EVALUATING THE MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE POLITICAL CRISIS THAT EMERGED AS A RESULT OF VOTE OF NO-CONFIDENCE MOVE IN PAKISTAN: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF DAILY DAWN AND DAILY THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE

Abstract

The researchers analyzed the relationship between media and politics at the time of political crisis in Pakistan, whereas the study attempts to evaluate the impact of ‘indexing’ in determining the media coverage on the issue of vote of no-confidence that brought a shift in ‘elites’ circle’ in the already existing politically polarized setting. Supporting the indexing theory (Bennett, 1990), this study evaluates the media approach towards politics, suggesting a ‘tripartite interactions’ in regard to the relationship between media and politics at the time political crisis i.e. shift in elites’ circle brings shift in political debate, and thus it effects the media approach towards the overall political scenario. Applying the indexing theory to analyze the tripartite interactions, the study found that at the initial stage [at the time of shifting the political debate] a minimal amount of critical coverage was triggered in media. But, the ‘political crisis’ frame, which was associated with elites’ debate, dominated both the oppositional and critical coverage that indicates that how the elites’ debate shape media coverage in the politically polarized country- Pakistan. The findings of this study also illustrate that a shift in the media approach towards the then ruling party- PTI after the vote of no-confidence was occurred due to the media dependency, mainly, on elite sources. Hence, these findings support the scholarship on dependency on elite or official sources, whereas it is argued that elite/ official sources dominate the [political] debate due to the media trust and confidence upon their sayings/ statements (Palmer & Tumber, 2004), which provide less space for criticism in media (Lewis, 2006).