NewspapersMonitoring

Report

Research: Jafar Mehdi and Ch. Mohammad IdreesAnalysis: Mazhar ArifProduction: Society for Alternative Media and Reseachwith coopration of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES)

Journalism is supposed to provide aquality of information, and a widerange of perspectives and voices, topromote participation in publicdiscussion. But, with every passingday, journalism, now generally knownas media, is more and more driven bymarketing and commercial pressuresrather than an ethic of public service.

More and more people are concludingthat dominant, agenda-setting,mainstream (elitist) media are a keyobstacle to progressive social change.Besides, lack of a tradition of mediacriticism in Pakistan deprives themedia organizations themselves of amechanism for correction and reform.

Media have, in many ways, becomethe power structure and is positioned toexploit its enormous influence toadvance both its own agenda and thoseof its government-business allies. Thegreat mass of people (workers,peasants, artistes, students etc.) hasminimal say on the major public issuesof the day.

Society for Alternative Media andResearch (SAMAR), an Islamabad-based non-profit organization,initiated an exercise to measure incentimeters/columns each and everynews story and advertisement printedon front and back pages of mainstreamEnglish and Urdu newspapers to assesshow the newspapers are plural as far asdifferent voices and opinions areconcerned.

The newspapers were selectedrandomly for scanning. The front andback pages of three Englishnewspapers i.e. Daily Times, DAWN

and The News, and of three Urdunewspapers i.e. Daily Express, Jangand Khabrain were scanned minutely

and measured during one month (15

June to 15 July) to ascertain howmuch space was occupied by whichissue, topic and how much byadvertisement.

The topics which were particularlymonitored were war in FATA, bombblasts, Pak-US relations, coalitiongovernments and differences amongcoalition partners, statements by thepresident, prime minister, ministers,political leaders were covered underthe head of government/politics,judges issue, lawyers movement andalso social development issues such ashealth, education, infrastructuredevelopment, rural development,slums, poverty and unemployment etc.

The scanning showed that 92% spaceon front and back pages of threeEnglish newspapers (combined) weredominated by advertisement (42%),government/politics (26%), war onterrorism (10%) and internationalevents (14%). News stories regardingsocial concerns occupied only 4% ofthe overall news space.

Advertisement, government/politics,war dominated 82% space on front andback pages of the three Urdunewspapers. Advertisement was 37%,government and politics 40%. Socialissues occupied 11% spac whereasinternational events got only 3% shareof the overall news coverage.

In DAWN, 8742 cm/cl space wasoccupied by government/politics,judges issue and war (5313 cm/cl), and

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Introduction

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advertisement (3429 cm/cl). However,social issues occupied only 703 cm/clspace on front and back pages of thenewspaper during the whole month.Likewise, in Urdu daily Jang, 10667cm/cl space was occupied bygovernment/politics, judges, issue andwar (5163 cm/cl) and advertisement(5504 cm/cl). Social issues were given592 cm/cl space on front and backpages of the newspaper.

The newspapers gave front and backpages coverage to issues and eventswhich were earlier reported byelectronic media i.e. radio andtelevision channels during their dayand broadcasting. War in FederallyAdministered Tribal Areas (FATA) andadjoining areas, bomb blasts, Pakistan-US relations, war in Afghanistan andIraq, coalition government partners'differences and conflicts, lawyers'movement, demand for GeneralMusharraf's removal, among others,stood out on newspapers' front andback pages. Newspapers, in a sensefollowing news TV channels,continued dedicating staff, space,resources and early attention makingabove mentioned top stories.

The increasingly war in FATA and thefierce political debate over PPP-PML(N) relationship and “restoration” ofChief Justice Mohammad IftakharChaudhry drove intensive coverage bythe newspapers. Taken together, thethree continuing story lines war, PPP-PML (N) differences and lawyers'movement consumed a large portionof the newspapers' energy andresources, and nearly a third of theoverall news space on front and backpages.

SAMAR did a more in-depth,comprehensive analysis of newscoverage. It examined coverage everyday for the entire month (15 June to

15 July). Hundreds of stories wereexamined. The results offer what webelieve to be an astonishing view ofwhat the mainstream media deliveredin one month as well as insights into thepriorities, tendencies and trends thathelped define the news agenda. Amongthe key findings are:

Front and back pages of thenewspapers examined weredominated by largely quartersize advertisements. In somenewspapers, even three fourthof front page was foundoccupied by advertisements.

Advertisements inserted

between news stories on front

and back pages was a common

trend except DAWN which did

not allocate more than one-

quarter on front page and two

quarters (lower half) on back

page.

Particularly, front pages of

both English and Urdu

newspapers were dominated

by a few mega-stories, such as

war in FATA, politics and

judges issue

Front and back pages of Urdu

newspapers were dominated

by advertisement and stories

on politics, judges' issue and

fuel and wheat prices.

E n g l i s h n e w s p a p e r s ,

particularly DAWN, covered

the world on its front and back

pages. Urdu newspapers,

however, ignored what was

happening in the world. The

coverage of international

events, except Iraq, Iran and

Afghanistan, was only 3%.th

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Rather it would be more

accurate to say Urdu media

covered some U.S. interests.

The media and the public often

disagreed about which stories

were important. General

feelings are that the most read

front and back pages of

particularly the English

newspapers failed to deliver

sufficient coverage of some

basic bread and butter issues,

such as rising fuel and flour

prices.

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Rush Limbaugh's reference to

the mainstream press as the

“drive-by” media may be an

ideologically driven critique,

but in the case of several major

stories during the month

i n c l u d i n g f e d e r a l a n d

provincial budgets , the

newspapers did reveal a

tendency to flood the zone

with instant coverage and then

quickly drop the subject. They

had a markedly short attention

span except stories on war and

judges' issue.

Not a single news on culture,

literature, science, medicine,

archeological discoveries etc.

was seen on front or back

pages of all six newspapers

scanned during the month.

News consumers did not have more

news to choose from. The news agenda

was, in fact, quite narrow, dominated

by a few major general topic areas.

Together, coverage of war, bomb

blasts, politics, lawyers' movement

accounted for almost three-fourth

quarters (78%) of the overall news

coverage in English newspapers and

more than three-fourth quarters (82%)

in Urdu newspapers.

And another chunk of that coverageinvolved one-time events, man-madeand natural disasters such as torrentialrains, floods, road accidents and crime.

A Narrower News Agenda

When the coverage of the worldevents was examined, it wasdominated by geopolitical hot spotssuch as Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran,Kashmir etc. However, global eventswere least reported on front and backpages of the Urdu newspapers.

The lack of broad and deep

international coverage is probably afunction of several interrelatedfactors. The war and political issuesperhaps soaked up much of thejournalistic energy and resources orthe readers were kept hostage to thepolitical and financial interests of thenewspapers' owners

A Limited Space for Global News

3

There were some notable differencesin news judgment among the mediasectors, both in terms of subjectmatter covered and the diversity orbreadth of the news. For example,there was diversity of news stories inDAWN. The News and its sister Urdunewspaper, Jang, however, focused

on political issues such as differencesamong coalition partners, judges'issue and lawyers' activities. DailyTimes front pages were dominated bynews stories on war and Pak-USrelations. Urdu newspapers,particularly, covered rise in prices offuel, electricity and flour.

Differences by Newspapers

SAMAR also examined whether thepublic agreed or disagreed with themedia over what constitutedimportant news by analyzing contentsof Letters to Editors largely publishedin English newspapers. Rising costsof living and price hike was the mainconcern of news consumers whereasnewspapers gave priority to war andpolitics over consumers' concerns.

During the scanning, it was foundthat there was no Letter to Editor'scolumn in Urdu newspaper,Khabrain. It seems the newspaper donot want feedback from its readers.

As was the case with many of thetopic areas that got little coverage inthe newspapers, the commoncharacteristic that defines these

particular stories, including the pricehike is that they speak to the nuts andbolts of daily existence, such ashealth and money. There were somesubjects that the newspapers seemedfar more interested in covering thanthe public said they were interested infollowing.

Newspapers and News Consumers

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Daily Times (Front Pages)

5

Social Issues

2%

Calamity

0%

Culture / Litrature

0%

Kashmir

0%

Economy

2%

Terrorism

& Conflict

17%

Advertisement

38%

International

11%

Politics,

Government

&Judiciary

30%

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Daily Times (Back Pages)

Economy

1%

Kashmir

4%Culture / Litrature

0%Calamity

0%Social Issues

6%

International

18%

Terrorism

& Conflict

11%

Politics,

Government

&Judiciary

24%

Advertisement

36%

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Culture / Litrature

0%Social Issues

6%

Kashmir

2%Calamity

1%

Economy

5%

Terrorism

& Conflict

14%International

12%

Politics,

Government

& Judiciary

29%

Advertisement

31%

Dawn (Front Pages)

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Dawn (Back Pages)

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International

32%

Calamity

0%

Social Issues

4%

Culture / Litrature

0%

Kashmir

4%Economy

1%

Terrorism / Conflict

4%

Politics,

Government

& Judiciary

9%

Advertisments

46%

The News (Front Pages)

9

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Advertisemnet

52%

Politics,

Government

& Judiciary

27%

International

7% Culture / Litrature

0%

Social Issues

2%

Terrorism

& Conflict

10%

Kashmir

0%

Economy

1%

Calamity

1%

The News (Back Pages)

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International

5% Calamity

0%

Social Issues

5%

Economy

1%

Kashmir

1%

Culture / Litrature

0%

Terrorism / Conflict

6%

Politics,

Government

& Judiciary

37%

Advertisement

45%

Express (Front Pages)

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Governmet

Politics

& Judiciary

48%

International, 5%

Social Issues, 4%

Calamity, 2%

Culture

&

Literature, 0%

Kashmir, 1%

Economy, 2%

Terrorism

&

Conflict

9%

Addvertisements

29%

Express (Back Pages)

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Terrorism

Conflicts 2%

Economy 2%

Kashmir 2%Calamity 2%

Social

Issues 17%

Culture

Literature 0%

International 5%

Advertisements

30%

Government,

Politics

& Judiciary

40%

Jang (Front Pages)

13

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Advertisements

48%

Government,

Politics

& Judiciary

38%

Terrorism /

Conflict 5%

Economy 3%

Calamity

0%

Kashmir

0%International 1%

Culture &

Literature 0%

Social

Issues 5%

Jang (Back Pages)

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Kashmir 0%

Calamity 1%

Economy 1%

Terrorism

Conflicts 3%

Social

Issues 6%

Culture

Literature 0%International 2%

Advertisements

59%

Government,

Politics

& Judiciary

28%

Khabrain (Front Pages)

15

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Terrorism

&

Conflict 7%Economy 4%Kashmir 1%

Calamity 1%

Social

Issues 8%

Culture

& Literature 0%

International 2%

Government,

Politics

& Judiciary

45%

Advertisements

32%

Khabrain (Back Pages)

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5

10

15

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25

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Economy 1%

Kashmir 1%

Terrorism

Conflicts 3%

Calamity 0%

Culture

Literature 0%

Government,

Politics

& Judiciary

42%

Advertisements

23%

Social

Issues 27%

International 3%

Society for Alternative Media and Research204, 2nd Floor, Kiran Plaza,

F-8 Markaz, IslamabadPh: +92-51-2855011/022

email: contact@alternativemedia.org.pkwebsite: www.alternativemedia.org.pk