PUBLIC INTEREST AND MEDIA: A CASE STUDY OF PAKISTAN

PUBLIC INTEREST AND MEDIA: A CASE STUDY OF PAKISTAN

Pakistan was created in 1947, as a homeland for Muslims in South Asia, and about 97 percent of Pakistanis are Muslim.The founders of Pakistan aimed that religion would provide a cognitive focus for national identity, a focus that would take over the country's ethnic and linguistic variations. Although this aspiration has not been completely fulfilled, Islam is the dominating religion in Pakistani society, and debate continues about its appropriate role in national civic life.

PAKISTAN AS A SOCIETY

Pakistani society is a diverse society with reference to birth, origins, or cultural background.Pakistan is an agriculture based country where almost 80% of its population lives in village. women consist of 52% of the population but It is a male-dominated society in which social development has lagged considerably behind economic change, Pakistani society is facing challenges like sanitation, access to health care, and literacy, especially among females. Increasing population pressure on limited resources, together with this pattern of social and economic inequity

SOCIAL STRUCTURE

Pakistan’s social structure is extremely and extensively tribal, ultraconservative and thus anti-change. There is immense regional diversity in Pakistan. Pakhtuns, Baloch, Punjabis, and Sindhis are all Muslim, yet they have diverse cultural traditions and speak different languages. Ethnic, regional, and--above all--family loyalties figure far more prominently for the average individual than do national loyalties. Punjabis, the most numerous ethnic group, predominate in the central government and the military. Baloch, Pakhtuns, and Sindhis find the Punjabi preponderance at odds with their own aspirations for provincial autonomy. Ethnic mixing within each province further complicates social and political relations.

LINGUISTICS

Pakistani society is so diverse that even on every 2 km the accent of language changes even language changes its face ,but still due to governmental policies urdu is widely spoken throughout the country and is the only connecting language among the provinces. Mostly language is the basis of ethnicity in Pakistan. Punjabi is the predominant ethnic class which consists of 48% of Pakistan’s population. Sindhis form about 12%, Siriki (a variant of Punjabi) forms 10%, Urdu speaking (Urdu speaking population usually refers itself as Mohajirs as they migrated from India in 1947) 8%, Balochis 3%, Hindko 2%, Brahui 1% and others 8%.

ETHNIC AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY

WOMEN’S ROLE :Women in rural areas are economically more active as compared to their urban counterparts. 16.5% rural women are economically active as compared to 7.3% of the urban womenfolk. Women almost entirely manage the dairy and livestock sector in the rural areas of Pakistan.

Punjab has historically been confronted with foreign invasions from North (Afghanistan and Central Asia) therefore they are quite open to foreigners and are very progressive in their cultural and social values.In rural Punjab the relations between men and women are more open as women play an important role in farming and without their help the farm productivity will drop significantly. Women go out of their homes to work as cotton pickers, fruit harvesters, and livestock farmers. Since men need women’s help in agriculture sector therefore they have a greater liberty of movement.

Sindhis are the second biggest ethnic group in Pakistan after Punjabis. In terms of proximity to Hinduism they are even closer than Punjabis. A large number of Pakistani Hindus live in Sind province.Sindi culture is quite similar to Punjabis where they have great respect towards fellow human beings. Sindh also is the land of great mystics such as Sachal Sarmast, Shah Abdul Latheef Bhitai and Lal Shahbaz Qalandar.

Mohajirs are the most liberal community in Pakistan. Their women folk are the most liberated women in Pakistan. They work in offices, hold executive positions in businesses and banks. Mohajir women are in front ranks of all walks of life including politics, senior management and community service. Mohajirs consider themselves culturally articulate and have business relations across the world. They are open, frank and friendly towards foreigners. Their social occasions such as marriages and deaths etc are similar to the practices followed elsewhere in Pakistan but are less ostentatious in showing their wealth.

Pushtoons and Balochis are kind of similar in being stubbornly following traditions and norms.They follow strictly their tribes all of their disputes settle by the consultative process known as Jirga. Influential people of the community sit in this jirga and decide on the disputes. Often people with wealth, education and experience are all represented in a jirga.Despite this fact both the Pushtoons and Balochis are totally different in their life styles,culture ,language and traditions.

PUBLIC INTETEREST WITH REFERENCE TO PAKISTANI SOCIETY

Public interest is a common concern among citizens in the management and affairs of local, state, and national government. It does not mean mere curiosity but is a broad term that refers to the body politic and the public weal.

Pakistani society is traditionally a conservative social setup in which freedom of expression is suppressed at almost every level. People are suppressed with their family,custom,traditions,sect,etc. In Pakistan with large-scale illiteracy and the standard of education quite low there has always been a problem of people knowing little about their rights. Social inequality and inequity have always been typical features of Pakistani society. In the Pakistani state and political structure, the civil elites have always had the final say with little role for the general masses to play. Apart from it economic opportunities has always been the domain of the rich families and classes. our whole country has a very large population of nearly 200 million people with state institutions always n crises to deliver social services enforce laws and govern appropriately. Resultantly, the maintenance of social order has always been a gigantic task. On the other hand, with the large-scale illiteracy and poverty the people cannot simply know the need for complete social order. In fact, they even if desirous of maintaining the social order are unable to do so. Here the media have a big role to play in capacity-building of the state institutions, keeping a strict vigil through its watch dog role on institutions for any abuse of power and malfunctioning on the other hand media also have to play a role in educating people by telling them the importance of social order in their overall development and wellbeing through which ultimately their lot can be improved.

Unless the concept of public interest is generally understood by the masses, media and policymakers in which the role of the media is central the society and its members would keep on suffering.

PAKISTANI MEDIA LANDSCAPE

Pakistan’s is a multi-linguistic media landscape with different audiences,but urdu language publications have greater reach than anyother language. Every local language media firm has its own audience.English media group exists but due to lack of audience they hardly survive in Pakistan. enerally tends to be more progressive. There are currently no Pakistani English-language TV channels or radio stations. Regional-language media boast varying level of influence confined largely to their specific regions.

Due to extreme changes in political senerio of Pakistan,Pakistani news and current affairs channel have a larger viewership than any entertainment channel.

when in early 2000 gen Pervaiz Musharaf allowed many Pakistani tv channels to contribute in mainstream media ,media channel licenses were given to the business class of Pakistan without any background of media ,lack of experience a lot of tv channels were established to just propagate things and make money from it.Pakistani media comprises a ownership structure. There are three dominating media moguls, or large media groups, which to some extent also have political affiliations. Also establishment have their direct influence on media .

Political reporting forms the bulk of the coverage of many print and TV news outlets. This has been most pronounced around elections and important judicial decisions with implications for political entities. Live and prolonged TV coverage of rallies benefits political parties. an inclination in the news media content to support one political party or another can sometimes be discerned, be it for ideological reasons, economic interests or other considerations.

At times, some TV talk show hosts have been well-known leaders of political parties and have used their programs to defend and promote the policies of their parties and censure those of other parties. Moreover we see retired generals in their panel list without having any political knowledge our media project them as a analyst and allow them to propagate.

Recently we see many analyst ,journalists like Irshad Bhatti,Hassan Nisar who use to propagates about the leadership of PTI are now apologizing for what they did in past.Its such a shameful act done by Pakistani analyst and journalists that they admitting they were biased.

So we can say that Pakistani media is not working as a watch dog but as a lap dog.

MEDIA AND PUBLIC INTEREST(PAKISTANI SOCIETY)

Pakistani media operates in a difficult environment as a routine.Media face a lot of regulations from government and establishment,media houses are threaten by the people ,any tv channel which try to share unbiased views ,or try to share the real senerio with masses faces a lot of restrictions from government.Public interest in such situation is definitely not the priority of Pakistani media.with lack of resources and strict bans from establishment Pakistani media is therefore struggling for survival. Media Giants with business background are totally focusing on making money instead of informing people while on the other hand whenever a channel try to think out of the boundry and try to share the unpopular opinion faces restrictions.

Now a days during the pandemic we see major reporting about corona virus.Mainstream media is primarily focusing on pandemic reporting and every government policy and steps taken by the institutions in order to control the virus is getting projection vividly on media.

MEDIA ORGANIZATION AND MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

HUM news is the project of hum tv network a well known entertainment agency. Few months back they have started their channel and put a lot of effort in promoting their new channel. Video clips of upcoming shows,unique background music, a lot of new faces coming on the screen made people interested in their content .The demand of the channel rose that almost every cable network added their channel in their list.but what a disappointment this channel was.From it very first transmission this channel failed to grab audience attention.

I figured out following flaws in this channel that lead this channel to a major disappointment

LACK OF TRAINING

As the channel setup is in Islamabad their anchors,newscasters are all Islamabad based.Islamabadian are known for their sweet accent but it seems their anchors training was not good enough.Their newscasters use unnecessarily English,I found many mistakes in urdu fonts displaying on the screen,sometime typo mistake sometimes blunder like wrong slide is showing while newsanchor was talking about something else..moreover I was watching a current affairs program and the host was a new young girl she was so loud and her accent was so cheap her tone was too harsh that I feel like I am getting frustrated on the other hand the guest was PMLN well known spokesperson Ahsan Iqbal who is known for his soft tone.That girl was literally shouting at him seems like she had a grudge over him while he was politely giving his point of view.This contrast and the battle field like stance of her made me switch the channel immediately.

PLAGARISED AND MONOTONOUS CONTENT

Almost all of the programs are copied concepts. investigative programs with unnecessary sensationalization,loud tones of anchors,sharing onesided pro establishment point of view on their programs are the main reason not even a single program got popularity among audience.They even copied the whole concept of popular geo tv program SCORE CARD In its program VIEW MAKER, AGENDA PAKISTAN is a copy of JIRGAH ,PAKISTAN TONITE is a copy of 11th hour by waseem badami etc..

SERVING PERSONAL AGENDA INSTEAD OF PUBLIC INTERESTS

This channel policy is quite identical to the ARy digital.They give less time to anti establishment point of view moreover priming and framing the content is also seemed to be a carbon copy of Ary Digital as the anchors usually take break when the counter opinion is establishing on screen.


Conclusion

Pakistani media is totally not free at all and is bound to be a puppet in the hand of establishment,without free media we cant say that it is serving the true soul of public interest but they are right now serving their God Fathers…


REFERENCES

https://medialandscapes.org/country/pakistan

https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/pakistan/society.htm

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1347845/communicating-public-interest-pakistan/





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