Coverage of Political Unrest in Pakistani English Newspapers: A Corpus-Based Content Analysis

Authors

  • Misbah Batool M.Phil. Scholar, Department of English, The Women University Multan, Punjab, Pakistan.
  • Dr. Durr-e-Nayab Assistant Professor, Department of English, The Women University Multan, Punjab, Pakistan.
  • Zoya Hashmi M.Phil. Scholar, Department of English, The Women University Multan, Punjab, Pakistan.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55737/qjssh.553197532

Keywords:

Corpus, Pakistani English Newspapers, Biasness, Frequently used Words, Content Analysis

Abstract

The newspaper is a traditional channel of information interchange between the public and the government, as well as a free platform for the general public to commend and criticize the actions and policies of the government. This article aims to study the frequency of lexical choices and positive and negative words in the news coverage of political unrest by Pakistani English newspapers using corpus-based content analysis. The data for analysis was collected from the official websites of three Pakistani English newspapers: Daily Times, The Nation, and Dawn. The collected data has been analyzed quantitatively using the corpus software AntConc. Twenty news items were selected for news corpus with purposive sampling from 5th April 2023 to 30th September 2023. The findings reveal that Pakistani English newspapers use more negative words in the coverage of political matters, which do not represent the subjectivity of the newspapers' publishers but provide trustworthy news about political uncertainty to the audience. Moreover, this study explores the agenda of Pakistani English newspaper media through the Agenda Setting theory by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw (1972). Additionally, this study demonstrates how much realistically Pakistani English publications depict political events that are causing uncertainty.

Author Biography

  • Dr. Durr-e-Nayab, Assistant Professor, Department of English, The Women University Multan, Punjab, Pakistan.

References

Almond, G. A. (1963). The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations. Princeton University Press.

Carroll, C. E., & McCombs, M. (2003). Agenda-setting effects of business news on the public's images and opinions about major corporations. Corporate Reputation Review, 6(1), 36-46. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.crr.1540188

Christians, C. G. (2010). Normative theories of the media: Journalism in democratic societies. University of Illinois Press.

Helfer, L. (2016). How politics becomes news and news becomes politics. A comparative experimental study of the politics-media relationship. https://hdl.handle.net/1887/44701

Jacobi, C., Kleinen-von Königslöw, K., & Ruigrok, N. (2015). Political News in Online and Print Newspapers. Digital Journalism, 4(6), 723–742. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2015.1087810

Kassed, H. K., & Mustaffa, C. S. (2017). Agenda Setting Theory and International News: A Comparative Analysis of News Articles Coverage on Iraq War in Malaysian English Newspapers. SHS Web of Conferences, 33, 00081. https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20173300081

Khan, R. (2021). Framing the Political Reality of 2014 Sit-ins: An Analysis of Mainstream English Newspapers of Pakistan. Pakistan Social Sciences Review, 5(I), 61–71. https://doi.org/10.35484/pssr.2021(5-i)06

Kronstadt, K. A. (2018). Pakistan’s Political Crises [Updated January 3, 2008]. Congressional Research Service.

Lloyd-Hazlett, J., Honderich, E. M., & Heyward, K. J. (2016). Fa-MI-Ly: Experiential techniquesnto integrate motivational interviewing and family counceling. The Family Journal, 24(1), 31–37. https://doi.org/10.1177/1066480715615666

Lyengar, S. (1990). Framing Responsibility for Political Issues: The Case of Poverty. In Political Behaviour (pp. 19-40). Springer.

McCOMBS, M. (1997). Building Consensus: The News Media’s Agenda-Setting Roles. Political Communication, 14(4), 433–443. https://doi.org/10.1080/105846097199236

Obradović, N. (2023). Political Communication And Traditional Media – An Inseparable Connection. Facta Universitatis, 1, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.22190/fupsph2301001o

Sheikh, N. U. (1993). Newspapers and Concerns of the Society, Evidence from Content Analysis. https://file.pide.org.pk/pdfpideresearch/prs-01-newspapers-and-the-concerns-of-society-evidence-from-a-content-analysis.pdf

Published

2024-09-30

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Batool, M., Durr-e-Nayab, & Hashmi, Z. (2024). Coverage of Political Unrest in Pakistani English Newspapers: A Corpus-Based Content Analysis. Qlantic Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 5(3), 174-182. https://doi.org/10.55737/qjssh.553197532

Similar Articles

1-10 of 127

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.