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PRINT MEDIA ON COVERAGE OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN PAKISTAN:
TREATMENT OF OPINION PAGES OF THE ‘DAWN’ AND ‘NEWS’
Mirza Jan1, Muhammad Riaz Raza2 ,Muhammad Siddiq3 & Noshina Saleem4
1
Department of Mass Communication, Gomal University, D. I. Khan, Pakistan
2
Department of Mass Communication, Gomal University D.I.Khan, Pakistan
3
Department of Arabic, Islamic Studies and Research, Gomal University, D. I. Khan
4
Institute of communication studies, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan
ABSTRACT
This article identifies coverage patterns of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) in light of agenda setting, framing and priming theories in two leading English dailies: The Dawn and the Daily
News. The opinion pages of these papers for two months were selected to measure the four variables slant, frame, frequency and placement. The writer conducts a content analysis of opinion pages which include editorials, columns and letters to the editors. The results indicate that these two leading papers covered the political activities of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf differently.
Results indicate that Daily News gave huge coverage to PTI as compare to The Dawn. The News published 61 articles on PTI during the two months study period while Dawn published only 14 articles. The language and theme of most of the articles published by Daily News is favorable towards PTA as it published 37 articles in favor of PTI whereas Dawn produced only 3 articles in favor of PTI. The Dawn deals with the same issue in a neutral and objective way. The News devoted 44903 words with the average of 1796 words per article to the particular political party while Dawn devoted 8826 words with the average of 802 words per article on the same period of time. Dawn remained neutral most of the time in language and tone while the approach of the
News remained subjective.
Keywords: Political Parties, Newspapers coverage, Agenda Setting, Framing, Priming

INTRODUCTION
Today’s mass media has put a common man into a ‘hotchpotch’ of information’ where thousands of news events are being happened simultaneously. Establishment of cable TV, internet, mobile technology and other media developments in recent years in
Pakistan have changed the information usage and consumption patterns. Media people must report and present these events to the audiences in time. The priority of the news items is determined by media outlets and media people. Media also remind us which issue is to be the ‘prime issue’ of the day among dozens of ongoing issues.
Walter Lippmann says that “since people had only limited opportunities to observe important events in a firsthand manner, they were dependent upon the press to provide them with information on what those events

were like. The role of the press, he observed, was to provide us with views of
“the world outside” from which we can form “pictures in our heads.”
The
information about local and global events and the changes taking place beyond our eyes are only possible through media. Since the audiences are dependent on media for news and information about latest events the role of media has been critical in prioritizing and re-arranging the agenda of news. In this way media have the power to influence the people who are media reliant.
Since the inception of cable television in
2002, the news consumption pattern of the people has been changing. Newspapers inspired by the outlook and presentation style of cable news and adopted aggressive and popular style of news to enhance their declining readership. Historically, print

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media especially newspapers in Pakistan were considered as mature and objective in their business; currently, the phenomenon of
‘popular and crispy’ style of news is being explored for enhancing the ratings of the media outlet in the race for commercialization. The opinionated news or soft news is a common phenomenon in
Pakistani print as well as electronic media.
Media people like reporters, anchors, sub editors, editors and even owners do not feel any hesitation in doing subjective approach.
Michael (2011) says that “since the early
1970’s, the belief that mass communication is a powerful force has gained strength, in part from studies that document a correspondence between the amounts of media attention an issue receives and the amount of public concern about the problem.” He further quotes McCombs and Shah,
(1972, 1976) that “people learn from the media what the important issues are.” The perceptions we make in our minds about the world are mostly based on second-hand reality which sometimes creates distortion in the information we receive whether it comes from media or any other channel of communication. Therefore, the role of media as ‘agenda setter’ for the target audiences has been drastically enhanced in recent decades.
The present study has focused the coverage of political parties in the light of agenda setting, framing and priming theories. Some recent months witnessed political gatherings from PML N, MQM, and PTI etc. The study was further narrowed down to explore the treatment of opinion pages of The Daily
Dawn and News while covering Pakistan
Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) during and after the peak time of political gatherings and rallies.
The mainstream media covered these activities of the parties differently as some newspapers gave huge coverage while some others gave moderate or low coverage.

The goal of this research study was to explore how two leading English dailies The
News and Dawn covered the issue of party politics and expected elections in their opinion pages by using agenda setting, framing and priming theories. This study focused at understanding the phenomenon of agenda setting techniques which were being used in mainstream English newspapers of
Pakistan on coverage of party politics and expected elections. These issues are being projected with their positive and negative aspects in media as well as audiences perspective; therefore, the coverage on these issues from the mainstream media has been dividing in ‘framing’ (perspective). Opinion pages were selected for the study because of its writers. They are considered opinionated writers of any newspaper.
Print media and political parties
Political parties in the past have tried to establish daily newspapers that could function as their communication organs to the masses. In 1970 the PPP launched the daily Masawat. Established in the wake of the political campaign leading to the 1970 general elections, today the newspaper can be considered a “dummy” newspaper, due to its very limited circulation about 400.
The daily Jassarat of Jamat-e-Islami (JI) is another remnant of that period. The JI, a religious political party, owns a large media group which includes a daily newspaper
(Jassarat), and several weeklies and monthlies; the weeklies Asia, Friday
Special and Takbeer, all in Urdu, are among the more prominent ones. Apart from JI’s official publications, some individuals who are or have been affiliated with the party, or inspired by its religious and political ideology, run other media groups. Examples include Ummat Group of Publications, based in Karachi, and Insaaf Group of
Publications, based in Lahore.41 Jamiat
Ulema-i-Islam (Fazlur Rehman group),

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another mainstream political party, has a monthly Urdu-language magazine, AlJamiah, published from Rawalpindi.
A curious characteristic of the print media landscape in Pakistan is provided by the relatively abundant offering of expensive English newspapers, compared with the low literacy rates in the country.
Although since the last population census of
1998 there has been a significant improvement in countrywide literacy rates, as of 2007–08, official figures from the
Pakistani Federal Bureau of Statistics put those rates at 56 percent. Abysmal adult literacy rates are also one of the key factors determining the low placing of Pakistan on the 2007 Human Development Index, where
Pakistan was ranked 141 out of 182 countries. Among the national Englishlanguage newspapers, ‘the DAWN is the most widely circulated ... It has a week-day circulation of over 138,000 and a total readership base in excess of 759,000’. A report by International Media Support
(IMS) indicates that in 1997 the total number of daily, monthly and minor publications in Pakistan was 4,455, but by
2003 only 945 remained. During the same period, however, the circulation of print media publications increased to a daily distribution of 6.2 million due to militants’ activities and the influx of information thrown into the offices newspapers in
Pakistan.
Background
Pakistani political parties with the help of media are creating political awareness about the national issues among the people. The
English newspapers hold an important place in making and altering the opinion of the elite and dominant social class. These two leading English newspapers have a prestigious place among the elite, middle and lower middle circles too. These media outlets play are being played significant

roles in building public opinion on the issues by framing and agenda setting techniques. In recent months the issue of top- paling down and destabilizing the elected government of President Zardari by military and civil establishment has been a hot topic for media, politicians, and audiences. The cable news channel in general and newspapers in particular gave extensive coverage to the issues of democracy and expected military take over in their prime time talk shows and opinion pages. The media have their own agenda which might be different from the military agenda which has been adventurous towards newly elected governments since 1958 and the first take over by an army general. Judiciary and civil bureaucracies are always hands in hands to support and legitimize the military actions as a doctrine of necessity. The role of media cannot be examined in isolation; however, its role has been more or less favorable towards the ruling class to avoid any confrontation.
Military-mediabureaucracy nexus gave vulnerable loss to democratic institutions and as a result, the non-democratic forces received a reasonable time and space to flourish. On the other hand in the time of political chaos and crises the small political parties have always at the bargaining position as there has not been a single majority party government in
Pakistan. In 1997-1999 the Pakistan Muslim
League (PML) for the first time in the history of Pakistan won the elections and formed a single party government.
Moreover, the non-political forces are always in search of a puppetry or relatively small and weak political party to legitimize their adventures. In recent months the
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) started to show its public strength by pulling public to some big rallies. It has not yet been received much attention from the media and people since its inception about decade and a half.

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The party has not won more than one seat in general elections. Pakistan Muslim League in response to PTI gatherings also started to show public power by conducting public rallies. Against this background, the print and broadcast media gave extensive coverage to both the parties. Media critics say that some media outlets gave greater coverage to PTI. Even, the ruling party has encouraged the public to participate in demonstrations. MQM the coalition partner in the government responded and arranged some big gatherings in Karachi. The following research question is posed to explore these political activities.
Research question
1. Whether and to what extent The News gave salience to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf by using agenda setting techniques?
Literature review
Media is a power and it has penetrated in our lives like oxygen in our body. In modern societies, there is no concept of ‘living processes’ without a free and independent media. Even in under developed countries like Pakistan, the people are becoming addicts of media productions. The post modern media emerged as an essential part of the development process of any society. Media reality is the social reality. The people see the things with the eyes of media and interpret even their social and personal life in the light of media messages. Media may make the new or change the existing reality with their powerful techniques like agenda setting, framing, priming and gate keeping.
A number of studies have been conducted to explore agenda setting, framing, and priming, gate keeping. Moreover, the phenomena of different levels of agenda setting have been analyzed in the light of effects on the target audiences. Walgrave and Aelst (2006) cited Dearing and Rogers,

1996; Kingdon; Protess and McCombs,
1991 that “the media report what is going on in government, by and large, rather than having an independent effect on government agendas.’’ They further cite
Kleinnijenhuis (2003) that “only very limited media impact on politics.
As far as the power of agenda setting is concerned, it is more or less proved that media is a power and agenda setting has a closed relation to persuasion. Walgrave and
Aelst (2006) cited Cobb and Elder (1971, p.
909) that ‘‘the media can also play a very important role in elevating issues to the systemic agenda and increasing their chances of receiving consideration on institutional agendas.’’ Muhammad (2011) is of the view that in well-established democracies, candidates set debate and shape their agendas through interactions with other candidates and voters. In weak democratic cultures, the media and interest groups increasingly shape political attitudes and behavior through press and media coverage. Werner et.al (1997) says that
“agenda setting is one of the possible ways that the mass media can have an effect on the public. Agenda setting is the idea that the news media, by their display of news, come to determine the issues the public thinks about and talks about.” The first systematic study to know the agenda setting effects was conducted in 1972 by McCombs and Shaw and they hypothesized that “the mass media set the agenda for each political campaign, influencing the salience of attitudes towards the political issues.”
Werner et.al (1997)
Saqib (2008) cited McCombs and Shaw,
1972 that “a great degree of relationship between these two agendas of political and social issues established a relationship that became a substantial chain of evidence for an agenda-setting role of the media.” It means that a big portion of communication consists of political communication and

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when we talk about political communication it includes the communication among different social institutions like schools, family, friendship, office, plan or un-planed communication. Therefore, it has strong element of agenda setting role. Saqib (2008) cited McCombs, 2002) that “our pictures of the world are shaped and refined in the way journalists frame their news stories. This function of media is called the agendasetting function of media.
Collecting,
editing and presenting information into news is a complex job on the part of media people. A reporter cannot be a neutral being since a report is part of a culture. Partiality and bias cannot be erased
100%. The journalists ask the questions, receive the information and refine it according to their own frame. Journalist framing may change or alter the opinion of the people.
Today’s active media does not just transfer the information in passive manner but it considers which news item are to be selected and which are rejected. In doing this, media people shape our views about world around us and frame their news events accordingly. Mass media have the power and ability to convert the news agenda into public agenda through carrying the technique of salience of some news events on the one hand and leaving some others on the other. It means journalists or media outlets decide which issue to be covered and which to be ignored. Mhango
(2011) cited Broyde Sharone (2008); "there is no truly neutral story or truly objective story, every story is told through the eyes and ears of whoever is covering the story in terms of favorable, neutral and against."
Werner et.al quoted an example that a few days before the 1980 presidential election between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, most public opinion polls said the race was too close to call. Two days before the elections, the news media played up a story

that the American hostages being held in
Iran might be released. As it turned out, they were not. When the election results were known a few days later, Reagan had won an overwhelming victory, carrying all but six states and the District of Columbia.
He further explained the possible explanation for this outcome lies in the concept of agenda setting. By playing up the hostage release story, the news media increased the public’s awareness of the
Iranian hostage issue. That is for many members of the public, the hostage issue might have moved from a low position on a list of issues that concerned them to a high position. The hostage issue in Iran was at the low level of priority but it suddenly caught the high level for voters and become a No-1.
Newspapers have always been an important and accessible source of political information because of their affiliations.
During the elections their partisan policy could be observed more clearly. In spite of all these favors to some party, the importance of these newspapers cannot be negated. Editorial is the voice of a newspaper at the same time columns play a significant position in the opinion building process of their readership. However, the editorial in its outlook and form is closer to the column. Letter to the editors is to watching the watch dog. Media, especially print media is closely monitoring by watching the editors of the newspapers.
It has been observed by the general masses that media outlets in Pakistan are being run by media conglomerates and pressure groups are principle players who have their political and commercial stakes.
Therefore, they frequently set the news agenda, and the audiences can find ‘framed’ news on these media shops very frequently.
It is rare to have first hand information from direct sources, so, the mass media provide the second-hand information. The primary

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criteria are agenda and frames through which they filter and mould the information.
Reporters, editors and source become gatekeepers by holding factual information and
‘angle’ it to fit the news according to their frames. Walgrave and Aelst (2006 cited McCombs and Weaver, 1973; Weaver, 1977) that “the more people have a need for orientation on an issue, the more they will rely on media and be affected by media coverage” In today’s world society we can live without culture but cannot without media. People rely on media for latest news about their society, city, country and globe. They may not even know about the news event which occurs in their town. It is the media that fulfills their informational needs. People also need orientation on ongoing issues of the day and ultimately they get influenced from this orientation. Walgrave and Aelst
(2006) cited Dearing and Rogers, 1996;
Palmgreen and Clarke, 1977; Protess and
McCombs, 1991). “By and large, measuring the media agenda has been a fairly standardized process with most researches adopting similar sampling and coding procedures in the past”.
James (1984) quoted Bernard Cohen that
“the press is significantly more than a purveyor of information and opinion. It may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling readers what to think about.” The pressure groups and media conglomerates have a great scope for manipulating with the issues and information of the public. The conglomerate media give priority to their commercial gains by selecting conflicting news having more drama and hype to create curiosity and chaos to catch maximum audiences.
Stephen (2001) cited Entman (1993) that “a frame is determined in large part by its outcome or effect: To frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and

make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation.” The Pakistani media environment is much suitable for agenda setters as they can have a number of factors to manipulate the social realities for their vested interests like media illiteracy, illiteracy, political unrest, commercialization, pressure groups, non implementation of self regulation or self responsibility, and non democratic environment. Although private electronic media brings a paradigm shift in Pakistan’s media industry at the same time the criticism and debates on their credibility, impartiality, objectivity and responsibility levels are a hot topic during the recent years. Whether it is the case of Lal Mosque, restoration of judiciary, collapse of Musharraf government, cases against Zardari government, Pak-US relations the ‘impartiality’ and ‘objectivity’ are the question marks against these media outlets. Stephen (2001) further cited Tankard et.al
(1991) that “A frame is a central organizing idea for news content that supplies a context and suggests what the issue is through the use of selection, emphasis, exclusion, and elaboration.” McCombs (1972) is of the view that mass communication effects can result from the sheer volume of exposure.
First
level agenda-setting effects demonstrate that phenomenon. But as both attribute agenda-setting and priming demonstrate, closer attention to the specific content of mass media messages – including the tone of those messages – provides a more detailed understanding of the pictures in our heads and of subsequent attitudes and opinions grounded in those pictures.
To measure the phenomenon of agenda setting effects, it is necessary to measure the volume of exposure to the news media. The

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variable of tone has a great impact on audience’s opinion building process. The viewers / readers get some wide grip on the issue and broad base about the on going phenomenon through the presentation tone of the issue. The most common objective of the media organizations is to maximize profit and to achieve this; they sometimes sacrifice objectivity of the news.
Advertisers and pressure groups have great influence on the contents as they expect media outlets to fulfill their aspirations. For example, the Jang group is being granted comparatively fewer ads from the Pakistani government because of its critical rather anti approach towards government. Therefore, the publication group is rarely seen as objective in its coverage for government.
Miller (2002) suggests that “framing is a process through which the media emphasize some aspects of reality and downplay other aspects”. Gatlin (1980) is of the view that “media coverage mostly favored the elite class and promotes their opinion. This way media frames seemed very powerful in society.
They work as social forces that mould the public opinion and promote the ideology.”
He further says that “Frames are principles of selection, emphasis and presentation composed of little tacit theories about what exists, what happens, and what matters."
The words of Gatlin more or less represent the present supremacy of elite class in most parts of the world. The scenario of Pakistani media is not much different from rest of the world and it is also represented the elitism and commercialism in shape of media conglomerates. After reviewing literature on the topic the following three hypotheses have been posed:1. The Daily News gave more coverage to
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf as compare to
The Daily Dawn on opinion pages.
2. The Daily News portrayed Pakistan
Tehreek-i-Insaf favorably.

3. The Daily Dawn portrayed Pakistan
Tehreek-i-Insaf more likely neutral.

METHOD
To measure the nature and frequency of coverage of two leading English language, newspapers have been selected as a universe and selected opinion pages for sampling purposes for content analysis for two months: October and November, 2011: the peak time of rallies of different political parties.The rational behind selecting these newspapers is that both the dailies are popular and widely read papers. These newspapers have the ability and strength to make and mould the public opinion. Both these newspapers relate to two big publication groups Jang group of publications and Dawn group of publications. Being cross media ownership, these leading publication groups have multidimensional approach for their print and electronic media outlets on the important national issues. Opinion pages have been selected as a universe while articles about
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf were selected as sample for the study. The opinion pages include editorials, articles of writers from newspaper concerned and others analysts, news posts, letters to the editor. Altogether
500 articles were read and the researcher found 75 articles relevant to the topic during the months of October and November 2011.
The variables space, salience, slant, frame and frequency have been measured to bring out the phenomenon in the light of agenda setting, framing and priming theories in these newspapers. The slant has been measured by theme in the context of the article. The measurements of the articles in terms of favorable, unfavorable or neutral were based on the overall calculated numbers. Gomal University Journal of Research, 29(1). June 2013

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The whole articles were treated as coding units of content analysis and the counted units were indexed in terms of favorable, unfavorable, and neutral, keeping in view the amount of space and words given to the each article. For example, the article in favor of the Tehreek-i-Insaf, its policies or its leaders was considered as favorable for said political party. On the same pattern the articles considered as unfavorable for said party if the same was unfavorable in its theme. The article none of the favorable or unfavorable image, the unit considered as

neutral. Therefore, in this pattern the frequency and amount of space of the articles were measured to check its slant.
The coder/s placing of the three categories of an article as favorable, unfavorable, or neutral was determined by their frame of reference. FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS
There was a huge difference in the coverage pattern and agenda setting of these two leading English newspapers.

Table 1: Coverage of PTI on Opinion Pages of Daily the Dawn -- Nature and
Frequency
≠ of
Articles

Date

01-11-11
04-11-11
05-11-11
07-11-11
11-11-11
12-11-11
15-11-11
16-11-11
20-11-11
24-11-11
25-11-11
Total

02
01
01
01
02
02
01
01
01
01
01
14

Placement of
Articles
Upper Lowe
Half
r Half
02
01
01
01
01
01
02
01
01
01
01
01
11
03

Slant
Favorable

Unfavorable

01

-

-

-

01
01

-

-

-

-

-

03

Frame
Neutra
l
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
11

Pro
PTI
01

Anti
PTI
-

-

-

01
01

-

-

-

-

-

03

Total
Words
Neut ral 01
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
11

1330
1200
800
215
786
1380
1250
315
300
850
400
8826

Table 2: Coverage of PTI on Opinion Pages of Daily the News -- Nature and
Frequency
Date

21-10-11
30-10-11
31-10-11
01-11-11
02-11-11
03-11-11
04-11-11

≠ of
Articles

01
01
01
04
04
03
04

Placement of
Articles
Upper Lowe
Half
r Half
01
01
01
02
03
02
04

02
01
01

Slant

Frame

Favorable

Unfavorable

Neutra l Pro
PTI

01
01
02
03
02
03

-

01
02
01
01
01

01
01
02
03
02
03

Gomal University Journal of Research, 29(1). June 2013

Ant i PTI
-

Total
Words
Neutral

01
02
01
01
01

1250
909
300
1790
2487
2465
3494

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05-11-11
06-11-11
07-11-11
10-11-11
11-11-11
12-11-11
13-11-11
15-11-11
16-11-11
17-11-11
18-11-11
21-11-11
22-11-11
23-11-11
24-11-11
27-11-11
28-11-11
29-11-11
Total

Jan et al., Print Media on Coverage
04
03
03
02
05
02
03
02
01
02
02
05
02
02
01
01
01
01
61

02
02
01
01
03
02

02
01
02
01
02
03

02

03
02
02
01
03
01
02
01

01
01
01
01
02
01
01
01
01
01
01
01

01
02
01
02

01
33

01
03
02
02
01
01
01
28

01
01
04
02
01
01

37

Altogether, 75 articles were found relevant to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI). Out of 75 articles The Dawn ran 14 articles during two months period while The News published 61 articles on the rallies and political activities of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf during the same period. It was also noted that Daily Dawn published on the topic with longer gaps while Daily News devoted one article daily on the issue. The News devoted about
45,000 words to the issue while Dawn gave about 9000 words to the same issue. Dawn was considered as one of the best newspaper among the elite press in
Pakistan. Result showed that daily the News was devoted greater space than the daily the
Dawn.
Slant is an important variable and prominent parameter in this study. By examining language and theme of the article, as how the articles presented whether it is favorable, unfavorable or neutral. The researcher finds a clear line of favorable theme that hints the agenda setting techniques adopted by The News as it published 37 articles in favor of Pakistan
Tehreek-i-Insaf while during the same period The Dawn produced only 2 articles in favor of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf. Use of speculative language and adjectives for the

01

01

01
01
01
23

03
02
02
01
03
01
02
01

01
01
01
01
02
01
01
01
01
01
01
01

01
01
04
02
01
01

37

01

01

01
01
01
23

3710
1536
2445
2260
2532
2400
1628
2650
370
2349
1484
4242
950
1149
1084
428
681
310
44903

party leaders are some of the prominent features of The News. A number of articles reflect the framing division in the discourse analysis. Daily News actively boosted proPTI campaign by publishing more pro than anti-PTI elements. The Dawn covered PTI gatherings in a neutral and cautious way by keeping him neutral and objective in most of its articles.
CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
The daily The News placed most of its articles on upper half of opinion pages while the same issue was covered by The
Dawn in a neutral way by placing its articles in lower half. The daily the News is considered a political organ in Pakistani politics while the daily the Dawn was treated as an ideological newspaper. It is also pertinent to note that there is a very minute difference between the editorials and articles of the analysts while discussing PTI.
The News frequently discusses the high hopes from the said party regardless of the ground reality and non-accomplishments of some political goals by PTI while Dawn remained more realistic and objective in most of its articles. The News covered the issue favorably.

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The News frequently used lured language to attract the readership by speculative arguments in favor of the PTI while the
Dawn discussed some concrete facts.
Results indicated the agenda setting role of
Daily News which published 61 articles during the study period while Daily Dawn published only 14 articles during the same period. It is pertinent to say that these two leading English language dailies of the country and we can see a clear line of agenda of the papers on the issue of
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf. Articles found about the policy line of News towards government and for promotion of antigovernment elements through its analysis. It is also pertinent to say that most of the articles published neutrally in News belong to the category of letters to the editors while the articles published favorably have produced by their editors and regular writers of the said newspaper.
Out of proportion coverage to PTI might be the cause of anti-government sentiments because there is a huge difference in the coverage patterns of both the papers. Dawn also remained neutral in most of its articles while News inclined towards PTI while covering its political activities. Look at some titles / headings of articles published by Daily News: The Nawaz-Imran Equation,
Khan and the Singer-e-aala, The Hope in
Imran, The emergence of Imran, Khan’s
Tipping Point, A Great Boost to
Democracy, His name is Khan, Imran is the
Political Triangle, A Star has Arisen, Khan
Promises, Beat them don’t Join them,
Khan’s new Innings, Imran Solo all the way, Politics Tsunamis and anti-politics,
Bhutto and Imran, Bhutto and Khan,
Through Jemima’s Eye etc. etc. Now take some glimpses from Daily Dawn: PTI
Rally, Change We Khan, Political Realignment, Imran’s Rally some Questions,
Times of Change. The approach of The
News was lured and subjective as compare

to The Dawn. Partisan policy of the News could easily be observed through its back to back articles on Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf while the Dawn covered the issue with longer pauses. It was concluded that the daily the News was found more involved in country politics than the daily the Dawn.

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