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Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences (PJSS)Vol. 30, No. 1 (September 2010), pp. 141-156
Portrayal of Minorities in Elite English Press of Pakistan:A Study of Daily Dawn and the Nation
Shahzad AliAssistant Professor, Department of Mass Communication,
Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, Pakistan.Email: [email protected]
JalaluddinLiteracy Moblizer Officer,
Office of Executive District Officer Literacy, Multan, Pakistan.Email: [email protected]
Abstract
The basic objective of this research article was to investigate thecoverage of minority groups in English press of Pakistan. For this
purpose a content analysis of 127 news items were under taken, of
which 88 were positive whereas 39 news items were negative relating
to minority groups in two leading English newspapers of Pakistan over
a period of one year was made. In general, this study found that except
Ahmadis the coverage of other minority groups was almost positive.
Four hypotheses were developed and tested. The data strongly
supported the prediction of four hypotheses. The two news papers have
given more coverage to Christian as compared to other minority
groups. Similarly, the two newspapers have given least coverage to
Buddhist, Parsis and Jains. Overall, it was found that both the
newspapers gave positive coverage as compare to negative coverage.
Keywords: Minorities; Hindus; Christians; Sikhs; Buddhist; Ahmedis;
Daily Dawn & The Nation
I. Introduction
Minorities are playing effective role in all walks of life. They are rendering
meritorious services for the development and prosperity of Pakistan. They are renowned
teachers, judges, civil servants, journalists, and businessmen. Webster’s dictionarydefines minority as the lesser as smaller less than half number of total, religion national
or political group smaller than and differing from the layer controlling group of which it
is a part (Simon & Schuster, 1979:1146).
According to Oxford Dictionary minority is smaller group in a community, nation
etc differing from other in role, religion, language (Oxford Advance Learner’s
Dictionary. 1992: 570). International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences defines same
society by race, nationally religion or language who both think themselves as adifferentiated group and are thought of by the others as differentiated group with negative
connections “contemporary sociologists generally describes that minorities are relatively
lacking in power and hence, are subjected to certain exclusions, discrimination, and other
differential treatment (International Encyclopedia of Social Science.1968: 365).
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142 Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 30, No. 1
Minorities are considered significant part of any society. They play an important
role in the society. Minorities are also very important part of Pakistani society. Theystand by the Muslim in every situation. One can assume the importance of minoritiesfrom the white part of our national flag. White color represents them. Minorities played a
very important role in the movement of Pakistan. But over all minorities are happy with
the Muslims. Minorities are very important in any society (Ahmad, 2002: 2).
Contemporary sociologists generally describe that minorities are relatively lackingin power and hence, are subjected to certain exclusion, discrimination and other differential treatments. (International Encyclopedia of Social Science.1968: 368)
II. Review of LiteratureThe studies related with minorities can be grouped mainly into three categories
i. Those that count the presence or absence of minorities in the media contentand their comparison with majority or other minorities of the society.
ii. Studies that typically to asses whether the presence of a minority is of
major or minor significance when compared with majority role holders.iii. The extent to which these minorities are like or unlike majority characters
on the same show and further, the manner and frequency with which theminority characters interact with the majority characters (Bryant&
Zillman,1994).
The Abundance of content analyses of minority portrayals in media continues,
although it has been centered on television content to the deficit of most other media.
Recent analyses of newspaper content are absent, and there have been few examinations
of music videos, movies, magazines, or even school books (Greenberg & Brand, 1994).
Mostly Media researches on minorities started in 1970s. This article traces out different
studies conducted upon the idea about the coverage and portrayal of minorities bydifferent researchers.
This article contains the studies of both foreign and Pakistani researches to explain
what already has been done in the field of Mass Media regarding minorities. Ruqyya Gul
conducted research on Pakistani minorities and separate elections (Gul, 1999). Shahzad
Ali in his research article has presented a content analysis of News Coverage of Pakistaniminority groups in two leading Urdu newspapers Daily Jang and daily Nawa-i-Waqt for
one year. Overall, the study found that the media representation and portrayal of minority
groups in two major Urdu newspapers of Pakistan was positive (Ali, 2004).
In another study, conducted by Massoud Ansari entitled “Minorities in Pakistan”
the researcher has presented the critical analysis about Ahmadi community. The
researcher has also given the example of column added in the application forms for Pakistani passport and national identity cards whereby all citizens have to declarewhether they are Muslims or non Muslims (Ansari, 2006). M. Ali Yousaf in his case
study found Ahmadis and Christians has regularly documented of discrimination and
oppression both at official and society levels. Hindus also suffer stigmatization anddiscrimination (Yousaf, 2006).
Carlos Cortes in his study entitled “Minorities and Mass Media” the researcher has
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Shahzad Ali, Jalaluddin 143
concluded that minorities have long been aware of the influence of the mass media on
their lives and have struggled to increase their own impact on the media. He has alsofound that minorities are determined to expand their media influence (Cortes, 2006).Vishvajit Singh in his research article has concluded that for a successful media constant
supply or monetary resources is revised to effectively highlight stories from the ground
up (Singh, 2006). Singroriellie in his research “Martial status in Television” compiled an
annotated bibliography of studies on television; it included 307 abstracts of studies on
social and ethnic minorities from the early 1950s to the mid 1980s (Signoriellie, 1982).
Seggal, Hafen, Hannonen and Gladden conducted a study on “Television
Portrayals of Minorities and Women in Drama”. They took the sample of 18000
characters. They found whites expanded their domination in these television content
areas, blacks were below their population percentages, and all others were negligible
(Seggar, Hafin & Hennonen, Gladden, 1981).
Gerbner in his researcher “Cultural Indicators the Case of violence in Television
Drama” reported African American constituted 11% of prime time program character,
9% on the daytime serials (a substantial increase in the latter) and were less than 3% on
Saturday morning. Latin/Hispanic characters were rare and the remaining ethnic US
minorities were most conscious by the absence (Gerbner, 1970).
Anita Kim in his research article “Sikh Roles, representations and revenge, in the
media” The researcher has found in north America Sikhs are greatly underrepresented in
the media as professionals, anchors, actors and middle class families (Kim, 2006).
Comstock and Cobby (1979), Poindexter and Storman ( 1981), Akhter (2000), Ahmad
(2002) Methane (2006), Lorna (2006) , Riggins (2006), Tienda & Tzann, (2006 ) ,Bird(2006) and Ali, (2006) have researched on coverage of minorities and media.
Lemon enhanced the rights of Women (Lemon, 1977) and Blacks on Prime-time
Television and in the same year Banks also put forward the content analysis of the
treatment of Black American on Televisions (Banks, 1977) .Shu highlighted the portrayals of Chinese on Network Television as Observed by Chinese and White Rates(Shu, 1979).Television and Afro- Americans in the Past legacy and present portrayals is
presented by Berry (Berry, 1980).Chaundhry stated the Press Portrayals of Black
officials, aging with Television Commercials: Race, racial Attitudes and Adolescents
Perception of Black television characters. (Chaundhry, 1980) Dates depicted the issue of
Race; Relation on Prime Time Television(Dates,1980) .Wiegal, Loomis & Soja enhancedthe issue of Aging with Television Commercials: Image on Television Commercials and
Dramatic Programming(Loomis & Soja,1980). Gerbner, Gross, Morgan & Signorilli
portrayed the Image on Television Commercials and Dramatic Programming (Gerbner,
Gross, Morgan & Signorilli, 1981) .Gerbner, Gross, Morgan & Signorilli highlighted
Blacks and television: A Comparison of portrayal of Black and White Characters onTelevision (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan & Signorilli, 1981). McNally depicted the effect of Black Models on Magazines and Readership (McNally, 1983). Solely presented the CrossMedia Coverage of Local Hispanic American News (Solely, 1983).
Heeter elaborates the Comparison of portrayal of Black and White Characters on
Television (Heeter, 1983). McNally told about the Image of the Black Family and the
White Family in American Prime Time Television Program in 1970 to 1980 (McNally,
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144 Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 30, No. 1
1983). Sweeper discussed the Women and minorities in Television Drama 1969-1978
(Sweeper, 1983). Barcus in 1983 stated the Being Black in America: The Press portrayal.Martindale and Image of life on Children’s television (Barcus,1983). Barcus had toldabout the Black Participation in live Network Television Interviews at the 1984
Democratic Convention (Barcus, 1984). Womack highlighted about the Hispanic
American in the news in two Southwestern Cities (Womack, 1988). Turk, Richard,
Bryson, & Johnson discussed about the Color Adjustmen (Turk, Richard, Bryson, &
Johnson, 1989). Riggens focused on Blacks and television: Blacks in the News:Television, Modern Racism and Cultural Change (Riggens, 1991). Entman renderedBlacks and White TV: African Americans in Television since 1948 (Entman, 1992).
MacDonald discussed the Immigration in America’s future: Social science findings and
the policy debate (MacDonald 1992). Heer in 1996 portrayed about Cuban Miami (Heer,
1996). Perez in 1992 told about the Cultural Diversity on Saturday Morning Television in
G. Berry & J.K. Asaman (Eds) (Perez, 1992). Greenberg & Brand presented the U.S.
news magazine Images of Black- Asian American relationship (Greenberg & Brand,1993). Thornton & Shah discussed the Local Whiteness, localizing Whiteness (Thornton
& Shah, 1996). Frankenberg portrayed the Ethnic media in United States (Frankenberg,
1997). Viswanth & Arora presented the psychotherapy Research with Ethnic Minority’s
Empirical, Ethical and Conceptual Issues (Viswanth & Arora, 2000). Hall told that Sikh
American have been targeted for harassment and attacked more than any group after 9/11(Hall in 2001). Singh told about “The Death cuts” or Media treatment of “Failed” NewReligious Movements (Singh, 2002). Park discussed the Media, minorities and
misconception (Park, 2002). Underlieder portrayed the Minorities and Media: Little
ownership and even less control (Underlieder, 2002).
Hypotheses: After conducting in depth review of literature the following hypotheseshave been formulated developed and would be tested, the study advances four
hypotheses.
H1: The proportion of the positive coverage of all minority groups would be
greater than the proportion of negative coverage.H2: The proportion of negative coverage about Ahmadis would be greater than
the proportion of positive coverage.
H3: The greater the percentage of the population from the religious
denomination the more prominent mass media stories would be about that
religion denomination.
H4: The fewer of the number of people from religious denominations in the population, the less legitimate stories would be there about that religious
denomination.
III. Method of the Research
For this research, two Pakistani newspapers of English Language Daily DawnLahore and the Daily the Nation Lahore have been selected. The yardstick and criteria for their selection included.
a. Leading newspaper in Pakistan b. Both the newspapers have vast readership in all sections of the society.
c. Both are popular among the Pakistani pubic and policy makers.
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Shahzad Ali, Jalaluddin 145
To keeping in mind the nature of the topic, primarily the technique of Content
Analysis would be applied in order to accomplish the research study.
Unit of Analysis
One year period of study from January 2005 to December 2005 has been selected
for this research. The unit of analysis in this research would be the complete news stories
appeared on front, last and inside page including articles, editorials and features. The
news stories as a whole served a contextual unit. Each news story about minorities would be coded as one of the two categories positive and negative. The news story whichreflected development and positive changes in economics, political, social walks of life,
and religious ceremonies as well as statement of minorities leaders, would be coded
positive. Whereas, news story which would depicted corruption, anarchy, poor living
condition, disputes and political, economic and social conflicts would be coded as
negative coverage of the concerned minority groups.
IV. Minorities in Pakistan
There is a lot of religious/minority groups apart from Muslims live in Pakistan:
• Christians.
• Hindus.
• Sikhs.
• Qadianis / Ahmadis.
• Buddhists.
• Parsis.
• Bahais.
Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and Qadianis have the dominant population in Pakistan
(Ahmad, 2002: 71-73).
Table 1 Religious Demography on the Basis of Census
Ser. Religion Population
1 Total Population 132,352,279 (100%)2 Muslims 127,433,409 (96.28%)
3 Christians 2,092,902 (1.58%)4 Hindus 2, 11,271 (1.60%)
5 Scheduled Castes 332,343 (0.25%)
6 Ahmadis 286,212 (0.22%)7 Others 96,142 (0.07%)
(Source: Population data sheet Govt. of Pakistan, 2007)
Table 1 indicates that there is total 132, 352,279 (100%) Population of Pakistan in
which Muslims are 127,433,409 (96.28%), Christians are 2,092,902 (1.58%), Hindus are
2, 11,271(1.60%), Scheduled Castes are 332,343 (0.25%), Ahmadis are 286,212 (0.22%)
and other Minorities of Pakistan are 96, 142 (0.07%) in numbers.
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146 Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 30, No. 1
Table 2 Population of Minority Communities
COMMUNITIES PUNJAB SINDH NWFP BALUCHISTAN TOTAL
Christians 1,699,843 294,885 36,668 26,462 2,057,858 42%Hindus 116,410 2,280,842 5,090 39,146 2,441,488 50%Ahmadi/Qadiani 181,428 43,524 42,150 9,800 276,902 6%Others 48,779 23,828 14,726 6,471 93,804 2%
Total 2,046,460 2,643,079 98,634 81,879 4,870,052
Population
of MinorityCommunity
(Source: Population data sheet Govt. of Pakistan, 2007)
Table 2 depicts that Christians are 1,699,843 in Punjab, 294,885 in Sindh, 36,668
in NWFP AND 26,462 in Baluchistan. The total population of Christians in Pakistan is 2,05,858 (42%). Hindus are 116,410 in Punjab, 2,280,842 in Sindh, 5,096 in NWFP and
39,146 in Baluchistan.Total population of Hindus are 2, 441,488 (50%). Ahmadis are181,428 in Punjab, 43,524 in Sindh, 42,150 in NWFP and 9800 in Baluchistan. The total
population of Ahmadis are 276, 902 (6%). Other minorities of Pakistan are 48,779 in
Punjab, 23, 823 in Sindh 14,726 in NWFP and 6,471 in Baluchistan. Christians, Hindus,
Ahmadis, Other minorities are 2,046,460 in Punjab. 2,643,079 IN Sindh 98,634 in NWFP. Their total population is 4,870,052in Pakistan.
GRAPH: Population growth of minorities in recent years
Christians
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Shahzad Ali, Jalaluddin 147
Among the 4% of the Pakistan population who are Christians, there is an almost
50-50 divided between the catholic and the protestant denominations.
Cities like Peshawar and areas of Bahawalpur, Hyderabad, Rawalpindi & Quetta
have always had sizeable numbers of Christians engaged in various professions in the
service sector.
The church organization is very similar to other south Asian Countries with adefinite Pakistan cultural and ling artic embodiment Christian of Pakistan are converts,descendents of converts, Anglo India / Pakistan and western missionaries.
Hindus
i. Hindus are equivalent in number to the Christians who almost four percent of
the population.
ii.
There are several castes among the Hindus besides ethnic diversity.iii. Major portion of Hindus population has been living in the interior part of Send
for a long times. Most of them are living in Hyderabad division.iv. It is interesting to note that over 1.5% of the minority population are young
people and the average literacy rate in a few cases is higher then national
average (official literacy rate is 45% in Pakistan)
Sikhs
i. The Sikhs are mostly Punjabis with smaller traditional communities in
Karachi and NWFP. ii. There are few Sikhs in the tribal areas that are bilingual and have a close
relationship with Sikh in Afghanistan.
AHMADIS
They have been declared non Muslims in 1974, by the parliament during Bhutto
regime. The parliament passes second amendment in the 1973 constitution with over
whelming majority in this regard.i. Ahmadis have been the focus of attention due to the issue of their faith, inter
marriage and open social interaction remain minimal.
ii. The Ahmadis are divided into the Lahori and Ahmadis Group. Both the
leadership-London based and the elite of the movement are predominantly
Punjabis, with smaller communities in other provinces.iii. Many Ahmadis are from central Punjab but are scattered across town and
cities.
iv. After their designation as non Muslim minority, many moved to Europe and
elsewhere.
v. However, their cultural, family, and language like with the Punjab remain
strong. Parsis
i. Parsis are strictly an urban and entrepreneurial community based inKarachi and Lahore with a few families in other master side (Ali,
2004).
ii. They are near about 500 in Karachi. There are a lot of Parsis in Iran. A
lot of Parsis have embraced Islam for the last thirteen years. Some
migrated to India. Parsis live in Karachi, Puna, Mumbai and Surat.
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148 Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 30, No. 1
Most of them live in Surat. Mostly Parsis are traders. Parsis contribute
in social welfare works. They are rich in Sub-continent (Ibid: 32).iii. Due to their strong commercial links none evangelize nature of their
faith and steady of world migration to North America the Parsis remain
less visible in Pakistan.
iv. Some Parsis like Braham Avari, Bupsi Sidluva, the dins haws, the
Markers and the well known columnist, Ardeshir Cowsgee, are national
role models.
Bahais The Bahais are in general converts and middle class urbanities who
publish magazines and books but keep very low profiles (Madni, 1999).
History and Editorial Policy of Daily Dawn towards Minority Groups
During the last phase of freedom struggle three institution played the most crucial
role. One was the Muslims league and the second one was the Quaid-e-Azam and theDawn was the third one. Dawn was first launched as a weekly in October 1941. The mast
head announced that “Mr. M. A Jinnah was its founder. (Nisa, 1999: 10-11) After Lahore
resolution M. A Jinnah established a trust. Quaid himself was managing director of the
trust under the supervision of this trust two newspapers were charted Dawn and
Manshoor.Dawn was English newspaper; it was first Muslims English newspaper whichwas started from Delhi.
Dawn is the popular most English newspaper in Pakistan. It is one of the
newspapers having high creditability. It is being published from Karachi and Lahore at
the same time. It is a quality newspaper representing all the topic of interests in life e.g.
Education, Population, Showbiz, Sports, Economy, Finance, Agriculture, Current Affair,Science and Technology and many more separate editions for Children, Youth, Women,
and for other different community are also published. Special education on special
occasion are also printed e.g. 14th August, Eid’s, Youmay-a-Takbeer, New Year and New
Century as well. It also publishes weekly magazines i.e. review, that is on current and
International Affairs. Circulation of Daily Dawn near about 100,000.This is the highestcirculation of any English newspaper in Pakistan (Ibid: 12).
History and Editorial Policy of Daily the Nation towards Minority Groups
The first edition of daily Nation published in 1986 from Lahore. The Nation’s
Editor Arif Nizami while the Chief Editor is Majeed Nizami. This newspaper is also
called the sister newspaper of Nawa-i-Waqt. The Daily Nation is very famous among thereaders of English newspaper. The organizers Daily the Nation and Nawa-i-Waqt are
same. It was published from Karachi on 1st
May 2000 (Baig, 2002: 40).
Daily the Nation always claims that it always has been supporting the democracy
and Islamic state. This newspaper has always been apposing those people who are againstQuaid-e- Azam’s concept. It always condemned the dictatorship and Martial law. The
Nation always supports the Islamic concept. (The Nation, October 1, 1986).Daily The Nation has always been opposing the concepts which are against national identity. The
Nation has always been against Racism and the concept of regionalism.
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Shahzad Ali, Jalaluddin 149
The editorial of the Nation are based on pure information and truth. It always
supports the Islamic concept. Daily The Nations news and views on international issuesare neutral (Shahid, 1992; P.198).
Daily The Nation and Daily Nawa-i-Waqt are running under the same
organization. Both the News papers have the same policy. Hameed Nizami (LATE) is the
founder of both newspapers. Daily Nawa-i-Waqt has played a very important role in
movement of Pakistan. Daily The Nation is the third big newspaper in Pakistan. It is promoting the serious journalism (Akhtar, 2002: 391-392).
Table 3 Number of News about the Religious Groups in Daily Dawn Lahore
(January 2005 to December 2005)Minority Groups Number of News Positive News Negative News
Christian 43 (100%) 29 (67.44%) 14 (32.56%)
Hindus 14 (100%) 8 (57.14%) 6 (42.86%)
Sikhs 7 (100%) 6 (85.71%) 1 (14.29%)
Ahmadis 2 (100%) NIL 2 (100%)
Other (Parsis, Buddhist etc) 29 (100%) 21 (72.41%) 8 (27.59%)
Total 95 (100%) 64 (67.37%) 31 (32.63%)
Table 3 reveals that the coverage of Daily Dawn about Christian totaled 43 (100%)
news items, of which 29(67.44%) news were positive and 14 (32.56%) news items werenegative. Similarly, 14(100%) news about Hindus, of which 8 (57.14%) were positive
and 6 (42.86%) were negative. Total 7(100%) news items of Sikhs, of which 6 (85.71%)
were positive and 1 (14.29%) was negative. The total coverage about Ahmadi were 2(100%) news, they were negative. And the other minorities including Parsis, Buddhist
and others have29 (100%) in which 21 (72.41%) were positive and 8(27.59%) were
negative. So, overall Dawn has given more coverage to Christians, than Ahmadis, Sikhs
and other minorities of Pakistan.
Table 4 Number of News about Religious Groups in Daily the Nation Lahore (January 2005 – December 2005)
Minority Groups Number of News Positive News Negative News
Christian 19 (100%) 14 (73.68%) 5 (26.32%)
Hindus 1 (100%) 1 (100%) NIL
Sikhs 6 (100%) 6 (100%) NIL
Ahmadis 2 (100%) NIL 2 (100%)
Others (Parsi, Buddhist
etc)4 (100%) 3 (75%) 1 (25%)
Total 32 (100%) 24 (75%) 8 (25%)
Table 4 depicts that the coverage of Daily the Lahore newspaper about Christiantotaled 19(100%) news of which 14(73.68%) were positive and 5(26.32%) news werenegative. The Nation Lahore carried 1(100%) news about Hindus, and that was positive.
Totaled 6(100%) news about Sikhs and that all were positive. The total news about
Ahmadis are 2(100%) and those 2(100%) were negative. The Daily Nation carried
4(100%) news of Parsis, Buddhist and other minorities in which 3(75%) were positive
and 1(25%) was negative. Christian got more coverage than any other minority inPakistan.
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150 Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 30, No. 1
COMPARATIVE GRAPH OF DAILY DAWN LAHORE & DAILY THE NATION LAHORE
43
14
7
2
29
95
29
86
0
21
14
6
12
8
31
19
1
6
24
32
14
1
6
0
3
24
5
0 02
1
8
64
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Christian Hindus Sikhs Ahmadis Others Total
Series1
Series2
Series3
Series4
Series5
Series6
T
N
+
-
T
N
+
-
T
N
+- T
N +-
T
N +
-
T
N +
-
T
N+
-
T
N +
-
T
N
+
-
-
+
T
N
+
-
T
N
+
-
T
N
Table 5 Comparative Analysis of Minority Groups Coverage in Daily Dawn
Lahore and Daily the Nation Lahore(January 2005 TO December 2005)
R E L I G I O N
NEWSPAPERSTOTAL
DAILY DAWN LAHORE DAILY THE NATION LAHORE
TotalNews
PositiveNews
NegativeNews
TotalNews
PositiveNews
NegativeNews
TotalNews
PositiveNews
NegativeNews
Christian43
(100%)29 (67.44%) 14 (32.56%)
19(100%)
14 (73.68%) 5(26.32%)
62(100%)
43 (69.35%) 19 (30.65%)
Hindus14
(100%)8 (57.14%) 6 (42.86%)
1 (100%) 1 (100%) - 15(100%)
9 (60%) 6 (40%)
Sikhs7 (100%)
6 (85.71%) 1 (14.29%)4 (100%) 3 (75%) 1
(25%)11
(100%)9 (81.82%) 2 (18.18%)
Ahmadis 2 (100%) - 2 (100%) 6 (100%) 6 (100%) - 8 (100%) 6 (75%) 2 (25%)
Others29
(100%)21 (72.41%) 8 (27.59%)
2 (100%) - 2 (100%) 31(100%)
21 (67.74%) 10 (32.26%)
Total95
(100%)64 (67.37%) 31 (32.63%)
32(100%)
24 (75%) 8 (25%) 127(100%)
88 (69.29%) 39 (30.71%)
The Table 5 shows that the Daily Dawn Lahore carried more news items 95(100%) as compared to Daily the Nation 32 (100%). Similarly, more positive news 64(67.37%) were published in Daily Dawn as compared to Daily the Nation Lahore 24
(75%). This comparative table showed that daily Dawn has given more coverage to
Christians than daily Nation. There was a similar point that both the news paper has given
first, second and their grading coverage in sense of ratio to Christian, Hindus and Sikhs
respectively.
Hypothesis No.1 predicted that the proportion of positive coverage of all minority
groups will be greater than the proportion of negative coverage. The data stronglysupported this hypothesis. Both the newspapers have given positive coverage than the
negative coverage to all the minority groups.
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Shahzad Ali, Jalaluddin 151
Hypothesis No.2 predicted that the proportion of negative coverage of Ahmadis
will be greater than the proportion of positive coverage .The data strongly supported thishypothesis. Both the newspapers have given negative coverage to Ahmadis.
Hypothesis No.3 Predicted that the greater the percentage of the percentage of
population from religious denomination, the more mass media stories will be about that
religious denomination. The data strongly supported this hypothesis. The population of
Christians is more than any other minority in Pakistan. Both the newspapers have givenmore coverage to Christians than any other minority group.
Hypothesis No.4 Predicted that the fewer the number of people from a religious
denomination in a population the legitimate stories there will be about religious
denomination. The data strongly supported this hypothesis. Both the newspapers have
given more coverage to Christians than any other minority group. And Hindus, Sikhs,
Ahmadis and other minorities have given less coverage according to their religiousdenomination.
V. Conclusion
This research article has presented a content analysis of news coverage of
Pakistanis minority groups in two leading English newspapers of Pakistan, from the year January 2005 to December 2005.Overall, the study found that the media representationand portrayal of minority groups, in two major English newspapers of Pakistan, was very
positive. The findings to some extent, supported this phenomena, reflection of minorities
in Pakistani media was in accordance with government policies. The researcher has
evaluated all news stories of the Daily Dawn Lahore and the Nation Lahore. It was found
that Daily Dawn Lahore published 95(100%) news items regarding Minorities in which64(71.58%) news were positive and 31 (28.42%) news were negative. Total 32(100%)
news were appeared in Daily the Nation Lahore among which 24(78.13%) news were
positive and 8(21.87%) news were negative. Daily Dawn Lahore published more news
items as compare to the Nation Lahore. Four hypotheses were developed and tested. The
data strongly supported the prediction of four hypotheses.
A survey was also conducted for evaluating opinion and versions of religious
leaders of minority groups about the behavior, professional conduct and media sociology
of media practitioners in this regard.
VI. Suggestions
i. There is a gap between print media and minorities. Print media don’t know
much about their festivals. So newspapers should assign reporters to cover
minorities’ festivals and programs.
ii. Christians are the largest minority in Pakistan. But they have some complaintsabout print media that it gives low coverage to their festivals. So the mediashould provide proper coverage to them according to their population.Christians also said that the reporters don’t have much information about their
festivals and they don’t properly cover their festivals. For Example, the Easter
has no coverage. This is a very special festival for Christians, so the print
media must assign special reporters to cover religious festivals of Christians.
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152 Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 30, No. 1
iii. Hindus have a lot of social and political problems. These problems should be
properly published in the news paper. Hindus have also complained that Holihas no coverage in the print media. This is the special festival of Hindus. Sothe reporters must be aware of their festivals. They have complained that the
print media don’t publish their social problems. Like the shabby conditions of
Temples. So these problems should be published in print media properly.
Sikhs and Parsis and other communities in Pakistan have low coverage in print
media. So they should have proper coverage. Print media will have to make a proper policy for minorities. They should assign trained reporters for them.Most of the news is on back and inside pages. Their news should also be
published on front page.
iv. Ahmadis have no coverage in the print media. They have less and negative
coverage in the print media. The newspapers should give them proper and
positive coverage.
v.
Many minorities of Multan have complaints against govt. they say that their worship places are not in good condition. Christians requested that their
churches are very old. So they should be repaired by the govt. they want that
their protest should be convey through print media. Pint media can play a
important role in the regard.vi. Special editions should be published for minorities like Sunday edition and
monthly edition.vii. Some minorities have complaints about the wording used by newspaper print
media should write their names and religious festivals properly.
viii. Some minorities say that after 9/11 traveling has become a problem for them.
Govt. should take some steps to provide the traveling facilities to minorities.ix. Minorities are very patriotic. They celebrate 14
thAugust with full zeal and
zest. This coverage can be improved their image in the society.x. Print media should create harmony among the minorities and other people of
the society.xi. Famous columnist and writers should write about minorities’ problems.
xii. Minorities should give press releases to the print media in order to make their coverage better.
xiii. Minorities should create good relationship with print media.xiv. Minorities can initiative the reporters to their festivals and their programs.
xv. Minorities’ writers should write features and columns particularly for their
own festivals and programs.
In this way minorities and print media can develop good relations with each other
and their coverage can be improved.
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Shahzad Ali, Jalaluddin 153
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