COUNTER TERRORISM ACTIVITIES IN PAKISTAN: COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE EDITORIALS OF ELITE NEWSPAPERS

Mirza Jan; 2Muhammad Siddiq

Mirza Jan Department of Mass Communication, Goamal University, D.I.Khan
2Muhammad Siddiq Department of Arabic, Islamic Studies and Research, Gomal University, D.I.Khan

Keywords: 9/11, Framing, Editorials, Terrorism activities, War on terror & Media framing

Abstract

This research paper focuses to discuss the coverage of terrorism activities in Pakistan. Islamic
Republic of Pakistan has facing terrorism in different mode from last many decades. The war on
terrorism has launched in reaction of the attacks of 9/11 by the Bush administration. Pakistan has
played very essential role as US allies in counter terrorism. Mass media has strong power to influence
on reshaping the opinion and polices about any issue. Editorials of two elite newspaper of Pakistani
press were selected for this research. Method of content analysis was adopted to find out the coverage
of terrorism in Pakistan. The study tries to investigate the media framing about the terrorism, whether
it portrayed pro-Taliban or pro-US in the editorials of both newspapers. Time frame of the study was
designed after the attacks of 9/11to its next anniversary. Categories of content were defined to cater
the terrorism coverage. Findings of detailed analysis depict the pro-US coverage.