-led
NATO war in Afghanistan and on the global war on terror. The aim of this specific study is to checkout the positive and negative portrayal of
Pakistan in international magazines, The Time, Newsweek, and The Economist, after Mumbai attacks Nov 2008.
REVIEW OF LITERATURETerrorism is defined in Webster Dictionary (2001) as the systematic use of violence as a means to intimidate or coerce societies or governments. Encyclopedia Britannica (2006) interprets that terrorism has been practiced by a broad array of political organization for
furthering their objectives. It has been practiced by both right and left wing political parties, nationalistic groups, religious groups, revolutionaries, and ruling governments. Terrorism is defined in American Heritage Dictionary (2000) that the unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organization group against
people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons. Sloan (2006) tells that during the
eight to fourteen centuries, the assassins named formally “Al-Da’wa Al-Jadida” well known by “Hashishin” were the early terrorists. Sloan further highlights the horrendous terrorist attacks worldwide. He says that terrorism has a direct relation with politics and religion and these two elements always being the root cause of terrorism, he proves that
relation with some of the example of terror. He is of the view that French Revolution (1789-1799) was the major example of state terrorism; estimated number of its victims varies from 18,000 to 40,000. Another example of international terrorism is the kidnap
and assassination of Aldo Moro (Italian Prime Minister) on March 16, 1978. On October 6, 1981, assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, October 31, 1984, assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indra Gandhi --- former Indian Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi was killed by a female member of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Élan (LTTE) in a suicide bombing, on May 21, 1991. The first attack on US soil was a car bomb planted in underground garage of World Trade Center on Feb 26, 1993. The major attack was September 11, 2001 on US homeland, targeted the Twin Towers of World Trade Center. It killed 3,025 US citizen and other nationals, Usama Bin Laden
was the prime suspect and that they considered the US in a state of war with international terrorism. Mass casualties were the goal of 9/11 attacks.
Nazrul (2005) reveals that how the attention of the world is drawn towards the Islam and Islamic terrorism and the main cause is 9/11. Before 9/11 the superpower USA
fought all the wars for foreign soil, but the war on terror is for its own soil. Rafique (2006) discusses about the role of Pakistan with regards to the global war
on terrorism that Pakistan has since September 11, 2001 became one of the US most important allies. The governments of two countries have worked closely, cooperatively and successfully apprehend well over 500 suspected Al-Qaeda & Taliban operatives to
date. In the aftermath of 9/11 Hess and Kalls (2004) reveal after reviewing American journalism that the war in first year of the 21st century has made Afghanistan one of the
most dangerous assignments in modern times where eight reporters were killed and specially the transmatic kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl of the “Wall street
Journal” in Karachi on Jan 23, 2002 Sloan (2006) describes that Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping and murder, captured American’s attention because of his US citizenship as
well as his normally protected status as a journalist. The video of Pearl’s murder is also a prime example of how terrorist groups are using the Internet to reach large audience.
August 19, 2003 bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad, 10 bombs exploded on Madrid city’s computer transit system on March 11, 2004 and four suicide bombers
struck in central London killing 52 on July 7, 2005 are some of the example of international and terrorism. With the reference of Wikipedia (2009) the researcher
discusses a few major terrorist strikes especially in Pakistan from 2006-2009.
August 26-31, 2006 Nawab Akbar Bugti (Balochistan) November 8, 2006 42 Pakistan Army Soldiers North West town of Daragi. January 26, 2007 Marriott Hotel (Islamabad) October 18, 2007 Attack on Benazir Bhutto’s Convoy (Karachi) December 27, 2007 the assassination of twice Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. March 11, 2008 Twin suicide bombings in LahoreAugust 21, 2008 Pakistan Ordinance factory (Wah, Cantt) August 23, 2008 Swat valley bombingSeptember 20, 2008 Truck bomb exploded outside the Marriott Hotel (Islamabad) March 3, 2009 Sri Lankan Cricket Team (Lahore) March 27, 2009 Jamrud Mosque attack March 30, 2009 Lahore Police Academy attack
The media has played a vital role to enhance the panic among the people after each and every terrorist strike. Silberstein (2002) analyzes that the main purpose of terrorists is to harass or scare the people on a large scale. She further says that terrorism is aimed at the
people watching, meaning the people watch, more the terrorism breed. November 26, 2008 to November 29, 2008 Mumbai attacks had the same effect
on people of India and the residents of the other countries. The panic create by the media was greater than the fear at the actual terror spot and such type of panic generates
hopeless thoughts and rumors among the people worldwide. The victims always blame their rivals or anti-groups around them and the media play up these blames and rumors at
a large scale. Murthy (2008) describes the Mumbai horrible night of terror and he is of the view that no one can blame Pakistan particularly because a group identifying itself “Deccan Mujahedeen” has claimed the responsibility of these attacks. “Deccan” is an
area of India and “Mujahedeen” is the plural form of a Muslim participating in jihad. It is more likely to be the work of “Indian Mujahedeen”, an Islamist group that has claimed
responsibility for other attacks in India and they wanted to release some of their partners from the custody of Indian investigation cells.
Shah (2009) criticizes Pakistan government as the international community, UN and Indian Govt. believed the involvement of ISI and Jihadist group in Mumbai attacks, Pakistani Govt. also responded positively by banning the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, freezing their bank accounts and arresting their leaders. She wants to say that Pakistan is proving itself the root cause of this carnage. Hamid (2008) wants to highlight some crucial facts about terrorism in front of the people and government of India and Pakistan as well as in front
of the world. He explains that the terrorists know very well about the history of Pakistan and India and they want to create a fuss between these two countries again with the help of such mourned terrorism. He further relates the conditions of the residents of Mumbai and Islamabad after the Mumbai attacks and the prolonged stand off at Islamabad’s Red Mosque respectively. He admits that Pakistan and India are not the same but the parallels are remarkable, like rivers, language and history, terrorism ties both countries together. He suggests that wisdom lies however in realizing that India and Pakistan are united by
sorrow and unity between these countries from this mourned terrorism. Burke (2008) beckoned towards an important point that the tactics and style of
attack shacked the minds of experts or analysists, as they were rather different from Al-Qaeda’s method. He also says that the range of culprits is large but the chance of
homegrown insurgency is larger than the external links. Sanghvi (2008) digs out three preliminary points of Mumbai attack. Firstly he blames the worst intelligence services,
which had no idea that an attack was being planned. He suggests that one of the country’s spymaster should have offered to resign. Secondly he mentions the principal targets were
the American and British passport holders and the Israelis and Jews, which signify the continuing global Jihad. Clearly these terrorists were funded armed and trained by global
jihadi forces. Thirdly, the terrorists wants to realize the world that they can go everywhere an can do anything in the world. Striking at the heart of prosperous and
largely peaceful America is equal to striking the heart of India, it had seems India’s 9/11. Phares (2009) raises few points in his global analysis as part of a panel held in the US. Congress to review Mumbai attacks. First of all, he talks about the “Architecture” of the attack, he says that perpetrator used the name of “Deccan Mujahedeen” referring to
the previous attack by the “Indian Mujahedeen”. An Indian statement indicated that there are a large number of Indian Mujahedeen still on the loose after the arrests of October
2008. He is of the view that the perpetrators used the name of that specific group/region to blame its future, if there will be any atrocity occurring again, as the misuse of Al-
Qaeda’s name. But on the other had evidence shows the link to Islamabad. Secondly, he says that it scams to be a home grown terrorism but if you project the operation
indicators, it would lead you to the logic that a great strategic “war room” had been involved and it was not just a task of local jihadist but the international terrorism agencies
were involved in it like Taliban and Al-Qaeda, while the execution was perpetrators by the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Due to the long Run Goal as he raised it at the third point, he elaborate two main goals of the attackers that want to worsen the Indo-Pak relations and to capture the
attention of the world towards other issues like Kashmir and Waziristan. Taliban stated in a press release we will defend Pakistan from an attack by India Meaning to ashamed Islamabad to discontinue its operation in Baluchistan, and it might be the atrocity of
Lashkar-e-Taiba to relieve Kashmiries from Indian brut ness by realizing India’s govt. that how much Kashmir is bleeding, as Mumbai was wounded on November 26, 2008.
He further stated that some of the US intelligences have dismissed an involvement by Al-Qaeda, He says Al-Qaeda was not fully involved in these attacks but it was strengthening the back of terrorists. Corera (2008) analysis the methods or scale of Mumbai attack and meets to a consequent that they were totally changed from the previous attacks like bomb explosion / explosive of public places. He tells that a group named “Deccan Mujahedeen”
has claimed that responsibility but a very little community know about it Corera raises
another point that the prey of terrorists were the elites and the tourist specifically. They specially targeted five star hotels, pubs, Orthodox Jewish Center, hospitals, and station,
as they wanted to create panic especially in such elite society the authorities have pointed the finger at the students of “Islamic Movement of India” or little bit confused about the
“Hindu Nationalist Group”. He is of the view that if India does point the finger at Pakistan then major diplomatic problems could ensure.
In an interview with Newsweek’s Tom Watson, Fareed Zakaria, editor of News Week International and a Mumbai native, speaks about the attacks and the political and social landscape in which they occurred. He believed that there will be a lot of Indians involved and that this will generate a lot of domestic outrage. He also mentioned that
there were many more distinctly American targets (in the city) but the terrorist chose only Indian five star hotels and public places which shows the complexes and inferior of
Indians Muslims or Indians only (lower class or minorities of the state), This proves a lot of Indians were involved in these attacks. He further told that Muslim population has not shared in the boom, which the country has enjoyed over the past decade. There is still a lot of institutional discrimination and many remain persecuted, It seems to be a home grown activity or more probably it might be the wreath of Kashmiries as they have
ravaged by India. Roggio (2008) analyzed the previous international terror strikes with the recent Mumbai attacks and he met the result that these attacks are uniquely different from the
past attacks. He says that the attack of this nature cannot be planned in one day but requires proper training, scouting, financing and a support network to aid the fighters. India is of the opinion stated that Pakistan is a hub of Jihadist activities in South Asia that’s why it is fully involved in this atrocity. Witness as have described that fighters
entered by the sea side, fair skinned and tall wearing jeans and jackets, and used automatic rifles, hand grenades and some machine guns, as well as several car bombs
have showed their proportion. Police official admitted they were “overwhelmed” by the attacks and unable to contain the fighting. 200 national security guards, commandos, a
number of elite Naval commandos, as well as the unknown number of Army forces were deployed to Mumbai and they successfully controlled this assault after a long operation. A report indicates that one of the jihadis made a call to a news station demanding Jihadis be released from the prison in exchange of the hostages. His actual words were we want all Mujahedeen held in India released and only after that we will release the
people. He is of the view that Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan fully supported the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami to destabilize India and wage war
in Kashmir. Kingsbury (2008) finds lessons from the deadly Mumbai attacks to overhaul the Indian security services / forces specially the police force as initial news reports told that
some armed police officers hid rather than shot at the attackers others were simply outgunned and they failed to free the hostages after two hours of attack. He further
explains another reason of these attacks that it might be the atrocity of Indian politicians as it is a common tactic used by different political parties near the elections and
propagate the ruling government. Kingsbury tells that sometimes the response is more important than the actual
incident or assault and therefore attacks aroused the public, televised designed to force the Indian people to demand a response from their government to stop the violate of
rights of minorities or Muslims of India and Kashmir. Chomsky (2004) suggests, “Everyone’s worried about stopping terrorism, well, there’s a really easy way; stop
participating in it”. Tellis (2009) wanted to the world realize world that the bloodbath of 26
November 2008, in Mumbai was not the assault of home grown militants. He clearly raises the finger at Pakistan and Kashmir, specially pointing out the Lashkar-e-Taiba whose wider goals threaten not only secular India but also the west and even Pakistan
itself. A report indicates that these fighters hijacked a fishing trawler (the Kuber) on the high seas with the help of “Pakistan Marine Agency” upon reaching India’s territorial
waters, transferred to inflatable speedboats, which landed at a different location than the city shore from where the assaults began. Tellis finds a reason that achievement of India of becoming a peaceful, prosperous, multi-ethnic and secular democratic state is a big
hurdle in the way of Islamic preaching and jihad against non-Muslims. India’s collaboration with the US and war on terrorism is the root cause of these attacks. As he
quoted the words of (LET’s) Lashkar-e-Taiba’s leader Hafiz Saeed “Lost Muslim Lands”, their purpose is to search pure Muslim and Muslim states in the world. He says that it is an attempt to cripple India’s economic growth, and destroy national confidence
in its political system. He further found that violence is emphatically not directed at remedying the grievances of India’s Muslims or resolving the dispute over Kashmir.
STUDIES RELATED TO THE CULTURAL DIFFERENTIAL THEORY
Elfenbein, Ambadly (2003), discuss the different cultures that the member of same culture can easily judge the emotions of each other as compared to the different culture group. People of different culture while watching the media/movies of another culture,
can easily understand much of their original feelings, and perceive much negative things as media has shown. They further say that the expression of emotion is largely universal
but there is subtle difference across culture that can create a challenge for effective communication.
Galtung (1992), examines the geographical and cultural effect on international news coverage in US media. He finds that media have a power to change the public opinion according to its own policies, about the different regions in the world. Malik (2006), tells another fact that the dough/raw of the reporters or editors rises from their own societies and they portrayal different regions or countries according to their own tradition, policies or ideology at mass level. Griffin (2006), explains that mass media
have a power to maintain the image or culture of powerful people and countries and spoil the poor and powerless.
Baran (2004), highlights the fact of labeling natives of specific region with special words, due to the negative portrayal by western media like “extremists, militants etc (If
Muslim). These labels will conjure up stereotypes in the minds of those who use and hear it. Cultural difference theory is more focused on the microelements of people lives and
communities and Bolima (2009), reveals in her article “context for understanding:
Educational learning theories” that Erickson (1976) used the term “micro ethnography” to describe technique of situation specific analysis and with the help of this technique he
examined “naturally occurring interaction” in public. Van Dijk (1996) says that uses of emotional words, sentences & phrases reflect
the ideology or culture of reporters and broadcasters in their articles and coverage’s, which illustrate the ideological biasness of the media.Said (1997), explains that the
orthodox representation of Islam/Pakistan by western media and portrayal it extremist, fundamentalist is a keen example of culture difference. Mughees (1995), is of the view
that the western media is trying to create a conflict between Islam & Christianity by representing Islam as a non-tolerate religion and Christianity as a tolerant one.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMThis study explores how the international magazines portrayed the image of Pakistan
after the 26/11 terrorist incidents in Mumbai 2008. The literature review establishes that the orthodox representation of Pakistan by Western media is based upon the culture
difference, as people know about Pakistan as a hub of militants, extremists and brutality, the international media reconsider it in same manners.
However Pakistan has been playing a vital role against terrorism after 9/11. With this is mind, it is possible that Pakistan may be presented favorably or it may be
portrayed unfavorably due to the stereotype or it may be neutral. The above literature led to the development of the following question.
RESEARCH QUESTIONSRQ1: How Pakistan image was portrayed in Newsweek, The Time & The Economist
after Mumbai attacks 2008?RQ2: What was the stance of these magazines towards Pakistani image after Mumbai
attacks 2008?
HYPOTHESISTo answer these questions, the following hypothesis is advanced, based on what is known
from the literature review about the cultural difference theory. Ho: Newsweek, The Time and the Economist portrayed Pakistani image positively after
Mumbai attacks November 2008.
METHODThis study is primarily a content analysis, examining the image of Pakistan’s in the
Newsweek, the Time and the Economist after Mumbai attack Nov 2008. Articles play an important role to make communication effective. Western media use this tool for opinion making of public, high officials and policy makers. The data of
this research study includes all articles of three selected magazines from November 26th, 2008 to February 15th, 2009. The database provided 6, 3 and 9 articles for the
Newsweek, The Time and The Economist respectively, given the small number of articles and census was conducted.
Coding Unit Each paragraph of the article was coded in terms of slant paragraph which indicates
positive changes and development in war on terrorism nuclear non-proliferation, religious
harmony, domestic or international politics, economics, art culture, peace promotion activities, initiative taken for peace process with India and signing agreements with other
countries leading to peace an progress, were coded as favorable. On the other hand, paragraph which reflected non-cooperation in war on terror, reluctance in peace
promoting efforts, involvement in supporting terrorist activities, natural accidents and disasters, nuclear proliferation, religious disharmony/conflict, infiltration and militancy in
Kashmir, Chaos and Anarchy, and political, economic and social unrest and conflicts were coded as unfavorable. Paragraphs, which did not depict either favourable or
unfavourable slant, were coded as neutral.
RATIONALE FOR THE SELECTION OF THE THREE MAGAZINES
According to the Wikipedia Newsweek, the second largest American weekly magazine distributed throughout United State and internationally, published in four English
languages and 12 global editions. As of 2003, the circulation of Newsweek is more than 4 million, including 2.7 million the U.S.
Having 3.4 million circulation/year The Time is similar to the Newsweek, an American Newsmagazine having same fame and significance internationally.
Since September 1843, The Economist targets highly educated reader and claim an audience containing may influential executives and policy makers, having 1.3 million
circulations per issue according to 2007.
FINDINGS
In this study, there were 19 articles analyzed, 6 (31.5%) in the Newsweek,4(21.05%) in The Time and 9(47.3%) in The Economist, about the Pakistani image after
Mumbai attacks November 26th, 2008.The international press has been chosen as a sample to study the Pakistani image in the
international world. Hypothesis Ho suggests that the Newsweek, The Time and The Economist portrayed Pakistani image positively after Mumbai attacks November 26th
2008.
Distribution of slant in selected magazines
Magazine Favorable N(%) Unfavorable N(%) Neutral N(%) Total N(%)
Newsweek 0(0%)
2(33.3%)
4(66.6%)
6(100%)
The Time 0(0%)
3(75%)
1(25.3%)
4(100%)
The Economist 0 3 6 9
(0%) (33.3%) (66.6%) (100%)
Total 0(0%)
8(42.11%)
11(57.89%)
19(100%)
The findings of the study showed that the international press did not have soft gesture, towards Pakistan. In Newsweek there were total 6 articles studied during the given time period, in which 2(33.3%) were negative towards Pakistan and 4(66.6%) were natural. The time magazine published 4 articles about the issue in which 3(75%) was negative
towards Pakistan, 1(25%) neutral and not a single one positive to Pakistan. The economist published total 9 articles in which 3(33.3%) negative to Pakistan
6(66.6%) neutral and no one positive. The study described that these entire three magazines had a highly negative stance
towards Pakistan. They had harsh attitude towards Pakistan side and supporting arguments for India. In this regard findings of the study do not support the hypothesis.
RQ1: How Pakistani image was portrayed in Newsweek, the time & the economist after Mumbai attack 2008?
Generally, the Pakistani image was portrayed negatively in Newsweek, the time and the economist in the context of Mumbai attacks. The international media was not willing to accept even listen Pakistani point of view. They used hard language to tarnish Pakistani image. The negative statement of Indian officials was given more weight age but on the
other side the Pakistani point of view was not heard by internationally. RQ2: What was the stance of these magazines towards Pakistani image after Mumbai
attacks 2008? The language and the stance of the magazines were not supportive towards Pakistan.
Pakistani image was propagated in negative manner. Not a single article was written in these magazines to support Pakistan. It seemed that entire international press had turned
negative towards Pakistan.
The overall results depicted that there were total 19 article analyzed in Newsweek, the time and the economist and there were 8(42.11%) negative, 11(57.89%) were neutral and
no one was positive towards Pakistan.
DISCUSSION It is proved by several research studies that cultural difference can easily distress someone’s image whether it is a nation or a country. As reviewed by researcher media
have a power to make or distort the image of anyone (Galtung, 1992; Malik, 2005; Griffin, 2006; Said, 1997; et. Al). This study finding proves the cultural difference
theory. International media generally portray third world countries negatively by focusing
on stories on crime, disasters, conflicts and failure of governments. The image of Pakistan is highly affected by international media after 9/11 although the former
president of Pakistan Parvaiz Musharaf struggled desperately to survive his country’s image but due to the cultural difference the international media have been portraying
Pakistan as a “foe” of ach every religion/country. Since 9/11the results of the study are more often covered neutrally than unfavorably and more often framed as a “foe” than a friend, because of the writers, which belongs to the different cultures. Their dough rises from their region, in other words. They are forced by their orthodox beliefs. Which are already exists inside them. Obviously when they want to write something, the negative
impression about Pakistan comes first in their minds and they don’t have a soft corner for Pakistan.
Most of the international writers of this sample are Indians and rest of the British and Americans. Due to the cultural difference their stance towards Pakistan is more over
neutral and then negative. Most of the negative words and impression used by those writers for Pakistan are “Distrusted place”, “Attackers came from next door-Pakistan”, “International migraine”,
“The most dangerous country in the world”, “Launch pad for militants”, Islamic fundamentalist state.
And specific words for Muslims are “dire people”, “Cynical handlers”, “Illiterate fanatics”, “Extremist group”, “Islamic warrior force”, “Fundamental guerrillas”,
“Brutality of Muslims”. The frequent use of such polarizing language in the articles examined suggests a stereotypical mindset.
More often the results show neutral stance, after studying the sample its quite evident that the Indian politics might be the root cause of this atrocity. Politicians have
been using these tactics for centuries to degrade the running government, its policies and progress. Sample as it might be the Indian opposition party, which exaggerated and
distorted the facts and added fuel to the fire to win the votes from public for the upcoming elections that would be held on May 2009. They showed running Govt. incapable to fight against terrorism. Some of the writers blamed the current Indian
policies. Weak security and armed forces and some blamed Indian intelligence services, which they want to resign from their designations.
A few evidence shows that it might be the insurgency of “home grown militants”, but the Indian high officials deny them. They directly hit the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET) for
this siege. They also blamed the Jaish-e-Muhammad and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JUD), the Islamic religious groups that have banned by the former president Parvaiz Musharaf after
9/11. Indian Govt. clearly blamed Pakistan for this strike but some of the so-called
efforts by America pressurized India to change his views, that it may be the “enemy” of the whole world.
Overall the findings support the cultural difference theory advanced by (Galtung, 1992; Malik, 2006; Griffin, 2006; Said, 1997; et. Al). The results indicate a general bias
against Muslims and Pakistan by international writers.
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Muhammad Ashraf Khan, (PhD) is the Chairman of the Department of Mass Communication, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan
Fatima Imran, is Research Associate in the Department of Mass Communication, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan.
AGENDA SETTING ROLE OF MASS MEDIA
Saqib Riaz
ABSTRACT
Agenda setting theory is basically a theory of strong media effects which suggests that with the passage of time the media agenda becomes the public agenda. This paper
presents theoretical aspects of agenda setting theory in a global perspective. The paper gives an over view of a number of research studies conducted in different parts of the
world to investigate the agenda setting role of mass media. On the basis of the worldwide research, it has been found that the media can play a strong role in public agenda
setting; therefore media should play a responsible role in the society .
INTRODUCTION
We are living in a world where millions of events are taking place simultaneously. Media organizations and institutions have employed thousands of people to observe those events and report them. The news media tell us which issues are important and which ones are not. We have never seen the war situations of Afghanistan , Iraq , Palestine and Kashmir
with our own eyes. Even then we have pictures of these disputed areas in our minds. The media's daily reports inform us about the latest events and changes taking place in the
world beyond our reach. As a result of this phenomenon, most of our perceptions about the world are a second-hand reality created by the media organizations. There is no
assurance and no guarantee that this reality is an accurate picture of the world.
Media organizations do not just passively broadcast information repeating the words of the official sources or conveying exactly the incidents of an event. They also do not select or reject the day's news in proportion to reality. Through their selection and display of the news stories, the reporters and the editors focus their attention and influence the public's perceptions of what are the most important issues of the day. Our pictures of the world are shaped and refined in the way journalists frame their news stories. This function of
media is called the agenda-setting function of media (McCombs 2002).
Agenda Setting is one of the most important media theories of the present times. The concept of agenda setting took its name from the idea that the mass media have the ability
to carry the salience of items on their news agendas and then transfer it to the public agenda. Usually journalists deal with the news in several important ways. First of all, they decide which news to cover and which to ignore. Then they assess all of these
available reports. In the words of McCombs (2002), in a typical daily newspaper, over 75 percent of the potential news of the day is rejected and never transmitted to the audience (p.4). Newspapers don't have enough space to print each and everything that is available. There is no way other than choices. These are the first steps in gate-keeping routine. But the news items that pass through the gate of the media organizations do not receive equal treatment when presented to the audience. Some news stories are published in a greater length and prominently displayed. Others receive only brief attention. Newspapers very clearly state the journalistic salience of an item through its page placement, headline and
length etc.
Agenda setting claims that audiences obtain this salience of the issues from the news media, incorporating similar sets of priorities into their own agendas. Agenda setting describes the transmission of these saliencies as one of the most important aspects of
mass communication. The news media not only inform us about the world at large, giving us the major elements for our pictures of the world, they also influence the prominence of
those elements in these pictures.
SELECTIVITY IN MEDIA
Today, we are living in a global village where the mass media are an important source of information about what is going on in the world. This is an obvious fact that the news
media organizations seem more interested in some events than in others. This is widely understood and accepted that the material presented by the media organizations is
selective. That selectivity is a result of its limited capacity to provide total surveillance. Some factors are imposed on the people who do the gate-keeping (reporters and editors),
and some financial limitations and economic pressures are also placed on the media because they must survive as profit making commercial organizations. These factors play
a vital role to decide which stories to select, follow up, emphasize, interpret and manipulate in particular and desired ways.
According to the agenda-setting theory, because of the fact of paying attention to some issues and neglecting and ignoring some others, the mass media will have an effect on
public opinion. People will be inclined to know about those issues and things, which are highlighted by the mass media and they adopt the order of priority assigned to different
issues. This theory primarily deals with learning and not with attitude or opinion change. Some of the empirical studies of mass communication had confirmed that the most
expected effects to occur would be on matters of information. Usually, people learn what the issues are and how these are ordered in importance in the media agenda.
ACTIVE ROLE OF MASS MEDIA
News media organizations are not just passive transmitters of information, repeating the words of official sources or conveying exactly the events in a way as they happened.
Through their daily selection and presentation of the news, editors and reporters focus attention of the public's perceptions about the most important issues of the day. Hence, our attention is further focused and our pictures of the world are shaped and reproduced
by the way journalists frame their news stories.
BEGINNING OF THE AGENDA SETTING RESEARCH
It was Lippmann's theory that the mass media create our pictures of the world. However, he understood that the pictures provided by the media were often incomplete and unclear.
We can see only reflections of reality (not reality itself) in the news media. Yet, those reflections provide the basis for our pictures (Lippman, 1922).
After a long period of four decades, Bernard Cohen presented his idea in 1963 by saying: “Press may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is
stunningly successful in telling readers what to think about” (pp.232-233).
The notion that the news media influence the “pictures in our heads” was put to an empirical test in 1972. Two researchers Maxwell McCombs & Donald Shaw from the University of North Carolina thought whether the topics selected by the news media to represent the world outside limited the kinds of events that people used to interpret the
world. They also thought whether the public's perception of reality depended on the topics highlighted by the news media or not (McComb & Shaw, 1972).
During the 1968 presidential election of the USA , McCombs and Shaw conducted the first test of Lippmann's theory in Chapel Hill , NC . At that time, the existing theory was that the mass media had only limited effects on the public. Earlier studies conducted by some scholars stated that exposure to campaign information had little influence on the
public's voting behaviors (Lazarsfeld. Berelson, & Gaudet, 1948; Berelson, Lazarsfeld, & McPhee, 1954). According to this limited effects model, voters relied on social groups
and their perceptions to guide their voting decisions. The news media only supported and
to some extent reinforced voters' preference for some particular politician or party. Joseph Klapper (1960) summarized his research in the words that “mass communication
ordinarily does not serve as a necessary and sufficient cause of audience effects, but rather functions among and through a nexus of mediating functions and influences” (p.8).
It was a tremendous beginning of a new mass communications theory, which can be divided into two aspects. The first aspect relates to the transmission of issue or object
salience from the media agenda to the public agenda. The second aspect tells us about the news media's role in framing those issues and objects in the minds of people.
McCombs and Shaw (1972) tested the notion that the mass media influence public perception about the important issues of the day through their daily selection and display of the news in their news bulletin etc. Especially, they believed that with the passage of
time the priority issues of the news media organizations would become the priority issues of the public. The media audience can easily feel the priorities of the news agenda. In
newspapers the size of the headlines, the length of the news story, and the page placement where the story appears indicate the prominence of the news story. In
television broadcasts the position of an item in the newscast and the length of the story can determine its importance. These signals help the audience in making their priorities among a small number of issues selected for attention in the daily news broadcasts and
outlets.
While conducting their research during the 1968 Chapel Hill study, McCombs and Shaw focused their attention on the most important problem facing the country. It was an open-
ended question, “What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today?” They also asked another question “What are you most concerned about these days? That is what are the two or three main things which you think the government should concentrate on doing something about?” (p.178). The researchers then made
ranking order of the issues according to the percentage of voters stating the position of each issue.
A number of other researches adopted the similarly worded open-ended questions to measure salience (Erbring, Goldenberg, & Miller, 1980; Iyengar, 1979; Neuman, 1990,
etc.). Smith (1987) measured the public agenda in his research study, investigating a relationship between local newspaper coverage and public concern about community
issues, by asking, “What do you think are our community's most important problems and needs?” Edelstein (1974) highly praised this approach because it allows respondents to
explain what problems are important to them rather than choosing from a list provided by the researcher.
On the other hand, the alternative approach is the closed ended question which has some other advantages. Use of a closed ended or short question in which respondents are asked
to rank a series of issues provides a more detailed picture of the public agenda. This practice can provide a comparison of agenda on a variety of issues' importance.
The content of the news media was the independent variable in the Chapel Hill study. The researchers compared responses of their open-ended survey questions with a content
analysis of the nine major news sources used by the voters of that particular area. Television, radio, newspapers, and news magazines were included in the sources. As a result of the open-ended survey question five major issues of importance were found to the voters of Chapel Hill . These issues were foreign policy, law and order, fiscal policy, civil rights, evaluation of the news coverage across three weeks of the last presidential campaign (McCombs & Shaw, 1972). The public agenda of the issues of the study was rank-ordered according to the number of voters naming an issue. These five issues were rank-ordered on the news agenda according to the percentage of news coverage on the
issues falling into each category. There was a strong and significant relationship between the public's and the media's agenda about the issues. This transfer of salience from the
media agenda to the public agenda was called as the agenda-setting role of mass communication.
The basic purpose of the McCombs and Shaw's study was to investigate a link between the content of the news agenda and the public agenda. The researchers tried to avoid the
misleading idea of possible effects, which occurs when only media content is studied. For example, it cannot be assumed that people watching televised violence will repeat the same act of violence in their real lives. Only after analyzing television content and the public's reactions the researchers can say that a correlation exists. Secondly, McCombs and Shaw wanted to examine effects on people that resulted from some specific content of the media messages. Earlier media effects studies did not attempt to establish a link
between the effects and specific media content. This study tried to determine a relationship between media and public regarding acceptance of media messages.
The Chapel Hill research study provides a methodological ground for the agenda-setting research. However, there is some criticism on this study. Some people argue that a content analysis of the media joined with public opinion surveys provides only one approach to media influence on the pictures in our minds. It might be better for the
researchers to arrange a field, or a laboratory experiment to find out the existence of agenda setting in mass communication.
EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH
Since that initial study till now, a great number of published studies have proven this influence of the news media. The agenda-setting power of the news media has also been proven experimentally in the laboratory. Iyengar and Kinder (1987) conducted a series of controlled experiments in which participants viewed television news programs that had
been designed to highlight some issues, such as national defense or pollution of the environment. When the participants' ranking of the importance of these experimentally manipulated issues was compared to the salience for them with the other issues of the
day, clear agenda-setting effects were found. The issues highlighted in the experimental versions of the newscasts were perceived as more important. The researchers concluded their findings by stating that in some experiments, exposure to a single television news
program produced the agenda-setting effects. However, usually the agenda-setting effects were found only after watching a number of newscasts.
A reasonable number of studies have been conducted on the agenda-setting theory. Rogers , Dearing, and Bregman (1993) found 223 publications that directly or indirectly were linked with agenda setting from 1922 to 1992. Most of them appeared after the year 1971, with the climax years of publication (1977, 1981, 1987, 1991) each producing 17 to 20 items (Rogers et al., 1993). Recently, a scholar Aeron Delwiche (2007) claimed in his
article “Agenda Setting, Opinion Leadership and the world of Web Logs” that the number of studies on agenda setting has exceeded 350.
QUALITIES AND POWERS OF AGENDA SETTING THEORY
Agenda-Setting theory has its beginning in a scientific background. It predicts that if people use the same media for information, they will place importance on the same
issues. According to Chaffee & Berger's (1997) criteria for scientific theories, agenda-setting is a good theory for a number of reasons.
• This theory has an explanatory power because it explains why people prioritize certain issues.
• It's predictive power is also recognized because it predicts the priorities of the media audience according to the news media content.
• This theory is economical because it is easy to understand.
• It's theoretical assumptions are balanced and unbiased.
• The theory provides new areas for further research
• The theory of agenda setting has an organizing power because it helps to organize existing knowledge of media effects on society.
THE ACAPULCO TYPOLOGY
The comparison of the media agenda with the public agenda has been operationalized in four different categories. The researchers of the agenda-setting theory call these kinds of designs as the Acapulco typology (McCombs, 1981). This typology was first presented at the International Communication Association convention in Acapulco , Mexico . So this
is the reason why this typology is called as Acapulco typology.
• The first type of this typology compares the news coverage for a set of major issues to the aggregate public agenda. The original Chapel Hill study is the best example of Type I
design in the agenda-setting literature.
• The second type also examines the media agenda (defined in terms of a set of issues), but shifts the units of analysis for the public agenda from the aggregate population to the
individual. In such situations, the rank-order of an agenda of issues is determined for each person on individual basis.
• The third type determines the relationship between the media coverage of a single issue and the public opinion about this issue over a period of time. The study of Winter and
Eyal (1981) is an example of this type of Design.
• Type four investigates the relationship between the media coverage of a single issue and the salience of that issue on an individual agenda. The research design of the
laboratory experiment is also used in this type and it complements the field research. For example, Iyengar and Kinder (1987) conducted their research on agenda-setting effects repeatedly in a series of laboratory experiments. During the laboratory experiments, the participants watched actual television programs to enhance the salience of certain issues. The result was according to the expectations of the researchers and an increased level of
concern was found for the desired issues.
Perhaps there is only one study that has undertaken the vastness of examining simultaneously all four types of the agenda-setting designs. This study was conducted in Taiwan . In his analysis of Taiwan 's first fully contested legislative election in more than 40 years, King (1994) found some evidence of agenda setting with all four designs. The
strongest results emerged from a Type one analysis of the newspaper agenda.
Now, we take a brief overview of this typology. Opposite to the three other versions of the public agenda, Type 2 studies highlight individual difference of the audience. An issue agenda is constructed for each individual. Obviously, the items making up these
individual agenda must be the same across all of the individuals.
Type 1 and Type 2 use the symbol of an agenda in a real manner. In these situations, the agenda is a set of rank-ordered issues. In contrast, Type 3 and Type 4 designs focus on a single issue, testing the hypothesis that variations in the salience of an issue on the public agenda reflect variations in the news coverage of that issue. The difference between Type
3 and Type 4 is that the Type 3 study verifies the agenda setting influences of news coverage on a population while Type 4 study examines the agenda setting influence of
news coverage on an individual.
It can be summarized that there are four different research designs for agenda setting research. These designs are based on the key theoretical and methodological decisions
that define the Acapulco typology.
CONTINGENT CONDITIONS FOR AGENDA SETTING
A number of research studies including the original Chapel Hill study investigated the basic agenda-setting hypothesis that news coverage patterns influence public opinion
about the important issues of the day. However, some contingent conditions may increase
or reduce the influence of the agenda-setting of news media. These contingent conditions include the psychological concept of need for orientation, comparative roles of news
media organizations, and the role of interpersonal communication channels in the process of mass communication.
Traditional media research about the effects of mass communication considers audience members as passive receivers of the media messages. This approach gave birth to the basic agenda-setting hypothesis “the media agenda affects the public agenda.” On the other hand, there is another approach called as “the uses and gratifications approach” which assumes that people are not at all the passive receivers of the media messages;
rather they are active mass media users who select certain media content to fulfill their particular needs. Therefore, the second phase of agenda setting research relates with
psychological explanations for agenda setting. Keeping in view this situation, the original research questions, “What are the effects of the media agenda on the public agenda?”
becomes “Why do some media users expose themselves to certain mass media messages more than other people?” This psychological concept of need for orientation states that
people feel a need to be oriented to their surroundings. The surroundings include both the physical world and the cognitive world they have.
Furthermore, the media factor is not the only determinant of the public agenda. The agenda setting theory does not negate the basic statement of democracy that the people themselves have sufficient wisdom and knowledge to determine the pathway of their
nation, their state, and their local communities. The people are quite able to decide the basic relevance of the issues and attributes presented by the news media. The media set
the public agenda only when people perceive their news stories as relevant.
We all have a need for orientation. Each and every person living in this world has a need to understand the environment around him. Whenever we find ourselves in a new
situation, a new state or a new country, we feel an uncomfortable psychological situation until we walk around at least some of the surrounding areas. This natural need for
orientation also exists in the political and governmental matters, especially in those elections where citizens are faced with unfamiliar candidates in the election. In all these
situations people feel a need for orientation?
As we all know, the degree of need for orientation varies greatly from one person to another. For some people in some situation, there is a high need for orientation. For some other persons, there is little or no need for orientation at all. Need for orientation has two integral components: relevance and uncertainty. Relevance is the primary condition that
determines the level of need for orientation for each person. If a topic is perceived as irrelevant or very low in relevance, then the need for orientation is low. Usually, people in these situations give little or no attention to news media reports, thus producing weak
agenda-setting effects.
On the other hand, for persons among whom the relevance of a topic or issue is high, their degree of uncertainty about the topic or the issue determines the level of need for
orientation. If the level of this uncertainty is low the people feel that they basically
understand the topic, and then the need for orientation is moderate. These people will watch the media for new developments and perhaps some times for some additional
background information. Agenda-setting effects among this group are modest.
Finally, among persons for whom both the relevance and their uncertainty about certain situation are high, need for orientation is high. These individuals normally are committed consumers of the news, and usually strong agenda-setting effects are found among these
individuals.
LEVELS OF MEASURING AGENDA-SETTING EFFECTS
Some researchers extended the measurement of the public agenda on the basis of their research studies. In a research study, McLeod, et al. (1974) presented an idea of
measuring agenda-setting effects by three different level public agendas. According to his theory, the first public agenda is an intrapersonal or self public agenda. The question
asked in the survey of the Chapel Hill study (“What are you most concerned about these days?”) and the question asked in most of the surveys (“What is the most important
problem facing this country?”) are actually operational definitions of the intrapersonal agenda. These questions provide a psychological measurement of asking people what
they talk about with family and friends. Then comes the second public agenda, which is called as an interpersonal public agenda and it comes when people talk about certain issues with their family members and friends. The third public agenda is about the
apparent community public agenda. This agenda appears when people explain what others in the society regard as the most important issues.
WHO SETS THE MEDIA AGENDA?
We believe on the basis of worldwide research that to a greater extent the media set the agenda of the public. But there emerges another important question, if the media set the public agenda, then who sets the media agenda? This question is important in the sense that it transforms the agenda-setting research from independent variable to dependent
variable. A number of factors inside and outside media organizations play an important role in setting the media agenda by influencing the media content. The personal attitudes and orientations of media workers, professional routines, commercial policies, ownership
patterns, economic policies, advertisers, and the governments influence media content. Media content is necessarily manipulated when events are relocated and reproduced into
news.
PASSIVE AND ACTIVE ROLES OF MEDIA
The research studies of earlier times considered media as channel, suggesting the media as nothing more than pipes through which bits and parts of information flow. In these
studies media were considered as the neutral transmitters of information, linking senders to receivers. This model states that nothing important happens to the message while it is in the communication channel. The neutral journalist theory and the null effects model
support the passive role of media. The null effects model presented by Young (1981) states that mass media provide a good representation of reality with little or no changing.
The research of modern age (Shoemaker & Reese, 1996) doesn't accept the approach of the passive role of mass media. Modern researchers believe that media content is
necessarily manipulated when events are relocated and reproduced into news. News media content establishes a symbolic environment by giving greater attention (in the
shape of more time, more prominence etc) to certain events, people or group of people than others. So the modern research believes in the active role of media and takes media
as the active part of the society.
THEORETICAL APPROACHES
While discussion on the influences on media content, the following theoretical approaches are important in this regard.
• Mass media content is influenced by media workers' socialization and attitudes. Their professional training, personal and political attitudes and affiliations lead them to produce
a social reality.
• Media content is influenced by media routines. These routines are the ways in which media workers and their organizations perform their work. For example to write a news story before a deadline time or to write it in inverted pyramid are two media routines.
• News media content is influenced by the ideology of those who are in power in the society. Mass media follow an ideology consistent with those motives and interests,
which helps ensure that society will continue in its present form.
• Media content is influenced by other social institutions and forces. This approach suggests that economic and cultural factors and audience members determine content.
(Shoemaker & Reese, 1996).
• Now we describe these influences on media content in detail.
INDIVIDUAL MEDIA WORKERS' INFLUENCE ON MEDIA CONTENT
Media content is influenced by media workers including reporters, editors, correspondents, news producers, etc. Their personal attitudes, values, beliefs, affiliations,
educational and social background, working environment, professional background influences media content. Their professional experiences shape their roles and ethics.
These professional roles and ethics have a direct effect on media content. The working environment of media organizations, facilities provided to journalists and especially the salary structure of the media workers influence media content. The content of the elite newspapers greatly differs from the content of small newspapers having poor working
conditions.
The personal political attitudes and religious affiliations of the journalists also have an effect on the news production process. In the US , a survey was conducted to investigate the wire journalists' influence on news content. Eleven percent of the sample population
of the Wire journalists accepted to adding a personal slant to facts of the news story all of the time, 46.4% took a more careful approach, only admitting to it "often", and a huge number of them (92.5%) stated that they added a new angle to the news items at least
sometimes. In addition, 72.3% said they "sometimes took information from press releases to support their own angle, 20% told they did this "very rarely" and 5.3% said they never
did this. Most amazingly, 89.2% of those interviewed journalists tended to interpret and/or significance of the information for their readers, whereas only 10.4% presented
information without adding anything. ( Leyland 1999).
INFLUENCE OF MEDIA ROUTINES
Media workers perform their duties within a sphere of routines. For example gatekeeping is a routine. Meeting the deadlines is another routine. Reliance on official sources for
news is yet another routine. Dependence of media organizations on each other (for news etc.) is also another routine. These routines ensure that the media system will respond in a predictable manner. Media content is influenced by these routines. These routines affect
the social reality depicted by media. Journalists usually rely on sources for news but these sources can have their own personal interests and while giving the information to the
reporters, they will definitely protect their vested interests. In the same way news agencies and wire services have a very strong influence on media content. Usually
newspapers accept each and every important news item released by the news agencies.
Media organizations also set each other's agenda. These organizations carefully monitor each other's coverage and display of news stories. If some newspaper's staff find
something interesting in some other newspaper, they reprint such news items for their own readers. Newspapers usually publish a number of news stories broadcast by radio
stations and TV channels. In the words of Shoemaker and Reese (1996), “Journalists rely heavily on each other for ideas, and this reliance constitutes an important organizational
routine” (p. 101). Hence, a news item published or broadcast once is published and broadcast again and again by the other media organizations.
Usually, Pakistani media observe each other very carefully to win the maximum audience. If some newspaper breaks a news story exclusively, the other media also carry
it and repeat its broadcast and/or publication. This is because of a close competition among media to win the maximum number of audience. The media organizations can't afford to lose their readers and viewers. This is the reason why the media organizations depend heavily on each other for news. Hence they play a pivotal role in setting each
other's agenda.
ORGANIZATIONAL INFLUENCES ON MEDIA CONTENT
Media organizations have their own aims and objectives. Throughout the world, most of the media organizations are owned by non-media owners. The majority of them are
owned by the huge business groups like the General Electric Company that owns a number of TV channels, radio stations and newspapers in the USA .
For most of the media organizations (in developed as well as in the developing countries), the primary goal is to earn money. Profit maximization is their ultimate goal. The words of public service don't exist in the dictionary of business, commerce and stock
exchange. The person who spends millions and billions of rupees aims to earn some profit, so media organizations usually don't compromise on profit and it remains their
first priority. These economic considerations become constraints on news work putting an indirect influence on editorial decisions. Sigal (1973) states on the basis his research that
“profit maximization provides no guideposts, only constraints” (p.8).
In the words of Shoemaker and Reese (1996), the commercial mass media make their money by delivering audience to advertisers. To the extent that they are consumed by
desirable target audiences, print and broadcast media are attractive to advertisers. They must also provide messages compatible with the ads (p. 123).
With the increasing complexity of the corporate organizational structure of the media organizations, concerns have risen about the journalistic autonomy and freedom of the media in almost the whole world. In the newspapers organizations editors have become managers. They control both the editorial and business sections of the paper. However, the relative power of the journalistic section is less. Appointing managers in positions formerly filled by media personnel makes a strong impact on media content. It is also
clear that the final organization-level power lies with owners, who set the media agenda.
INFLUENCES FROM OUTSIDE MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS
A number of sources from outside the media organizations influence media content. Shoemaker and Reese (1996) state these influences in these words:
“They include the sources of information that become media content, such as special interest groups, public relations campaigns, and even the news organizations themselves;
revenue sources such as advertisers and audiences, other social institutions such as business and government; the economic environment; and technology” (p. 147).
In the developing countries like Pakistan , perhaps the strongest external influence on media content comes from the governments and advertisers. It becomes almost
impossible for media organizations to survive without the financial support of the governments and advertisers. The theory of “pay the piper” works here and as a return of
economic benefits, media organizations produce most of their content in favor their financers (governments and advertisers). Modern multinational companies have enough
power to suppress public messages they do not like. In addition to these factors, the public relations campaigns launched by different organizations (public as well as private
organizations) and the pressure groups of the society put a heavy influence on media content. Hence these factors from outside the media organizations play a pivotal role in
setting the news media's agenda.
INFLUENCE OF IDEOLOGY ON MEDIA CONTENT
Ideology also plays an important role in setting the agenda of the news media. In the words of Becker, “an ideology is an integrated set of frames of reference through which each of us sees the world and to which all of us adjust our actions” (Becker, 1984,p.69).
What is the basis of ideology in a country like Pakistan ? Obviously the ideology of Islamic values governs as a supreme ideology. So the media have to respect and regard
the ideology of Islamic values. But at the same time there is another theory that the media obey and that is the ideology of those who are in power in certain society. The Pakistani media are depicting the same picture in their daily broadcasts and publications. It seems
that the media are obeying the ideology of the rulers all the time.
Altschul (1984) has presented another idea with the assumption that media reflect the ideology of those who finance them or ‘pay the piper'. He states four sources of media
support; “(1) Under the official pattern media are controlled by the state, (2) in the commercial pattern media reflect the ideology of advertisers and their media-owning
allies, (3) under the interest pattern media content reflects the ideology of the financing group, such as a political party and a religious group, and (4) in the informal pattern
content reflects the goals of individual contributors who want to promote their views. The mix of these financing patterns varies from country to country and overtime within
countries” (p.254). According to this framework, the media always reflect the ideology of the paymasters. Hence the financers and the paymasters of the media play a significant
role in setting the media's agenda.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of the detailed discussion and the findings of different research studies, it can be concluded that the mass media can play a pivotal role in changing the minds of the people. Because of the agenda setting role of mass media, the media agenda becomes the
public agenda with the passage of time. The theory supports the concept of the strong media effects. Now it becomes the responsibility of the media organizations to play a
responsible role in their agenda setting, because ultimately it will become public agenda. The theory puts a high responsibility on the shoulders of media organizations because
their irresponsible behavior can damage the national interest.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Saqib Riaz is Assistant Professor in the Department of Mass Communication, Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), Islamabad , Pakistan . He has done his masters in Mass communication from Punjab University Lahore and M. Phil. in Mass Communication from AIOU Islamabad. He got advanced training in Journalism from the International
Institute for Journalism, Berlin , Germany . Recently he has completed his Ph.D. in Mass Communication and his PhD thesis has been evaluated by three different Professors
belonging to the top universities of the USA . He is a famous journalist and has worked as magazine editor in a couple of Islamabad based national newspapers. He is author of two books on Journalism and also a renowned media consultant of the country. He has achieved a number of awards and honors during his professional career. He is a Free Lance journalist and contributes articles to the national and international newspapers.
E-mail: [email protected] Phone: 051-9057828
TREATMENT OF IRAQ ISSUE BY PAKISTAN ENGLISH PRESS
Dr. Muhammad Nawaz Mahsud
Noman Yaser
Abdul Rehman Qaiser
ABSTRACT
This article describes the treatment of Iraq issue by the editorial pages content of two English dailies. Total 122 newspapers content are analyzed. The results show significant difference between the spaces given by the papers editorial pages content published on
the Iraq issue The findings show that daily ‘Dawn' has given significant space to editorials, articles, and letters to the editor than daily “The News.' The review of the
results regarding both the papers for and against treatment of the selected set of issues shows that ‘The News' has devoted significant unfavorable space to the issue of Saddam and civilian killing than daily ‘Dawn' unfavorable space given to the same issues. The overall comparison of the treatment of the selected issues illustrates that daily ‘ Dawn'
has given somewhat favorable space to the issues of Saddam Hussain and Iraq Government while daily ‘The News' has given somewhat favorable space to the US
Policy and the Democrat Policy than daily ‘Dawn.' The findings further show that daily ‘ Dawn' has spared significantly more space to the neutral news items of all the selected issues than daily' The News' while ‘The News' has spared more unfavorable space to
almost all the selected issues than the ‘Dawn.
STUDY'S BACKGROUND
The Iraq issue involved unprecedented media coverage. The media coverage itself became a source of media controversy, with accusations of bias despite the fact that the
U.S. government acknowledges the lack of a link between Hussein and Al-Qaeda, and the absence of weapons of mass destruction. After the invasion, the editor of the New York
Times apologized for its coverage of Hussein's alleged weapons programs, acknowledging that "we wish we had been more aggressive in re-examining the claims
related to Iraqi weapons programs as new evidence emerged. During the invasion, critics argued that the mainstream media unduly focused on optimistic events, such as the
toppling of a Saddam's statue in Firdos Square , which was staged with the help of the U.S. military forces, thus downplaying more negative news developments. In particular, the mainstream media has been criticized for underreporting news about Iraqi civilian
casualties (cited at www.wikipedia.org ).
The situation in Baghdad and several provinces is alarming. The level of violence is high and growing. There is great suffering, and the daily lives of many Iraqis show little or no
improvement. The ability of the United States to influence events within Iraq is diminishing. Many Iraqis are embracing sectarian identities. It runs along the sectarian
fault lines of Shia and Sunni Islam, and of Kurdish and Arab populations. It has the
world's second-largest known oil reserves. Most countries in the region are not playing a constructive role in support of Iraq , and some are undercutting stability. Iraq is vital to
regional and even global stability, and is critical to U.S. interests. It is now a base of operations for international terrorism, including al Qaeda. Events in Iraq have been set in
motion by American decisions and actions. An assessment of the security, political, economic, and regional situation follows (all figures current as of publication), along with
an assessment of the consequences if Iraq continues to deteriorate, and an analysis of some possible courses of action (Baker and Hamilton, 2006)
During the last quarter of 2006, perceptions about the civil war in Iraq drastically changed. In September, President George W. Bush was finally persuaded that things were not going well and agreed to a review of his administrative policy. In early December this
mood of pessimism was augmented by the publication of the Iraq Study Group (ISG) report, co-chaired by James Baker and Lee Hamilton. The report did not mince its words:
“The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating. There is no path that can guarantee success.” This in turn forced Bush to admit ‘it's bad in Iraq '. ‘I understand how tough it
is. And have been telling the American people how tough it is. And they know how tough it is. Finally, in January after the devastating mid-term congressional election results, Bush announced that ‘the situation in Iraq was unacceptable'; ‘we need to change our
strategy'.
The possibility that Saddam Hussain might develop weapon of mass destruction and pass them to terrorist was the prime reason Mr. Bush given in 2003 for ordering the invasion on Iraq . We have also discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological
weapons across border. As intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal
weapons ever devised, cited at: www.fair.org ). What makes Iraq the subject of intense concern, as Mr. Bush noted, is Mr. Saddam Hussain disobedience of the Security
Council's longstanding instructions to dismantle Baghdad 's nuclear weapons program and to eliminate all its biological and chemical weapons and the material used to make them. The unwavering goal is to disarm Iraq , enforcing a string of previous Security Council resolutions that Baghdad has contemptuously ignored. The cost of letting that happen has been diminished authority of the United Nations and a growing danger that Iraq's unconventional weapons will be used in war or passed on to terrorists (cited at:
www.msnbc.msn.com ).
One catastrophic aspect of the Iraq war that has gone into the background is the irreparable damage done to Iraq 's infrastructure and loss to the Arab people as a whole is
often buried in the news about the human tragedy in Iraq . The death of a minimum 300,000 civilians, the flight of at least two million Iraqis to neighboring countries,
especially Syria, and the constant rise in the number of internal refugees. Now we know that there is hardly any government in Baghdad worth its name. It does not command the people's confidence because most Iraqis view it as an American puppet. Iraq seems to be
splitting on sectarian and ethnic lines. Kurdistan is already virtually autonomous. The amusing part of the bill is that, even if the president issues such a certificate, the
withdrawal must in any case begin in March 2008 and be completed by September. The dilemma is President Bush's. If he refuses to pull his troops out, the anarchy and violence will continue; if he withdraws, the Iraqi government will simply be wiped out in a matter
of days, and Iraq will be under the control of religious extremists .
The United States has made a massive commitment to the future of Iraq in both blood and treasure. Countless Americans have lost their lives serving in Iraq . To date, the United States has spent roughly $600 billion on the Iraq War, and costs are running about $8 billion per month. In addition, the United States must expect significant “tail costs” to come. Caring for veterans and replacing lost equipment will run into the hundreds of
billions of dollars. Estimates run as high as $2 trillion for the final cost of the U.S. involvement in Iraq . Despite a massive effort, stability in Iraq remains elusive and the situation is deteriorating. The Iraqi government cannot now govern, sustain, and defend itself without the support of the United States . Iraqis have not been convinced that they
must take responsibility for their own future. Iraq 's neighbors and much of the international community have not been persuaded to play an active and constructive role
in supporting Iraq . The ability of the United States to shape outcomes is diminishing. Time is running out (Baker and Hamilton, 2006).
It is a war of blood for oil. People are being killed on daily basis including Americans and allied forces' soldiers. Death sentence of Saddam Hussain led the way to civil war, intersect terrorist activities. As a Muslim country involvement in this false expedition,
role of the press in this issue will be a matter of great interest. Expected change in policy after the winning of election by democrats has made this issue more interesting for study.
Another important development is the internal pressure of the American nation to withdraw from Iraq is getting strength. Announcement of the withdrawal or reduction in army by member of Allied Forces has given this issue another new outlook. That is why
this study seeks to explore Pakistan English press editorial treatment of Iraq issue to determine their role in term of favorable, unfavorable and neutral stance on the issue.
The Role of Press , “Role of the Press” writes, in wartime the press is always part of the problem. When the nation goes to war, the press goes with it ( www.mediaed.org ). Critics agree the role of the press in the war against Iraq has been to deter dissenting
opinions and to be "cheerleaders" for the ongoing battle. Any attempt at objectivity was abandoned once the bombs started dropping and was replaced with one-sided and overly
patriotic sentiments, which closely resemble the administration's stance on the war. Transfixed with tactical maneuvers and overall strategies inside Iraq , media outlets
rarely mention that this entire war by the U.S. government and its British accomplice is a flagrant violation of international law.” In an attempt to decode the reasoning for
unbalanced news coverage of the war and the lack of alternative voices, Solomon (2003) believes that the White House has been sending a message to working journalists since September 11th: Exercise too much independence and you'll risk accusations of giving aid and comfort to the terrorist enemy. In other attempts by media critics to define the
role of the press during military conflict, many believe that there is loyalty by the press to
the administration and vice versa because the two are one in the same: the wealthy and the elite. "The media lines up with the government on fundamental matters...because the
media themselves are huge corporations that share the same economic and political interests with the tiny elite that run the U.S. government," .
Many studies ((Peterson and Thurston, 1933) have focused on the concept of “attitude”, or peoples' general predispositions to evaluate other people objects and issues favorably or unfavorably. The attitude construct achieved its pre-eminent position in research on
social influence because of the assumption that a person's attitude is information, on the one hand, and behavioral change on the other. Over the past 50 years numerous theories of attitude change and model of knowledge—attitude and behavior relationships—have
been developed (Eagly and Chaiken, 1993; Mcguire,1985; Petty, Unnava, and Strathman, 1991). Contemporary analysts of mass media persuasion have focused on the variable that determine when the media persuasion will be effective versus ineffective and what the underlying processes are by which the media induce change. The most well known psychological framework for categorizing and understanding mass media persuasion
effects was popularized by Hovland and his colleagues (Hovland 1954,1959; Hovland, Jans, and Kelley,1953) are considerably elaborated by McGuire(1985,1989).
Although the person ability to learn and recall new information was often thought to be important casual determinant of and prerequisite to attitude and behavior change. Little
empirical evidence has accumulated to support the view that message learning is necessary step (Greenwald, 1968; Mcguire, 1985; Petty and Cacioppo,1981). The
message comprehension and learning can occur in the absence of attitude change, and that a person's attitude can change with out learning the specific information in the
communication that is, a person might be able to comprehend all of intended information perfectly, but not be persuaded either because the information is counter argued or seem as personally irrelevant. A person might get the information all wrong (scoring zero on a
knowledge test) but think about it a manner that produces the intended change. This analysis helps to understand that why previous research on mass media effects has
sometimes found that message learning and changes in knowledge occur in the absence of attitude change and vice versa (Petty, Baker and Gleicher 1991). The attitude change
process involves considerable cognitive work does not mean that the attitude formed will be rational or “accurate one.” However, the important point is that a rather thoughtful
process in which people attend carefully the issue relevant information presented changes sometimes attitudes. Examine this information in the light of their relevant experiences and knowledge and evaluate the information along with the dimensions they perceive
central to the merits of the issue. People engaged in this effortful cognitive actively have been characterized as engaging in “systematic” (Chaiken, Ciberman, and Eagly, 1989),
“Mindfull” (Plamero et al 1984), and “Piecemeal” (Fiske and Pavelchak, 1986) processing.
Of course much of the correlation between (print) coverage and rating of issues importance is due to the fact that the media cover issues people already think are
important. Nevertheless, some research studies show that the media coverage can precede public perception (Mackuen, 1981). “Greater thinking about a message can also be
induced by having the individual arguments presented by multiple sources rather than just one” (Harkin and Petty, 1981; More and Reardon, 1987). The multi source effect is attenuated if people suspect that the multiple sources are not providing independent
analysis of the issue (Harkin and Petty, 1987). When strong arguments are presented, disrupting thinking should enhance persuasion by reading counter-arguing (Petty and
Brock, 1981). Different media sources have an impact on people's ability to think about message specially people are generally better able to process message that appear in the print media that those are controlled externally (e.g.. radio and television; Chaiken and
Eagly, 1976). The U.S. invasion of Iraq was the most widely and closely reported war in military history. Television network coverage was largely pro-war and viewers were six
times more likely to see a pro-war source as one who was anti-war. The New York Times ran a number of articles describing Saddam Hussein's attempts to build weapons of mass destruction. The September 8 , 2002 article titled "U.S. Says Hussein Intensifies Quest for A-Bomb Parts" would be discredited, leading the New York Times to issue a public statement admitting it was not as rigorous as it should have been (www.wikipedia.com).
Chang-Ho Lee (2003) study shows how the The New York Times and Arab newspapers reflected their national interests in their coverage of the Iraqi War. It was assumed that the selected papers would express different attitudes toward the war since the former
belonged to a country supporting the conflict and the latter to countries that opposed it. It was expected that the media would reflect their respective national perspectives on
foreign policy in such a crisis. To test this hypothesis, articles and editorials on opinion pages on war form March 20, 2003 to May 1, 2003 were sampled. Total 502 stories were
used for content analysis. It was found that The New York Times emphasized U.S. war efforts, citing primarily U.S. officials while the Arab newspapers devoted more space to
antiwar voices, citing primarily Arab sources. The coverage of The New York Times , however, was more thematic than that of Arab Newspapers. In describing Saddam
Hussein image, The New York Times emphasized his negative image slightly more than the Arab newspapers. It also carried more stories describing the purpose of the war
according to the U.S. administration whereas the Arab papers more often emphasized the aggressive and illegitimate aspects of the war. Overall, these results suggest that The New
York Times took a more pro war tendency while Arab newspapers reflected a more antiwar stance. Thus, national interest became an important factor influencing media
coverage of conflicts. Considering overall findings, The New York Times followed the interests of an attacking country whereas Arab newspapers reflected the interests of an
attacked country.
Kull et al (2003) conclude that from the perspective of democratic process, the findings of this study are cause for concern. In the case of the Iraq war, this dynamic appears to have played a critical role: among those who did not hold the key false beliefs, only a
small minority supported the decision to go to war. In a regression analysis, the presence of misperceptions was the most powerful factor predicting support for the war, with
intention to vote for the President close behind. This does not prove that the misperceptions alone caused support for the war. It is more likely that it is one key factor
that interacted with the desire to rally around the President and the troops. However, it does appear that it would have been significantly more difficult for the President to elicit
and maintain support for the decision to go to war if the public had not held such misperceptions. It also appears that the media cannot necessarily be counted on to play
the critical role of doggedly challenging the administration. The fact that viewers of some media outlets had far lower levels of misperceptions than did others (even when
controlling for political attitudes) suggests that not all were making the maximal effort to counter the potential for misperception.
Hanlon (2006) study assessed coverage by the New York Times , the Wall Street Journal , and NBC News and also looked at the Washington Times , USA Today , ABC News, and
Fox News in more limited ways. The goal was not to cover the whole three year time period but to take only a random sampling of months (January, April, and May). Using standard media search engines to obtain the headlines of all stories from each outlet for
each month in question. This review allowed scoring the tone of each headline as positive, negative, or neutral. Major finding are Negative stories in the U.S. media have
indeed outweighed positive ones by a factor of roughly 2.5 to 1 across several major outlets and in the course of the three years of the U.S. presence in Iraq. It was found that
broad argument voiced by critics of the media in the United States is often badly overstated. Even though the overall image of Iraq conveyed by the mainstream media may be somewhat more negative than reality, it is not incredibly dissimilar from the situation on the ground. Given this reality, accurate reporting naturally places over
emphasis on the negative aspects than on the positive. If the journalists have faults, as they surely do, it is because they are more inclined to be ultra competitive to beat their
media rivals to a good headline than to work against the interests of the U.S. government deliberately. It makes little sense to expect people reporting from a war zone to have a
particularly happy set of messages to convey.
Christopher Bollyn in his article “Media Coverage of Iraq Called “Shameful” By Peers” (Cited at www.americanfreepress.net ) has given an over view of coverage of Iraq issue
in the view of prominent media analyst. According to him, Maher Abdallah Ahmad of the Arab network, Al Jazeera , based in Qatar , said he felt that Americans still did not know what was happening in Iraq . “Does anyone here know how many Iraqis were killed in
the war? You make all these efforts to establish a democracy, and you don't give a damn how many people were killed?” The U.S. correspondent for Italy 's La Republica
newspaper Federico Rampini, told the conference “Frankly our job is to win the war. Part of that is information warfare. So we are going to attempt to dominate the information environment. Overall we were very happy with the outcome.” Lt. Co. Richard Long
former Marine Corps's public information director and responsible for the media “boot camp” at Quantico , Va. where 700 journalists were coached for the embedded process. Responding to those comments, Todd Gitlin, professor of sociology and journalism at
Columbia University , pointed out that “embedded ness” has a tendency toward propaganda because a reporter is effectively part of the military team. The reporter's life
therefore depends on the soldiers with whom he is embedded, and his desire to write negative stories is “quite diminished.”
Michael Fumentoi in his Book “ Covering Iraq The modern way of war correspondence” summarized (p-46) the Iraq war coverage as, t he sad truth is that the mainstream media have no interest in covering the Iraq War for what it is. The embeds, however, want the real picture—and we want to tell the truth about it to the world. Yet embeds perform a
service beyond just their willingness to see combat, and to describe accurately the specific events they witness. Although some journalism professors may worry that
military embedding is subverting the media, I would argue the contrary. The media-elite Baghdad Brigade and its stateside editors have forfeited this opportunity. It's not just that
being with the soldiers puts them at risk, but that they don't want to be with those soldiers. They prefer the company of their fellow journalists and that, too, contributes to
their unwillingness to leave their walled-in compounds.
Norman Solomon in his article “ Blaming the media for bad war news” mentioned that top officials in the Bush administration have often complained that news coverage of Iraq
focuses on negative events too much and fails to devote enough attention to positive developments. Yet the White House has rarely picked direct fights with U.S. media
outlets during this war. For the most part, President Bush leaves it to others to scapegoat the media. Karl Rove's spin strategy is heavily reliant on surrogates who are likely to
escalate "blame the media" efforts as this year goes on. In effect Bush is holding the coat of those who go after the news media on his behalf. Many pro-war voices constantly
accuse the media of anti-war and anti-Bush biases, with the accusations routinely amplified in mass-media echo chambers. Cranking up the volume are powerhouse outlets
like Fox News, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, the New York Post, the Washington Times, the Weekly Standard, legions of high-profile loyalist pundits, and
literally hundreds of radio talk-show hosts across the country that have political outlooks similar to Rush Limbaugh's. With the current war less popular than ever, it's never been
more important for war backers to blame the media.
METHODOLOGY
All the content—editorials, editorial notes, columns, articles, and letters to editor—published on the Iraq issue by the editorial pages of two English dailies ‘Dawn' and ‘The News' from November 1 to December 31, 2006 are analyzed. The reason for the selection
of these newspapers was to examine their opinion pages' treatment of Iraq issue. The general category of inquiry forms includes data gathering instruments through which researcher collected the data. The required data for the study in hand was collected
through the analysis of the editorial pages of the selected newspapers. Keeping in view the nature of the study and to give strength to study's findings all the issues (122) of both the papers were selected for analysis. The reason behind the selection of the newspapers for analysis was that both the papers editorial pages manifest content covered a series of important issues occurred during the study's stipulated period. It is mostly of limiting the
number of categories. Once coder is familiar with the set of categories, he/she should be able to operate without frequent reference back to the list and definitions.
All those editorials and columns, articles, and letters to editor published on the issues, such as treatment of Saddam Hussain, Civilian killing, US policy, Pakistan policy, Iraq
Government, Democrat policy towards Iraq issue, war related activities, Iraq Study Group activities, and Allied Forces activities were taken as unit of analysis. To
adequately deal with the data collection on scientific way, a broad level standardized coding sheet was developed in which exclusive and exhaustive categories were created.
After developing a standardized coding sheet, data was collected from initially 30 newspapers containing 15 issues of each selected newspaper. Four coders (students) were properly trained and facilitated to check the authenticity of the coding sheet. Pilot study is made to check how reliable the coding process is (Hansen, A. et al., 1998). Reliability in content analysis is essentially about consistency: consistency between different coders (inter-coder reliability), and consistency of the individual coder's coding practice over
time (intra-coder reliability). There are several different ways of checking or measuring reliability in content analysis, from a simple check on the percentage of coding decisions
which coders agree, to more complex formulae which take into account the degree to which a certain level of agreement would occur simply by chance in a set number of
coding decisions (pp.120-21). Higher percentage of inter-coder reliability was observed. In this way, finally the required data from the selected 122 newspapers was collected. To check the consistency among the dimension of the study's main concepts 30 newspapers
are read and coded the material in the light of the coding sheet. After pretesting and making some minor changes in the data collection sheet finally collected the required
data.
Total measurement of all the newspapers was observed as:
Dawn: (a) Total number of editorials = 12 (space 2150 centimeter).
(b) Total number of columns = 06 (space 2139 centimeter).
(c) Total number of articles = 34 (space 11576 centimeter).
(d) Total number of let. Editor = 18 (space 1270 centimeter).
‘ The News ' (a) total number of editorials = 09 (space 1693 centimeter).
(b) Total number of columns= 22 (space 6091 centimeter).
(c) Total number of articles = 21 (space 7259 centimeter).
(d) Total number of let. Editor = 10 (space 603 centimeter).
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The results of the study illustrate that both the selected national English dailies have given significant importance to the Iraq issue in term of sparing reasonable space by their editorial pages for whole study's period of two months. However, somewhat difference between the papers' devoted space to the issue has been observed. Both the dailies have
spared significant space by their columns and articles than the space given to their editorials and letters to the editor. The comparison of both the editorial pages content
shows that daily ‘Dawn' has not only published more columns, articles and letters to the editor but also devoted significant space than daily ‘The News' (table 1.1). The results further illustrate that both the newspapers have not only published significantly more
articles (59) but given them significant space (11576 centimeters) by their editorial pages as compared to their number of editorials, columns, and letters to the editor and the space
spared to those. The overall analysis of the findings shows that daily ‘Dawn' has given more space to the editorial page content on Iraq issue as compared to the space given by
‘The News' to the same issue for the whole study's period of two months.
Table 1.1 Editorial Coverage of Iraq Issue by ‘Dawn' & ‘The News'
Month Editorial Column Article Let editor
#• Space
#Space
#Space
# Space
November
Dawn
The News
07
07
1120*
1105
04
10
1732
3274
16
14
5777
4684
14
09
961
554 December
Dawn
The News
05
02
1030
588
01
12
407
2817
22
07
5799
2575
04
01
309
49
Total 21 2150 27 2139 59 11576 28 1270
•: Number of editorials, columns, articles and letter to editor
*: Figures indicate space in centimeter
Table 1.2: Comparison of both the papers' coverage .
News Editorial Column Article Let editor
Paper
#• Space # Space # Space # Space
Dawn 12 2150* 6 2139 34 11576 18 1270
The News 9 1693 22 6091 21 7259 10 603
Total 21 3843 28 8230 55 18835 28 1873
•: Number of editorials, columns, articles and letter to editor
*: Figures indicate space in centimeter
The overall comparison of both the selected newspapers editorial pages' content shows significant difference in term of number of editorials, columns, articles and letters to the
editor and difference between their space given to those published content by their editorial pages. The daily ‘Dawn' has published not only significant more editorials,
articles, and letters to the editor but given them significant space than daily “The News' (table 1.2). While daily ‘The News' has published more columns on the Iraq issue and
also devoted significant space as compared to the daily ‘Dawn' number of columns on the same issue and the space given to them.
The comparison of the results in term of the selected newspapers editorial pages space devoted to the selected set of issues shows somewhat significant difference. The overall
space wise comparison illustrates that daily ‘The News' has given significant space to the issues of Sadam Hussain (2545 centimeters) and civilian killing (426), as compared to the space given to the same issues (Sadam 2375 and civilian killing 180 centimeters) by daily
“Dawn' (table 1.3).
Table 1.3 Coverage to Selected Issues by the Selected Papers
Categories Editorials Columns Articles Let editor Total
Saddam Hussain
Dawn 604* --- 1031 740 2375
The News 362 736 1071 376 2545
Civilian Killing
Dawn 180 --- --- --- 180
The News 157 --- 269 --- 426
US Policy
Dawn 613 942 2669 --- 4224
The News 150 1007 2750 48 3955
Pakistan policy
Dawn --- 526 --- 61 587
The News 258 --- --- --- 258
Iraq Government
Dawn --- --- 1460 --- 1460
The News --- --- 681 --- 681
Democrat policy
Dawn 164 264 2402 58 2888
The News 460 1636 1071 178 3345
Related to war
Dawn 455 --- 1480 136 2071
The News 98 1767 350 --- 2215
Iraq Study Group
Dawn 134 407 2127 196 2864
The News 208 591 669 --- 1468
Related to Allies
Dawn --- --- 407 --- 407
The News --- 354 399 --- 757
________________________________________________________________
*: Figures indicate space in centimeter
The analysis of the study's finding further indicates that daily ‘Dawn' has given significant space to the editorial page's content published on the issues of US policy
(4224), Pakistan policy on Iraq issue (587) and role of Iraq government (1460) than the space given by ‘The News' to the same type of contents published on the same issues.
The results further show significant difference between the selected newspapers space to other selected set of issues—Democrat (the major opposition party of USA) policy, the
incidents or series of events related to War in Iraq and the United States' Alliance countries activities in Iraq.
Table 1.4 Treatments of Selected Issues by the Selected Papers
Categories For Against Neutral Suggestion Total
Saddam Hussain
Dawn 182* 1519 590 85 2375
The News --- 2195 241 110 2546
Civilian Killing
Dawn --- 172 --- 08 180
The News --- 373 52 --- 425
US Policy
Dawn --- 2869 1048 107 4024
The News 127 3145 581 102 3955
Pakistan policy
Dawn --- 417 --- 170 587
The News --- 258 --- --- 258
Iraq Government
Dawn 242 830 230 157 1460
The News --- 392 184 105 681
Democrat policy
Dawn 1409 371 987 121 2888
The News 1842 984 319 199 3345
Related to war
Dawn 28 1572 383 88 2071
The News --- 1783 270 162 2215
Iraq Study Group
Dawn 446 1367 841 209 2864
The News 696 538 152 81 1468
Related to Allies
Dawn --- 503 104 --- 607
The News --- 725 27 --- 752
_____________________________________________________________
*: Figures indicate space in centimeter
The analytical review of both the selected newspapers in term of treatment of the selected set of issues shows that daily ‘The News' has given significant space to the issues of Saddam (2546 centimeter) and civilian killing (425) than the space given to the same
issues (Saddam 2375 and civilian killing 180) by daily ‘Dawn' (table 1.4). The review of the results regarding both the papers for and against treatment of the issues shows
significant difference. Daily ‘the News' has devoted more unfavorable space to both the mentioned issues (Saddam 2195 & civilian killing 373) than daily ‘Dawn' unfavorable
space given to the same issues (Saddam 1519 & civilian killing 172).
Little but not significant difference has been observed between the papers treatment of Unite States and Pakistan policy towards Iraq issue. The comparison of the findings
shows that daily ‘Dawn' has devoted somewhat overall more space (4024 & 587) to the mentioned issues than daily ‘The News' (3955 & 258, see table 1.4), while the later has
given somewhat more unfavorable space (3145) to the Unites States' policy towards Iraq and the ‘Dawn' relatively spared somewhat more unfavorable space (417) to Pakistan
policy towards the same issue.
Figure 1.1 Both the papers editorial pages coverage to Iraq issue
Figure 1.2 Both the paper's coverage to the selected issues
Results of figure 1.1 illustrate that daily ‘Dawn' has given more space wise importance to Iraq issue by its editorials, articles and letters to the editor as compared to the editorial
page content of daily ‘The News.' While the later has given importance to the same issue by its columns than the ‘Dawn.' Comparative analysis of both the papers
Figure 1.3 Both the papers treatment of Sadam Hussain
Figure 1.4 Both the papers treatment of US Policy
coverage further shows that both papers have significantly more importance by its editorial pages to US policy towards Iraq issue. While daily ‘Dawn' has spared significant
space to the issue of civilian casualties. (see figure 1.2). Comparative analysis of the treatment of Saddam issue shows that both the dailies have given significant unfavorable space than their favorable or neutral space (see figure 1.3). The graphic presentation of findings in term of treatment of US policy towards Iraq shows that both the dailies have condemned the US policy towards Iraq war by their editorial pages' spaces unfavorable
categories than their spaces given to favorable or neutral stances (see figure 1.4).
SUMMARY & DISCUSSION
The goal of this study was not to cover the whole three year time period but to take only a random sampling of months (November and December 2007). Using standard media
search engines to analyze and document the treatment of the Iraq issue by the selected dailies' editorial pages. This review allowed scoring the treatment of each content as
positive, negative, or neutral. It was found that broad argument voiced by critics of the media in Pakistan is often badly overstated. The overall image of Iraq conveyed by the mainstream media may be somewhat more negative than favorable, it is not incredibly dissimilar from the situation on the ground. Overall, these results suggest that both the Papers took a more anti war tendency. In the light of the observed empirical evidence it be summarized that both the papers have considered this issue very significant because numerous important personnel and events of international importance have signified the
issue that is why they given significant weightage to the selected set of issues. This
condition strongly endorsed Straubhaar and LaRose (2004) view point that ‘important figures and important events can help to shape communication content.
It was expected that the media would reflect their respective national perspectives on foreign policy in such a crisis. Thus, national interest became an important factor
influencing media coverage of conflicts. To test this assumption, editorial pages content of both the selected newspapers on Iraq war from November and December, 2007 were sampled. The findings extended support to the expectation that the selected newspapers
seem to give significantly unfavorable coverage to Us policy on Iraq war, and death sentence of Saddam Hussain. While did not extend support to the assumption that that the
English press of Pakistan has not given much space to protest against US war against Iraq, while the results are in support of the assumption that the English press of Pakistan
has to favor the Democrat's policy towards Iraq war.
From the perspective of democratic process, the findings of this study are within the line of Kull et al (2003) studies that the case of the Iraq war, this dynamic appears to have played a critical role: among those who did not hold the key false beliefs, only a small
minority supported the decision to go to war. This study strongly extended support to the study of Chang-Ho Lee (2003) that how the The New York Times and Arab newspapers reflected their national interests in their coverage of the Iraqi War.The coverage of The
New York Times , however, was more thematic than that of Arab Newspapers. In describing Saddam Hussein image, The New York Times emphasized his negative image slightly more than the Arab newspapers. From the perspective of democratic process, the findings of this study are within the line of Kull et al (2003) studies that the case of the Iraq war, this dynamic appears to have played a critical role: among those who did not hold the key false beliefs, only a small minority supported the decision to go to war.
REFERENCES
Baker, James, & Hamilton (2006). Iraq Study Group report, published by Vintage Books, New York , pp.605-614.
Chaiken, S., & Eagly, A.H. (1976). “Communication Modality as a Determinant of Message Persuasiveness and Message Compressibility”. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 34, pp.605-614.
Chang-Ho Lee (2003) Thesis on News Coverage of U.S. War with Iraq : A comparison of The New York Times, The Arab News, and The Middle Eas.
Eagly, A.H. & Chaiken, S. (1993). “The Psychology of Attitudes, Fort Worth , TX : Harcourt Brace, and Movanovich..
Fiske, S.T., & Pavelchak, M.A (1986). “Category-based versus Piecemeal-based Affective Responses; Development in Schematriggered Affect”. In R. M. Sorrentino &
E.T. Higgings (eds.), Handbook of Motivation and Cognition: Foundation of Social Behavior, New York , Guilford Press, pp.167-203.
Greenwald, A.G. (1968). “Cognitive Learning, Cognitive Response to Persuasion, and Attitude Change” in Greenwald, T. (ed.) Psychological Foundation of Attitude, New
York Academic Press, pp.147-170.
Hanlon, M. (2006) “Is the Media Being Fair in Iraq?” published by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and the Massahusetts institute of Technolo Harkin, S.G, & Petty, R.E. (1981). “The Effects of Source Magnification Cognitive Effort on
Attitudes: An Information Processing view”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, pp. 401-413.
Hovland, C.I. (1954). Effects of Mass Media of Communication”, in G. Lindsey (d.), Handbook of Social Psychology, Cambridge , MA: Addison-Wesley. Vol. 2, pp.1062-
1103,
Hovland, C.I. (1959). “Reconcilling Conflicting Results Derived from Experimental and Survey Studies of Attitudes Change”, American Psychologist, vol. 14, pp.8-17.
Mackuen, M.B. (1981). “Social Communication and the Mass Policy Agenda”, in M.B. McGuire, W.J. (1985). “Attitude and Attitude Change”, in g. Lindzey & Aronson (Ed.) Handbook of Social Psychology 3rd ed., News York ” Random House, Vol. 2, pp. 233-
346.
McGuire, W.J. (1989). “Theoretical Foundations of Campaigns”, in R.E. Rice & C.K. Akin (eds.), Public Communication Campaigns, (2nd ed.) Nebury Park , CA : Sage Pub.
pp 43-65.
Moore , D.L., & Reardon, R. (1987). “Source Magnification: The Role of Multiple Sources in Processing of Advertising Appeals, Journal of Marketing Research, vol. 24.
pp.412-417.
Palmirino, M., Linger, E., and McGills, D. (1984). “Attitude and Attitude Change: Mindlessness- Mindfullness”, in G.R. Eisre (ed.) Attitude and Judgement, New York :
Peterson, R.E., and Thurstone, L. (1933). Motion Pictures and Social Attitude of Children, Springer-Warlog, NewYork: Mcmillan, pp.179-195.
Petty, R.E., and Cacioppo, U.T. (1981). Attitude and Persuasion: Classic and Contemporary Approaches, Dubuque : Wm.C.Brown.
Petty, R.E., and Joseph R.E., (1994). “Mass Media Attitude Change: Implication of Elaboration Likely Hood Model of Persuasion”, in J. Bryont, and D. Zillmann (eds.)
Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research, Hove Lawrence , pp. 92-93.
Petty, R.E., Unnava, R., & Strathman, A. (1991). “Theories of Attitude Change”, In H. Kassarhain & T. Robertson (eds.), Handbook of Consumer Theory and Research,
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, pp. 241-280.
Solomon, N. (2003) In an interview on April 2, 2003, with Amy Goodman from Democracy Now: Commented on the reporting of Iraqi casualties, pp. 241-280.
Steven Kull, s., Clay, R. and Evan, L. (2003). “Misperceptions, the Media, and the Iraq War” Published by The Academy of Political Science Volume 118 · Number 4 ·
Straubhaar, J. and LaRose, R (2002) Media Now: Communication Media in the information Age (Wadsworth Group a division of Thomson Learning, Inc).
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dr. Muhammad Nawaz Mahsud is Chairman, Department of Communication Studies, University of Sargodha.
Mr. Noman Yaser and Mr. Abdul Rehman Qaiser are Lecturers, Department of Communication Studies, University of Sargodha.
VOL-II, ISUUE-I (Spring 2009)
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF COMMUNICATION IN TURBULENT TIMES
Nayana Gangadhar (PhD)
C. Manohar (PhD)
INTRODUCTION
During a crisis, quick, decisive communication with the public is critical to ensuring your customers or stakeholders maintain confidence in your company or organization and
ultimately your products or services. In a crisis, the media and the public are eager for information as quickly as possible, but many in senior management feel they need to wait until everything is known about a situation with all the facts buttoned down tight before talking publicly. While accuracy is paramount, speed is of the essence as well! In today's
24-hour news cycle, timing is everything.
It is imperative to communicate relevant information during the first news cycle, or it will be difficult if not impossible to regain control of information and messages. 1 If you
don't speak for your company or organization, someone else will. It is in this context the
present paper intends to prove the validity, relevance and imperativeness of communicating effectively during turbulent times for the business, government and other
organizations alike.
THE DIMENSIONS OF CRISIS OR TURBULENT TIMES IN BUSINESS
A Crisis may come in many sizes and shapes. From national crisis having impact on the entire economy to specific crisis having negative impact on certain industries. Typically, a crisis is an event that occurs unexpectedly, may not be in the organization's control, and
may cause harm to the organization's good reputation or viability. True crises have several critical dimensions in common, any one of which, if handled poorly, can disrupt or perhaps destroy best efforts at managing any remaining opportunities to resolve the
situation and recover, rehabilitate, or retain reputation. Failure to respond and communicate in ways that meet community standards and expectations will result in a
series of negative outcomes.
An example of an organization facing a crisis is the occurrence of a mass shooting of employees by a disgruntled employee or killing of an employee by an outsider. There are instances reported of angry employee killing manager, driver raping and killing women
employees at night shift. There are other business related crises are there as well. An outburst of suppressed mismanagement of resources and erosion of intrinsic value of
business itself affecting its sustenance, and what more, the recent mega scams of shocking proportions in Indian corporates that took not just the stake holders but the
society at large by great surprise. 2
The crises are not limited to business alone. Instances of police constable shooting seniors over disputes of reported work related harassment, and often abuse of power and
position are also reported.
In most instances, the organization is facing some legal or moral culpability for the crisis and stakeholders and the public are judging the organization's response to the crisis. The most challenging part of crisis communication management is reacting - with the right
response - quickly. This is because behavior always precedes communication. Non-behavior or inappropriate behavior leads to spin, not communication. In emergencies, it's the non-action and the resulting spin that cause embarrassment, humiliation, prolonged
visibility, and unnecessary litigation. 3
SIGNIFICANCE OF COMMUNICATION IN TIMES OF CRISIS
All businesses are vulnerable to crises. You can't serve any population without being subjected to situations involving lawsuits, accusations of impropriety, sudden changes in company ownership or management, and other volatile situations. No matter what size
your business is, everyone needs to be prepared to handle potentially negative situations and to effectively communicate with employees, customers, the general public and the
media. 4
A dozen Rules:
Here are a dozen and odd rules which could be used effectively during the time of turbulent business times.
1. Communicate, communicate, and communicate. The first rule of crisis management is to communicate. Early hours are critical and they set the tone for the duration of the crisis. The media's first questions are likely to be simple and predictable: Remaining silent or appearing removed, perhaps on the advice of legal counsel, tends to enrage the public and other stakeholders. A balanced
communications strategy must be developed that protects corporate liability while satisfying the demands of today's information and media dynamic.
2. Respect the role of the media. The media are not the enemy; they have direct access to the audiences you need to reach. Rather than avoiding media, use them as a conduit to communicate key messages. Prepare a statement that includes the
confirmed facts; communicate what the company is doing and provide background information.
3. Take responsibility. One of the more controversial tenets of crisis management is that someone involved in a crisis must be prepared to empathize, even publicly apologize, for the events that have transpired. This is different from accepting
blame. Taking responsibility means communicating what an organization is doing to remedy a situation which the media and the public have believed that the
organization is involved in some way or the other. 4. Centralize information . A company needs to move quickly to gain control over
information and the resolution of the crisis. Ensure that appropriate levels of management are updated with information from a wide variety of sources (media
coverage, analyst comments, competitive intelligence, managers' first-hand reports, etc.).
5. Establish a crisis team. Create and train the crisis team before a crisis strikes, and establish a situation room. During a crisis, when everyone goes into action, be
sure the team has access to the highest levels of management. 6. "Plan for the worst; hope for the best." Assume the worst-case scenario.
Develop contingencies for the hours and days ahead, forecast possible consequences and determine plans of action.
7. Communicate with employees . Remember that employees are your front-line "ambassadors" in a crisis. Be sure they are aware of what the company is doing to
deal with the situation. 8. Use third parties to speak on your behalf . Third parties act as character witnesses and often carry more credibility than the organization at the centre of a
crisis. 9. Use research to determine responses. Polling, market research and focus groups
provide essential insight into the magnitude of a crisis and public attitudes about where hidden issues may lie. Monitor the Internet, chat rooms and blogs.
10. Recognize and respond to Whistle blowers. Recognize and respond to the sounds and signals of whistle blowers within the organization or external
environment. Understand, analyze and accept realities before the latent issues convert into problems and blow out of proportions. Remember, when it happens,
it happens too quickly and goes out of reach too swiftly. 11. Prevent and Prepare. Take all measures to prevent further devastations of
situations. Apparently small issues may have snow balling effect and become larger and larger as they roll down the hill, if left unattended and not stalled.
Rapid action with real time solution will help greatly. Acting a proactive mode in a reactive phase can stop and mitigate the adverse effects.
12. Create access points for information. If circumstances warrant, create a website to give quick, up-to-the-minute information and get the company's story out. In
appropriate cases, even creating help desks at points of need is worth its while to respond to the communication needs of stakeholders.
CONCLUSION
The Chinese expression for crisis, wei ji , is a combination of two words: danger and opportunity, and it applies aptly in all situations and more so the current times. While no company would willingly submit itself to the dangers inherent in a crisis, the company
that weathers a crisis well understands that an opportunity can come out of an adversity. A well managed crisis response, coupled with an effective recovery program, will leave
stakeholders with a favourable impression and renewed confidence in the affected company. 5
In the case of crises emerging from external environment beyond the control of organization, the role of communicators within is even more crucial to understand the
realities and respond with integrated programmes. On the other hand, to handle the larger crises in the economy such as the one that we are facing now, concerted efforts by
multiple organizations including the government authorities and collective bodies are required. Even the communication must be crafted and designed as to provide true picture of the situation and also convincing logic of corrective action and programmes initiated. The role of mass communicators in such situation is no different from that of corporate communicators, but instead goes beyond in size and scope as it deals with a much more
complex situation.
REFERENCES
• Barton, L. (1993). Crisis in organization: Managing and communicating in the heat of chaos. Cincinnati : South- Western Publishing.
• Gottschalk, J.A. (1993). Crisis response: Inside stories on managing image under siege. Detroit , MT : Visible Ink Press.
• Heath, R.L. (1997). Strategic issues management: Organizations and public policy challenges. Thousand Oaks , CA : Sage.
• Lerbinger, O. (1997). The crisis manager: Facing risks and responsibility. Mahwah , NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum Association.
• Stocker K.P. 1997, ‘A strategic approach to crisis management' in C.L. Caywood, The Handbook of Strategic Public Relations and Integrated Communication , McGraw-Hill,
New York.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
• Dr. Nayana Gangadhar is the Principal, Institute of Mass Communication
& Research, Hubli. His postal address is IBMR, Kaviraj Marg, Bailappanavar Nagar Behind KIMS, Hubli – 580029.
Email: [email protected] , [email protected]
• Dr. C. Manohar is the Executive Director & Dean, IBMR International Business School , Bangalore . His Postal Address is IBMR-IBS Survey No: 4, Hosur Road ,
Beger, Near Electronic City Adjacent to BMW Showroom Bangalore – 560100
Email: [email protected]
VOL-II, ISSUE- II (Fall 2009)
TREATMENT OF IRAN-US STAND OFF BY THE PAKISTAN ENGLISH PRESS
Dr. Muhammad NawazNoman Yaser Dr. Saqib Riaz
ABSTRACT
This article describes the treatment of Iran US stand-off by three English dailies—Dawn, The Nation, and The News—front, back and editorial pages for the period of three months. Data is collected form 135 newspapers consist of 45 issues of each paper.
Findings of the study reveal that almost all the selected papers published more news item and spared more space by their front and back pages than the number of photos and the
space given to them. The editorial pages treatment of the papers shows that all the papers have published significantly more articles in support of Iran peaceful Nuclear Program
followed by editorials and editorial notes with significant space as compared to their columns and letter to editors.
IMPORTANCE
A major breakthrough in the United States and Iran’s relationships was observed after 11th, February, 1979 the day of Islamic revolution of Iran. Later that year, young revolutionaries seized the U.S embassy and took its employees as hostage. The United States and Iran have bitter adversaries ever since. Young revolutionaries stormed the
compound in November of 1979 and held embassy for 444 days. Garry Sick was on the national Security Council during the revolution and hostage crises. He says that it was an initial and deeply shocking introduction of fundamentalist government. “It was the first major crisis that we had on television for the daily treatment of the crises,” Said Sick.
Now a day, this conflict has achieved great coverage at the media (www.voanews.com). On 12 April 2006 Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made an important
announcement, declaring that Iran had mastered the nuclear fuel cycle for uranium enrichment. He reiterated that Iran’s nuclear energy was for peaceful purposes and not for
manufacturing nuclear weapons. This assurance, however, is somehow not accepted by the US and EU countries, who remain deeply suspicious of Iran’s nuclear programme.
This paper is speculative in nature and involves crystal gazing as it is based on the supposition, that given compulsions and dynamics, Iran will become a nuclear state in
due course of time. The speculation is, however dependent upon various assessments. At this point of time it is important to note that whether it turn out to be a factor of stability or instability due to the new nuclear balance of power created in the Middle East? What are the variables that could intervene? The study ends with some projections--short and
long term-- and envisages likely scenarios of nuclearised Iran in the Middle East (Hasan, 2006).
The world’s attention is focused on the fighting in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, but the context leads to Iran. Unfortunately, the diplomacy dealing with that issue is
constantly outstripped by events (Kissenger, 2006). After a glance at the world complicated situation, it can be illustrated that there is a very tense situation between
West and Islamic world. Besides Kashmir, Palestine and Afghanistan crises, the Iraq and particularly Iran nuclear issue has gained top position at the world agenda. It is just a
tussle between two civilizations, because of its importance in term of so many reasons. The United States is of the view that Iran’s nuclear program is a serious threat to world peace. Keeping in view the importance of the selected issue for research, it will be a
matter of great interest to explore the coverage of front and back pages and treatment of the editorial pages of the issue of Iran US stand-off by the daily Dawn, The Nation and
The News.
BACKGROUND
The 1970 was a decade of violence for Iran. The early years were that of urban terrorism, bomb explosions, and assassinations. During 1976 and 1977 such incidents had
decreased but another wave of unrest started when the government decided to impose more restrictions on the political activities. Students, Lawyers, Intellectual, writers and
Ulema all resented the new restrictions. Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran on February 1, 1979. A big mob of more 30, 00,000 Iranian greeted the Ayatollah Khomeini on his
returns to Tehran. In October, the former Shah of Iran, who fled to Mexico reached America for treatment. The Shah’s arrival further infuriated the Iranians and on
November 4, the U.S. embassy in Tehran was occupied by the students. The entire staff
of embassy was taken as hostages. The student's action t occupy the Embassy was supported by Ayatollah Khomeini, who dubbed the staff as spied. The American
Government also reacted strongly and stopped all oil imports from Iran besides freezing Iranian assets in the U.S. banks. The efforts of U.S.A many European countries as well of
United Nations Secretary General failed to solve this problem (Mahmood, 1998).
Like peering at same object through different lenses, Iran and the West, particularly the United-States have profoundly different views of the Iranian revolution. For Iranian it is seen as the toppling of an autocratic monarch, the Shah of Iran, who had
ruled the country with the military and financial support of the United States and his replacement by a theocratic government by Ayatollah Khomeini. With the passage of time Iran became much more nationalistic and much less interested and supporting the revolution. The west led by the United States, insists that Iran, now has ambitions to be
nuclear power. Iran, the fourth largest oil exporter, says its nuclear program is for energy needs alone. But calls by its president Mahmoud Ahmedinijad for Israel to “wipe off the
map” have destroyed western calls for program to curb (www.voanews.com).
The research literature on the coverage of international news and issues has covered a wide range of topics and embody a number of different conceptual approaches.
Some studies have examined the images of foreign nations, particularly actual or potential enemies, as presented in the media of selected countries. Some of these studies have been international and comparative in scope; others have focused on one nation’s
media, looking at the coverage of specific countries or of foreign news in general (Larson, 1990). Through the findings of these studies the researcher points out a list of
factors that take part in shaping foreign countries images in the U.S. media. The rationale of this paper is to explore nature of treatment of United States media in framing of
foreign countries images in context of the socio-economic, political, military, cultural, and ideological interests. In addition, the two important concepts “framing” and “image”
are also defined for the better understanding of the patterns of media coverage.
To know how the other countries are presented in United States media the understanding of the concept of framing is very important. An analytical technique of
framing was developed by social psychologists (Goffman, 1974; Entamn, 1991; Gitlin, 1980) to study and explain the role of the news media in defining issues for the public.
Several studies suggested that the concept of ‘framing’ is now more or less established as a field in mass communication studies. Entman argued in an often quoted, relatively
recent definition of framing, “is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communication text, in such a way as to promote a particular
problem definition, casual interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation for the item described” (Entman, 1993, p. 52). According to him
“frames are information-processing schemata (Entman, 1991, p. 7) that operates by selecting and highlighting some features of reality while omitting others”(Entman, 1993,
p. 53). Gitlin (1980) defines media frames as “persistent patterns of cognition, interpretation, and presentation of selection, emphasis, and exclusion, by which symbol-
handlers routinely organize discourse, whether verbal or visual”. He also challenged researchers to look at persistent patterns not just isolated stories (Gitlin, 1980, p.7., see
also Carragee, 1991, p. 6). For McGrath (2002) “framing devices are operative, whether consciously or unconsciously, in the media reporting of unions, feminism, environmentalism, antiracism, lesbian and gay activism, and most certainly
antiglobalization protests” (p. 390). According to Goffman, events may be interpreted according to one of three frameworks: natural, social or institutional. Events interpreted
according to natural frameworks are perceived as unguided and not subject to moral judgment (he suggests that earthquakes are an example).
Actions interpreted according to social frameworks, on the other hand, are described as “guided doings " and are subject to social appraisals (p. 22). Baran and Davis (2000) stated that the “Goffman’s theory of ‘frame analysis’ is a microscopic theory that focuses on how individuals learn to routinely make sense of their social world” (p. 270). Frames are the principles of selection, emphasis, and presentation
composed of tacit theories about what exists, what happens, and what matters. Framing is considered as a central organizing idea to make sense of event or an issue (Gamson,
1989, p. 157; Gamson and Modigliani, 1987, p. 43). Tuchman (1978) offered a similar definition for media frames: “the news frame organizes everyday reality and the news frames is the part and parcel of everyday reality it is an essential feature of news” (p. 193). Framing is a term that implies how an event is portrayed in a particular story or article. The notion of framing appears to be emerging as a significant one in the mass communication theorization and research. This theory examines how writers frame a
story (Atheide, 1976). James Mann discussed the media treatment of foreign affairs reporting and revealed that
reporters do not always get the story right; neither do their editors and publishers.
This is especially the case when they report about distant lands and unfamiliar cultures…the readers, who are already conditioned by the prevalent stereotypes, accept the misleading stories as true and react accordingly. The consequences can be disastrous
media effects are enhanced when the information conveyed in stories in unfamiliar to audience and cannot be readily verified through their personal experiences or competing
stories. This is why foreign affairs reporting demands the attention of experienced, highly skilled, and well informed reporters” (Mann, 1999, p. 102). Moreover, the notion of media frame has been used loosely and often left undefined. It is frequently used in a vague way, or as a metaphor (Tankard et al, 1991, p. 2). In general, news frames are
constructed from and embodied in the key words. Jamieson and Waldman (2003) suggested “the metaphor of a frame-a fixed border to determine what information is
included and what is ignored” (p. xiii). For Reese, framing is ultimately “an exercise of power” (Resse, 2001, p. 10). Gitlin described to the elite’s control of media frames an
essential hegemonic function of media content. In addition, Tuchman’s labeled framing as content production. Both argued that media routines favored elite opinion, thus
implicitly making the case that the elite sources are influential in constructing frames. In that sense, frames are indicators of power, as Entman called it as frames are “the imprint
of power” (Entman, 1993, p. 55). Furthermore, Gitlin (1980) described frames as “a significant social force” that formulates public ideology. He studied how and through what kind of frames that ideology was formed (p. 9). Hackett (1984) draws on Gitlin’s
definition of media frames and he argues that, “the ideology provides a framework through which events are presented” (Hackett, 1984 cited in Mughees, 1993, p. 66).
According to Berenger (2004), “frames make messages memorable and understandable” (cited in King & Lester, 2005, p. 626). Bourdieu (1998) maintained that “even in countries where there is freedom of expression, there is a form of invisible self-
censorship. Journalists, writers, and producers realize what is permissible in media, and they pre-edit their own work to be consistent with those perceived norms-all in the
interest of remaining employed in the media companies. For example, news producers at ABC “just know” they should avoid stories about new animated movies not produced by
their corporate parent, Disney” (cited in Straubhaar & Larose, 2002, p. 54).
Media critics, Herman and Chomsky (2000) maintained that the media frame plays a vital role in presenting, shaping or destroying the picture of an event or story (p.xiii).
They revealed that the U.S. media framed the Seattle protesters as “all purpose agitators” (U.S. News& World Report), “terminally aggrieved” (Philadelphia Inquirer), simply
against world trade (ABC News), and making “much ado about nothing” (CNN), but the bases of the protesters grievances were almost entirely unexplored (p. xiii). The literature on framing indicates that, (1) Media frames can play a vital role in stimulating opposition
to or support for an event or issue. (2) Media frames provide moral judgment, causal interpretation and remedy/solution for media-focused problems. (3) Media frames generally represent specific ideology. (4) Media frames including attractive words,
metaphors, phrases etc also help to determine the “tone” of media coverage of an event or issue.
The mass media play a very significant role in the formulation of images and beliefs of the people. John Galtung and Mari Holmboe Ruge call the media as the “first rate competitors for the number one position as international image former” (Galtung & Ruge, 1965, p. 65; see also Tanstall, 1970, p. 260). Cohen further describes that “most of
us gather our impressions of our countries and societies from the media” (Mughees, 1997, p. 33). Lippmann descries the social and political images by labeling them as
“pictures in our heads” (Mughees, 1991, p. 8). “Image” is a subtle mental integration of various attributes that the person projects and that people perceive and interpret in light of their beliefs, values and expectations (Renato Taguriri, cited in Nimmo, 1978, pp. 43-44). An “image” is everything a person has learned relevant to a situation and to the acts that
occur within it… and image is a tendency composed of thoughts, feelings, and inclinations. Images change constantly with experience (p. 226). Boulding (1969)
describes various factors that play an important role in the formulation of national image in international system…The national image is essentially a historical image-that is an image which extends through time, backward into a supposedly recorded or perhaps
mythological past and forward into an imagined future. The more conscious a people is of its history, the stronger the national image is likely to be.
Wars and hostilities among nations also formulate national images as do geographical space, past friendliness and alliances, and strengths and weaknesses of the nations in terms of military, economic and politic capacity (pp. 424-26). More directly,
media’s stereotypes, organizational ideology, corporate and government influence, among other factors, help to create and reinforce nation’s image in media coverage
(Hanan, 2006, p. 7). Besides “many prejudices about nations are carried forward through the generations, so that historical events of long ago remain decisive in nation’s image
(Kunczik, 1997, p. 3). Therefore, a country’s image can be defined as “a representation of a country’s positive or negative standing in media, in terms of historical, political,
economic, military, diplomatic and religious context” (Hanan, 2006, p. 8). “Image” can be defined as a conceptual picture in the mind of a person, about a person, thing or a
country and it may be a product of some specific political, social, or religious background or circumstances. In journalistic terminology, image of a country can be defined in the
terms of political, economical, military, diplomatic and religious relations in the changing domestic, regional and international scenario and its effects on the thoughts, behaviors, feelings, and inclinations of the owners of the media organization (Noshina, 2000, p. 6).
The “image of a country” in media analyzed through the language used by media, including value-landed (words, phrase, metaphors, sentences and adjectives etc.,) which
appear in support or opposition to that country’s government policies on various domestic and international issues (Hanan, 2006, p. 151).
A sufficient amount of literature was available related to the coverage of image of the Muslim World in the U.S. media that provided a comprehensive knowledge about the
treatment of Islam and Muslim world in the U.S. media. Said (1987) observed that the tone of the Western media was against Islam, and the Western media portray Islam as a violent and destructive religion for individuals and civilizations (p. 93). During the 1979
hostage crisis, ABC commentator asked an “expert” whether being a Shi’ite Muslim meant being “anti-American”, he replied that it did. Over film footage of Muslim crowds chanting “God is Great”, ABC commentator Frank Reynolds said that he supposed their
real meaning was: “Hatred of America”. Similarly, CBS’s Walter Cronkite spoke of Muslim hatred of this country (Said, 1981also see Mughees, 1995, p. 35). Esposito
(1992) in his book the Islamic threat: myth and reality, gave a detailed picture of Islamic history, emergence of Islam, misinterpretation about Islamic laws and practices, gap
between Western and Islamic world, the Islamic revolutionary Movements in all parts of the world, particularly in Iran and Algeria, and Rushdie affair, the civil war in Lebanon,
Operation Desert Storm, the turmoil in the Soviet republics in Central Asia, Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, presented an overview of Western media’s biased treatment with reference to Muslims and Muslim world (see chapter 6). Esposito further wrote about Edward Sid’s critique of orientalism, maintained “that though at time excessive, was
insignificant in identifying deficiencies and bias in the scholarship of the past. However, new form of orientalism flourish today in the hands of those who equate revivalism,
fundamentalism, or Islamic movements solely with radical revolutionaries, and who fail to focus on the vast majority of Islamically committed Muslims who belong to the moderate mainstream of society” (p. 202). He further asserted that this trend (and
deficiency) has been reinforced by the realities of the marketplace. Publishing houses, journals, consulting firms, and the media seek out that which captures the headlines and all too often confirms stereotypes and fears of extremism and terrorism. Think how often
any reference to an Islamic organization inevitably includes adjectives like “fundamentalism”, “conservativeness”, and “extremist” (p. 202). Mughees-uddin (1995), “Image of Iran in the Western media”, indicates that the major reason of negative image
of Iran in the U.S. media is its “Islamic Character”-- which is portrayed as a threat to regional peace, security and the interest of U.S. and Israel. Generally, the Western media
portray Iran as a “terrorist”, or a “fundamentalist” country. The notion of Islamic
fundamentalism is mostly attributed to Iran and Iranian Muslims. He describes that the Western media is not only critical towards Islam but also helps to promote stereotypes about Muslim world and Islamic values. He concluded that the U.S. media has tried to
create conflict and misunderstanding between Islam and Christianity by portraying Christianity as a symbol of tolerance and free market economy, whereas Islam as a
religion of non-tolerant people (pp. 41-42).
Soderlund & Schmitt (1986) analyzed 160 news items appeared in North and South American press related to El Salvador’s civil war. Their study revealed that the
U.S. newspapers gave almost double coverage compared to Canadian media. In addition, the treatment of South American papers was more negative than North American
newspapers. Which were “more international” in their portrayal of the crisis, they did not present this international involvement in a positive light (p. 274). In another study of the coverage of Cuban image in major news networks of Canada (CBC and CTV) and the
United States (ABC, CBS, and NBC) from 1988 to 1992, Soderlund, et al. (1998) revealed that the Cuban image in both countries television were negative since Cuban revolution and the end of the Cold War did not change, in any fundamental way, the Cuba’s image in their coverage. They also pointed out that the Cuban image in U.S. television was dominantly influenced by ‘conflict and confrontation frames (para 1).
Hachten & Hachten (1992) argued that in reporting the Gulf war, the U.S. media, CNN and other television broadcasts with the help of newest technology of small, lightweight cameras, portable up-links, digital editing, and suitcase-sized satellite telephones made it
a “real-time war”. Especially CNN gave live bloody images of Gulf war on television screen for the whole global audience. The Gulf War was a violent conflict between Iraq
and coalition forces led by the United States, which lasted for 42 days but turned the world into global community. He found that “this live global coverage passed through the
prism of deep cultural difference between West and Islam.
To the West and some Arabs, Saddam Hussein (the former Iraqi President) was a dangerous, reckless tyrant, to millions of other Arabs and Moslems, he was as a hero who stood up to the West--a modern day Saladin” (p. 305). The various studies revealed that
U.S. media supported U.S. foreign policy when U.S. involved in war or conflict and U.S. media were always highly critical to those countries from which U.S. involved in
confrontation because of the following reasons (a) U.S. media helps to organize the American as well as the world public opinion in the favor of U.S. government policies, (b) U.S. media framed enemy state as a potential threat to U.S. interests, and (c) focuses
on socio-economic, military and political weakness and confronting state and project American core values including, democracy, freedom of speech and expression and
torchbearer of peace and tranquility. The U.S says it wants a peaceful solution. An attack would not only risk Iranian retaliation it would be hard to justify legally. The U.S is said to have plans but it has plans for many contingencies and it has not taken a decision. Iran
says its policy is “Yes” to enrichment but “No” to nuclear weapons. A fatwa against nuclear weapons has been issues by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini (Nuclear
articles\BBC News Middle East, 2007).
The United States is committed to pursuing a diplomatic solution to the
challenges posed by Iran and we are making every effort to improve U.S.-Iranian relations. But that cannot happen without a change in the Iranian regime’s actions and
policies. Secretary Rice offered the Iranian Government an extraordinary opportunity, in June 2006, when she pledged to engage in direct talks alongside Russian, China, and our European partners if Iran verifiably suspends enrichment and cooperates with the IAEA. This offer remains on the table, and we will continue to make clear to the Iranian regime
that the best to way to ensure its security is by complying with, not ignoring its international nuclear obligations and by seeking peace through negotiations with the U.S. and our partners. As the President has stated, we look forward to the day when the Iranian
people live in freedom and America and Iran can be good friends and close partners in the cause of peace (Burns, 2007).
Iran will never back down in a nuclear dispute with the West and is not interested in talks with the United States, its president said ahead of a previously unannounced visit by Russia's Foreign Minister. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking hours
before he was due to meet Russia's Sergei Lavrov in Tehran, dismissed US offers of broader negotiations between the two foes if Tehran first halts atomic work which
Washington fears is aimed at building bombs. "This nation will not negotiate with anyone over its obvious and legal rights," Ahmadinejad told student members in the gathering.
Sergei Lavrov reiterated Russia's stand that only dialogue and not more penalties or military action as mooted in the United States, is the way to ease an escalating
international stand-off over Iran's nuclear plans. The Lavrov visit coincides with a crucial round of talks in Tehran between officials from Iran and the UN International Atomic Energy Agency watchdog on implementing an August deal meant to resolve questions
about past secret Iranian nuclear activity (Antony, 2007). http://www.globalresearch.ca.
An attack on Iran by the US or US-backed Israel would be an extension of the war in the region and in sequences to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as a corollary
of the volatile political conditions in Palestine and Lebanon. An attack on Iran may provoke violent reactions in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria apart for adding fuel to the fire in Iraq and drawing Israel into a wider Middle East conflict. Such a war could spill over to moderate Gulf countries and Jordan, thus eventually leading to a broader Middle East
conflict, and even a World War, according to some (Khan, 2007).
METHODOLOGY
The total 270 issues of the three selected English dailies from January 1st to March 31st, 2008 are the universe of the study. All the statements from the officials
representing USA, European Union, Atomic Powers, IAEA, OIC, , Iran and Pakistan in term of news items or photographs and the editorial pages content published on the Iran
US stand off are taken as unit of analysis. Systematic sampling procedure is adopted through which 135 newspapers (containing 45 issues of each newspaper) out of total 270 issues selected for the collection of the data. The time period of the is consisted of three
months, i,e., from 1st January to March 31st, 2008. Two separate coding sheets were prepared. The first one was used to collect data from the front and back pages of selected
newspapers for the purpose to explore the number of news items and photo graphs
published on the issue along with space given to them. The second one was used to collect data from the editorial pages of the selected newspaper for the purpose to explore
the treatment of the said issue by the English national dailies.
After developing a standardized coding sheet, data was collected from initially 21 newspapers containing 7 issues of each selected newspaper. Six coders (students) were
properly trained and facilitated to check the authenticity of the coding sheet. Pilot study is made to check how reliable the coding process is (Hansen, A. et al., 1998). Reliability in content analysis is essentially about consistency: consistency between different coders (inter-coder reliability), and consistency of the individual coder’s coding practice over
time (intra-coder reliability). There are several different ways of checking or measuring reliability in content analysis, from a simple check on the percentage of coding decisions
which coders agree, to more complex formulae which take into account the degree to which a certain level of agreement would occur simply by chance in a set number of
coding decisions (pp.120-21). Higher percentage of inter-coder reliability was observed. In this way, finally the required data from the selected 135 newspapers was collected.
Coding Sheet 1 (used for front and back pages data collection)
Month Date Treatment Items Space Photos Space Size of headlines Location
FavorableUnfavorableNeutral
1
2
3
4
5
UH*
LH*
*: 1,2,3,4, & 5 show single, double, three, four and five columns respectively. UH*: upper half of the page, and LH* lower half of the page.
Coding Sheet 2 (used for editorial pages data collection)
Paper
DateTreatment
FavorableUnfavorableNeutral
No.of Articles
Space
No.of editorial
spaceLet editor
Space
The results of the study illustrate the coverage—opinion pages number of articles, editorials, editorial notes, columns, and letter to editor—and treatment—
favorable, unfavorable and neutral stand—of the three national leading dailies ‘The Nation’, The News’ and ‘Dawn’ on the Iran Nuclear crisis for the period from January to March, 2007. This was the period in which the research issue had gained top position on media as well on the policy agendas through the world. The findings reveal each paper exclusive as well collective policy position of the issue. For instance, figure 1.5 shows
the comparison of ‘The Nation’ has published more articles on the issue for the months of January and March compared to its article for the month of February and has published
more editorials in January and March.
Iran-US Stand off by Exclusive and collective papers editorial pages Figure 1.5 by the Nation Figure 1.6 by Dawn
It is observed form the findings of figure 1.6 that daily Dawn published significantly more articles on the issue for the month of March. While the results show
that the paper has published more letters to editor for the month of February and March. It can be concluded that the paper has published more articles followed by letter to editor
as compared to its number of editorials, editorial notes and columns published on the same issue.
Figure 1.7 by The News Figure 1.8 by all the dailies
The results of figure 1.7 show that ‘The News’ has published significantly more articles on the issue in the month of February. The paper has published significantly more editorial notes in the month of February while no editorial note has published on the issue
for the month of January. The findings further show more columns in the month of February and more letters to editor in the month of March on the issue compared to its
number of letters to editor for the months of January and February. The results of figure 1.8 show all the selected three dailies comparison of opinion
pages for the whole three months period. As it is observed from the empirical findings that the ‘The Nation’ has significantly published more articles compared to the number of articles published by ‘The News’ and ‘Dawn’ on the same issue for the selected period.
The findings further show that ‘The News’ and ‘The Nation’ have published more editorials and editorial notes on the issue than daily ‘Dawn’ for the whole selected
study’s period. The results further reveal that the ‘Dawn’ has published more letters to editors than ‘The News’ and ‘The Nation’. It can be concluded that the three leading
papers have published more articles followed by letters to editors, on the issue compared to their number of editorial notes, editorials and columns.
The review of the comparison of month wise coverage by ‘Dawn’ shows that the paper has published significantly more articles on the Iran Us stand off and also given
huge space followed by more letters to editor with more space compared to its number of published editorials, editorial notes, and column (figure 1.9). Month wise space coverage by ‘The Nation’ shows that the paper has also published more articles and spared highly significant space than its editorial space given to editorial, letter to editors and number of
columns (1.10). The analytical review of the comparison of month wise space coverage by ‘The
News’ shows that the paper has not only published more articles on Iran Us stand-off but also devoted highly significant space followed by columns as compared to its number of published editorials, editorial notes, and letter to editor (figure 1.11). The overall month wise space coverage comparison reveals that all the selected newspapers have published more articles on the issue and also devoted significant space followed by the space given
to editorials than their space given to columns and letter to editors for the whole three months period (figure 1.12).
Iran-US Stand off and the space by the selected papers editorial pages Figure 1.9 by “Dawn” Figure 1.10 by “The Nation”
Figure 1.11by “The News” Figure 1.12 by All Papers
DISCUSSION
The critical analysis of all the newspapers maters particularly the editorial content potentially led us to conclude that all the national dailies have very strongly extended support to the Iran peaceful nuclear program. The papers in most of the situation also
supported Iranian’s president Ahmadinejad bold step for the promotion of good image of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The papers in most of their editorials high endorsed the
logic the reinvention of Iran as an Islamic republic after the ouster of Shah did not change Iran’s perception as a regional power. The first Gulf War against Iraq in Kuwait (1991-92) was seen as attempt by the US to establish its position in the region. Throughout the
1990s, Iran repeatedly called for withdrawal of US troops from the region and was reminiscent of the same tone used earlier that the security of the Gulf region should be left to regional powers alone. The majority articles have focused on the point that at the time of US intervention in Afghanistan and then in Iraq, Iran was initially relieved to see the ouster of two neighboring forces, Taliban of Afghanistan and Saddam Hussain of Iraq
that were at variance with her ideological mornings.
Some of the editorials raised a question that if Iran become a nuclear weapons state in a couple of years from now, it will change the security landscape of the
Southwest Asia, ME, Central Asia and South Asia. Although it calls itself as ‘Near East’ rather than ME country but the impact felt in the region and abroad will be strong and
reverberating. Alleged nuclear weapon ambition, in tandem with some of the inflammatory statements by the newly elected hardliner President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, has fuelled fears of Iran’s so-called belligerent designs. Not only the US, but of late, the EU countries are feeling uneasy about Iran’s intentions and think, that in
case it manufactures N-weapons, it will destabilize the entire region.
Iranian calculus and rationale is based on the following lines: given its hostile relations with US for the last 28 years or so, and the recent ‘encirclement’ by US troops,
it must build its defenses, of which nuclear weapons could be pivotal as a means of deterrence. Besides, it needs to diversify its abundant resources for development. It
claims that it is not making nuclear weapons peaceful use of nuclear energy for development. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), after al, provides the right to
all countries to gain access to all forms of N-energy, including uranium enrichment or plutonium reprocessing under adequate “safeguards.”
Iran feels that it is unjustly targeted for political reasons. The Iranians contend that if North Korea has acquired N-weapons together with Pakistan and India without
signing the NPT, ostensibly there should be no justification to deny it the option of peaceful generation of N-energy. While the common Iranian does not talk of nuclear
weapons, the unstated assumption with many is: In the event of acquisition of N-weapons by North-Korea, the US attitude had markedly changed from confrontation to tacit
acceptance. Similarly, in the case of Pakistan, accused of ‘buying’ nuclear technology from open market, the US stance has since changed as it has become a major non-NATO ally. Also, for decision makers in Iran, the case of Iraq starkly stands out: perhaps it could
not have been invaded and occupied if it had possessed N-weapons. Besides, for most Iranians acquiring nuclear fuel cycle has become a trademark of nationalistic pride and
sovereignty. How is it that the US is allergic to Iran’s becoming a nuclear state? The fact is that Iran does not have any expansionist designs but it is the Islamic character and its recent provocative statements that act as bugbear for the Americans. Besides, the history
of the 1979 US embassy hostage crises, blowing up of US marine barracks in 1983 in Beirut and of Khobar towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996 haunt the US memories. US
suspects Al-Qaeda cadres on Iranian soil and smells Iranian involvement in the troubled Iraq.
In the US estimations, both Iran and North Korea stand as ‘rogue states. ‘North Korea opted out of NPT regime and is in possession of N-weapons and is perceived as a
threat by neighbours. On the other hand, is a signatory to NPT, is clubbed as “axis of evil” as it poses major challenge to the US policies in ME. While the former is as
impoverished and isolated state, Iran is bigger in size and richer in resources. Hence in order to deal with the two ‘difficult’ regimes the US is using the six-party talks and EU-3
mechanism. However there is one important difference: North Korea is a declared N-power while Iran is not. Also, the stakes for US are greater in the ME due to oil resources
and the preservation of the Israeli state to which the later is committed.
The stage is set for a chain of events that could lead to nuclear war over chemical weapons in the immediate future. If these events unfold, the trigger will be Israel, the
target Iran and the nuclear aggressor the U.S... The IAEA reported that Iran has hidden a uranium enrichment program for 18 years, and the current dispute dates back to then. Western members of the IAEA called on Iran commit itself to stopping all enrichment activities permanently, but it has refused to do so and has not abandoned a temporary
halts as well. The clash with Iran escalated in February 2006, when the IAEA as a whole reported Iran to the Security Council. A month later, the Security Council decided to take up the issue after receiving a copy of an IAEA report on Iran which said that it could not
conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran.
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dr. Muhammad Nawaz Mahsud is the Chairman of the Department of Mass Communication at Sargodha University , Sargodha , Pakistan .
Noman Yaser is a Research Scholar at Sargodha University , Sargodha .
Dr. Saqib Riaz is Assistant Professor in the Department of Mass Communication, Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), Islamabad, Pakistan. He has done his masters in
Mass Communication from Punjab University, Lahore and M. Phil in Mass Communication from AIOU Islamabad. He got advanced training in Journalism from the International Institute for Journalism, Berlin, Germany. Recently, he has completed his PhD in Mass Communication. His PhD dissertation has been approved by three foreign experts associated with some of the top universities of USA. He is a famous journalist
and has worked as magazine editor in a couple of Islamabad based national newspapers. He is author of two books on Journalism and also a renowned media consultant of the
country. He has achieved a number of awards and honors during his professional career. He is a Free Lance journalist and contributes articles to national and international
newspapers. The author can be contacted at his email address, [email protected] . His physical address is Department of Mass Communication, Allama Iqbal Open
University, Islamabad , Pakistan .