Journal of Media Studies, Vol 32, No 2 (2017)

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Watchdog Role of Media: An Exploratory Study of the Editorials of the leading Pakistani English and Urdu language Dailies

Raja Muhammad Shahbaz Siddique, Bushra H. Rahman

Abstract


This study aims to explore the role of Pakistani media as watchdog. It employs content analysis to examine the editorials of six leading Pakistani English and Urdu language dailies published in 2015. The researcher developed an index to measure the watchdog role in the editorials which consisted of two dimensions Information and Criticism. The main findings exhibited that the editorials of the leading Pakistani English and Urdu language dailies did not play their watchdog role satisfactorily. At the same time, comparing the watchdog role dimensions, the editorials were more informative and less critical. The findings also show that the performance of the watchdog role of the editorials of the English language dailies was comparatively better than the editorials of the Urdu language dailies. Keeping in view the Journalism's theory of democracy, the Pakistani newspapers did not play their part to strengthen democracy by providing the public with the required political information which comes from the proper watchdog role of media.

References


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