Journal of Mass Communication & Journalism

News Framing on Indo-Pak Conflicts in the News (Pakistan) and Times of India: War and Peace Journalism Perspective

Abstract

Hussain I

This study aimed to explore the news framing of Indo-Pak Conflicts with regard to war and Peace Journalism by Times of India and The News, Pakistan. The foremost objective of this research was to measure the stance of the Pakistani and Indian prestigious newspaper towards treatment of Indo-Pak Conflicts especially the issues relating to Kashmir and Terrorism. This research study utilized the content analysis in which unit of analysis was the entire news story published in above said newspapers for the period of one year. The news slant was categorized into favorable, unfavorable and neutral. It was found that Daily the News published 364 while 435 news stories were published on Indo-Pak Conflict with special reference to Kashmir and Terrorism conflicts throughout the period of study. The peace frame in the News, Pakistan was more likely to be slanted as compared to Times of India. Furthermore, it was also hypothesized that war frame would be used greater by the Times of India and the data confirmed this prediction made by the researcher and it was found that the level of war frame especially on the issue of Kashmir, Times of India utilized the hatred language and such words of war frame were measured in the Times of India coverage which clear cut depicted the picture of promotion of war between India and Pakistan. It can be safely concluded that peace frame in the News, Pakistan while War frame in Times of India were measured as more than their neutral coverage on war and peace. Moreover, the findings revealed that on the issues related to mutual cooperation and Indo Pak relations the favorable portrayal was observed in The News, Pakistan but there was a significant number of unfavorable coverage in Times of India with regard to Indo Pak conflicts. War frames on Kashmir Issue and Terrorism disputes was also found greater in Times of India as compared to The News, Pakistan who promoted peace culture particularly on the issues relating to terrorism and Kashmir.