Politics in the Pakistan Media

Introduction:

When someone brings news to you- you should investigate its credibility first (Quran).

Politics is the life blood of media coverage because that forms the reality of perception on which action is based. Political environment is depicted by media.

Today, everyone of us has make us more enjoyable and leisure life by watching TV, and they enjoy by listening radio and read magazine and newspaper. People are influenced by shows on TV and articles in the newspaper. Media keeps the people updated and informed about what is happening around the world.

Not only people have positive impacts on the TV, they have negative impact too. They are informed and are intouch with the upcoming news. People should get aware of the information they get that can be dangerous in their minds. The TVs permeate their lives, guiding us what are we supposed to wear, how we are supposed to look and act.

Television not only give positive but negative effects as well on the viewers of talkshows, many studies have impact of television on society. Mostly young ones are more affected by this. 14 August 1947 when 1st time these words were spoken instead of “this is all India radio by Zahoor Azher in English and Mustafa Ali Hamadani in Urdu” building of radio Pakistan Karachi built in 1950. In Pakistan Television was 1st introduce in the excitation near Mezare Quaid on 16 September.

In 1955, it was a small source of entertainment and short circuit television came into being (Pakistan corporation limited PTV). 1st official television station commenced transmission telecast from Lahore. In Karachi 1966; In 1974 Peshawar and Quetta , In 1991-1992 original telecast work in black and white PTV launched a full-scale satellite telecasting services.

PTV news , PTV national , PTV bolan (BOLOUCHI) , PTV Global (dish network) . In 15 July 1990 , 1st private channel NTM ( network television marketing ) was launched. On 1st March 2002 General Pervez Musharaf issued the ordinance for launching the private channels. Nearly 100 channels can see on TV like GEO , ARY , HUM , DUNIYA , SAMA , WAQAT , EXPRESS , CITY42 , MASALA , ZAUQ , GEO sports , Qtv , AJJ , etc , which is based on news , sports , religion , informative , documentary , music , cooking , business , political etc . Abdul Razaq Yaqoob (ARY) has leading private channels chain in Pakistan ( Javaid,2012) .

History of talk show is quite long, and it represents first formats of programing in tv history. While the greater part of the early shows was geared towards politics and Government, a number of celebrity-oriented shows began to start up during the 1960s. In 1070s, talk shows were replaced by game shows.a host figures and anchors always host the talk shows.talk shows usually consist of groups of people who are learned and who get a great experience to whatever issue is being discussed on the episode of the show. A call-in show is that in which anchors takes the live call.

Pakistani media is very lively. Current Affair programs or Talk Shows is most important format of private television channels. There are multi-dimensional role of Talk Shows or Current Affair Programs in Pakistani society :

to inform
to educate
to formulate public opinion

Current Affair Program or Talk Shows have great impact on politics , social values , life styles of people , relationship of masses and foreign policy.

There are many Pakistani Talk Shows that are fulfulling our masses needs. For example :

GEO Talk Shows ( AJJ RAAT KAMRAN KHAN K SATH ) , ( CAPITAL TALK )

ARY Talk Shows ( KHARA SACH ) , ( )

In theses talk shows , ask soft questions about our country crises due to this viewers like these programs because in these Talk Shows everyone fights and the anchor are expert in engaging people in fight with each other. Talk Shows is a TV program in which single anchor or more than one anchor have a conversation on different current affairs, participants of the talk shows are usually educated. They have great information experience about the current issues happening around the world. In some of the talk shows a single guest tells about their life experience, their work , career etc. the most important aspect of talk show is to spread awareness to give information to others etc.

Nowadays people not only think about politics but they even are very interested in each and everything about talks ahows and happenings in it. By the talk shows nowadays viewers judge who is better what is good which political party they should give their votes to, and who will be the next leader this all helps the viewers to know more about it.

Rationale of the study:

The present study on “role of anchor of news channels creating political awareness in youth”. The researcher selected this topic to measure the role of news anchors to create political awareness among youth. Nowadays in Pakistan political issues are increasing day by day and almost every news channel is showing talk shows.

Through these talk shows everyone got to know the political situation and issues happening in our country. Youth is the major part of our country on which our country development lies. From these talk shows people specially our youth came to know about political issues of our country. This study will also useful for our government.

Objectives

To find out the impact of talk shows Anchors in creating political awareness among youth in Lahore.
To measure the level of political worth based on political participation and political awareness among youth in Lahore.
To find out the knowledge of respondent about politics.

Hypothesis

Hi- Political Talk Shows motivate youth to take part in politics.

Ho- Political Talk Shows are just for awareness of political issues.

Hi- Talk Shows increase political efficacy among youth of Pakistan

Ho- Talk Shows are informational live program for update of news in detail.

Hi- Political talk shows increase the knowledge of respondents.

Questions

Do you think the role of talk shows Anchors effect the mind of youth in Lahore ?
Do you think the Anchors play effective role in reporting a leader’s position?
Is Anchors are providing proper information about political issue to their youth?
Don’t you think that these political talk shows just give benefits to their channels?
Are talk shows guided by the guests rather than anchor?

Literature review

Kabir (1965) states in his study that television has ability and it changes the tradition in the society and also has power to change the social rules of the society, television enforce the society to adopt new trends and made them part of their lives. . The purpose of the study is to measure the impact of t.v programs in the behaviors and the standard of living towards media.

Roper (1975) as quoted by Mark (1982) in his research concluded that people habitually got most of the news about what is going on in the world from TV . When Roper’s organization asked a national cross-section about this in 1974 , 65% replied TV and only 47% said newspapers.

Rmeez Ahmad from the University of Punjab found that Talk Shows are increasing the political awareness and socialization of the viewers. Although respondents have awareness to talk shows they don’t participate in politics. It showed the passive attitude of the young towards politics. Talk Shows of Pakistan TV channels are now an enjoyable battle of two political parties instead of conclusion on different issues or problems and demand from the people.

Bilal et al. in 2012 consummated a study on talk shows on Pakistani TV. Their objective was to explore the relationship between spoken words and ideology of the Talk Shows’ anchors. They picked up two Talk Shows from GEO TV and they found that anchors try to maintain Talk Shows intentionally by setting agendas.

However, Yousuf in 2012 states that Talk Shows are creating political awareness im Pakistan. Researcher showed that Pakistani electronic media is more informative. Talk Shows are playing a major role in shaping awareness. The researcher has conducted surveys. The study found that, TV viewers watch Talk Shows regularly and that they consider Talk Shows to be an informative program. A grand majority 96% of viewers believed that, Talk Shows can provide political knowledge and generate awareness to the public.

Politics means social relations involving authority or power” and to the methods and tactics used to formulate and apply policy. According to Hegel, Political History “is an idea of the state with a moral and spiritual force beyond the material interests of its subjects: it followed that the state was the main agent of historical change” ( Hegel, 1991). Aristotle concludes that “man is a political animal” : we can only achieve the good life by living as citizen in a state.

Afsheen (2002 cited in saghir, 2009), in her article:

“As far as news Talk Shows section is concerned , private TV channels are doing well. In the discussion on ARY and GEO , people belonging to different political parties and areas of Pakistan express their views. They try to cover all the important occurring in Pakistan either having international values or not. So it is really a good sign that is public can get hold of all the information without censor or distortion of facts in governments favor.”

Today people not only think over it but also talk about politics. They know each and everything today due to political talk shows and also can judge who is better and should be next Leader and can work better for their country. ( politics portal, 2012).

Four different ways of measuring the impact of anchor of Talk Shows have been used in previous research : stoichiometric techniques , interviews with key information , observation , and self-designating techniques (Jacoby , 1974; Rogers & Cartano 1962 , Weismann 1994). The prominent measurements have always been self-designating techniques, because they can easily be administered in survey.

Rees in 2007 said that uniqueness of the opinion in not special to the set-up of the talk shows. he states,

“In TV programs , we find normal arguments produce in normal ways, but intensified by the pressures of the specific purpose and layout of the show , hosts elicit arguments to increase the entertainment value of the show; participants use arguments to detract their opponent’s image and to enhance their own image”.

Alina , Marukh and Rana (2006) conducted the research “level of interest in TV programs channels and its impact on personal aspiration of youth”. For the conducted research, the greater the level of interest in TV programs, the greater will be the impact on personal aspiration of the students. Further, to find out the relationship, if any , between the level of interest in TV programs and its impact on personal aspiration.

The study conducted by Daheem , Misbah and Atif (2007) , research of “impact of political communication through electronic media on party loyalty”. For the conduction of the present research , the researchers chose Pakistan People’s Party that the division or categorization amongst this party has been seen to a much lower extent as compared to other contemporary political parties. Researchers also observed that the element of loyalty exists muh more in PPP as compared with other parties of its own level.

Theoretical Framework

There are many theories which are related to media and influence individual directly, proportionally, immediately etc. These theories have different means to the media and their users. Many theories come into this framework that can relate the topic of researcher. But researcher discussed the one theory which is :

Two-Step-Flow of communication.

Introduction Of The Theory:

The two-step flow of communication theory was first introduce by Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson , and Hazel Gaudet in The People’s Choice, a 1944 study focused on the process of decision-making. These researchers expected to find empirical support for the direct influence of media message on their viewers.

This theory assert the information from the media moves in two distinct stages. First, individuals(opinion leaders) who pay close attention to the mass media and its message receive the information. Opinion leaders pass on their own interpretations in addition to the actual media content. The term ‘personal influence’ was coined to refer to the process intervening between the media’s direct message and the audience’s ultimate reaction to that message. Opinion leaders are quite influential in getting people to change their attitudes and behaviors and are quite similar to those they influence. The two-step floe theory has improved the understanding of how the mass media influence decision making. The theory refined the ability to predict the influence of media messages on audience behavior, and it helped why certain media campaigns may have failed to alter audience attitudes and behavior.

Application Of The Theory:

The theory describes that Talk Shows are answerable for refining viewers about the idea of political and social truth. This situation is clearly exposed by research which seeks to establish what audience can and do understand about and from the mass media. Such researches have shown that audience can talk intelligently, perform the way they see something influenced by media. The mass media may not be successful in telling people what to think , but mass media successful in telling what to think about. Media and the political talk shows creating awareness among audience and youth about the current situation of their country.

The TWO-STEP FLOW THEORY asserts the following points:

the information is transferred not only by the medium but also through interpersonal communication.
There are people between the medium and the interpersonal communication network which are called opinion leaders or Anchor persons.
The influence of such opinion leaders or Anchor persons is significantly larger than that of the medium.

Research Methodology:

Current Affair Programs are main source of television. It is playing a main role in creating political awareness among youth in Lahore. Mass Media is the source of influencing people to participate in politics and this is the only source of creating awareness in citizens that how to improve and run our political system. People are mainly affected by the news and news Current Affair Programs that are on air on different news channel of Pakistan around the clock.

Research Design/Method:

The design used by the researcher is survey design.

Research Tool:

The researcher used questionnaire . The questionnaire was usually developed to measure the role of Anchor persons in creating political awareness among youth in Lahore . close ended question were used. Close ended question allow the respondent to answer free and unbiased responses.

Population:

The population includes viewers of current affairs talk shows . So in this research the population is selected of youth in Lahore both Male and Female of ages 18 to 25.

Sample:

Different institutions of Lahore ( Kinnaird college , Lahore college , Punjab university and LUMS )

Accidental / Convenience Sampling :

This sampling is used to collect data . A sample of 200 people has been selected. Department of media studies and political science are selected of chosen universities . The following universities have been selected randomly to conduct a survey among youth in Lahore

Kinnaird college for women

Lahore college for women

Punjab university

LUMS

Variables:

Daily watching Talk Shows creating awareness among youth
Positive viewpoint about the country
Political involvement

4.7Control Variable:

Age 18-26
Respondents: Students or Youth

4.8 Statistical Analysis:

The statistical software used is Mini Tab