Media Portrayal of a Civil Rights Movement

Perspective of Pakistani Journalists

Bibliographic Data

ID12909353
AuthorsShabir Hussain (0000-0002-7381-1918, Bahria University, corresponding author), Mohammad Ashraf Wani, Sherbaz Khan (0000-0002-8874-3292)
Year2022
Volume18
Issue8
Pages2026-2044
Publication date2022-10-14
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournalism Practice (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1751-2786 • E-ISSN: 1751-2794
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17512786.2022.2130816
OpenAlexW4306250022
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited51

This study analyzes the perspectives of journalists on the reporting of a civil rights movement known as Pashtun Tahafuz Movement in the Pakistani media. The movement was started by the people of tribal areas to demand an end to the existing state policies on the US-led “war on terror” amidst calls for institutional reforms in the region. The study borrows from the existing scholarship on the media representation of social movements and utilizes the protest paradigm as its theoretical framework. Through content analysis and detailed interviews with journalists, the study found the civil rights movement is mainly reported in unfavorable terms in the leading media outlets. While sharing their perspectives on this particular treatment, the journalists believed that the media was tightly controlled by the government to blackout the movement from the mainstream media. Moreover, the organizational and personal opinions of journalists also influenced the negative portrayal. Though the social media has provided alternative avenues to the movement’s activists to speak out against the state’s policies, the journalists feared that even this limited freedom would not last longer in the face of some upcoming legislation aimed at controlling the country’s social media

Aesthetics · Art · Civil rights · Civil society · Journalism · Media studies · Movement (music · Perspective (graphical · Political science · Politics · Social movement · Sociology · Visual arts · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Public Relations and Crisis Communication · Social Media and Politics

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