BACHELOR THESIS Social media

- A case study of role of social media in country branding

Imran Gul Memon

COMSATS Institute of Information Technology Bachelor Thesis Department of Management Sciences

Declaration The work submitted in this thesis is the result of my own investigation and research, except where otherwise stated. It has not already been accepted for any kind of degree, and is also not being concurrently submitted for any degree.

Signed by the Candidate

Name of Candidate: Imran Date:

gul Memon

We/I endorse the declaration by the Candidate.

Signed by the teacher

Name of teacher:

Sir Zer Khalid

Acknowledgment

This thesis has been the result of instructions of Sir zer which was given to us during spring of 2012 within the division of the Department of Management Sciences at COMSATS University of Information Technology, Islamabad. All the praise is for Allah , the most merciful and beneficent, who blessed us with the knowledge, gave us the courage and allowed us to accomplish this thesis. I g r a t ef ul l y a ck no w l e dg e S i r zer. His involvement with h i s o r i g i na l i ty ha s tr i g g er e d a n d n o u r i s he d my i n tel l e c t ua l m a t ur i ty t ha t I w i l l benefit from, for a long time to come. I am thankful to Sir zer for his inspiring guidance, remarkable suggestion, keen interest and constructive criticism helped me to complete this thesis efficiently. I found this thesis interesting, challenging and most of all rewarding. And I hope that this thesis is informative to anyone who refers to it. Thanking all the reader(s).

Imran Gul Memon

DEDICATION

I dedicate this thesis to my parents who taught me to think, understand and express and teachers, especially Sir. zer for his inspiring guidance, remarkable suggestion, keen interest and constructive suggestions helped me to complete this thesis efficiently. I honorably feel that without his inspiration, able guidance and dedication, I would not be able to pass through the tiring process of this thesis.

ABSTRACT
We live in the 21st century where the use of social media between individuals for personal and professional use is widespread. The circulation of digital content over electronic communications networks to a wide range of digital devices is going through exponential development. This worldwide media spectacle has significant implications for development but there is insufficient understanding about the dynamics of the process, and doubt about many results. It is clear that the constant development of networks and collaborative presentations, together with the declining cost of devices, are permitting millions of people in the developing world to become creators of media content. The new voices also being proposed in the worldwide media space connecting groups with collective interests and concerns from different countries and continents. It is also clear that the recognized media production sector has a substantial and rising trade and industry occurrence, including a high quantity of micro, small, and medium enterprises, employing skilled workers. The purpose of this thesis has been to look at how social media can create brand awareness. This study is of an exploratory, descriptive and qualitative character, and by looking at a single case, it has been possible to withdraw necessary primary and secondary data. The most important findings were that the theoretical framework does explain how the social media can make country a brand. This study examines Role of social media in propagating change. Also, the social networks like Face book, Twitter, etc. are playing a great role in changing the attitudes of the people towards the politicians and rulers. The best example is the recent revolution in Egypt and Libya in which the social media played a vital role. The social networks like Twitter and Face book were the major revolutionaries. It is our hope that this Working Paper will assist in raising awareness, understanding, and visibility of the media in all aspects. It will also include study of social media in propagating change in Pakistan i.e. PTI (Pakistan Tehreek e Insaaf) and their face book campaign as well as other companies and how they use social media to reach masses, techniques and strategies. The curse of media i.e. how late night talk shows bring a negative national morale and how might we change this. Finally, The power of media i.e. how media catalyses change especially in Pakistan`s social sector.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: ALL ABOUT: ROLE OF MEDIA FROM POSITIVE TO NEGATIVE Abstract.. Chapter 1- Media in propagating change. Introduction, Background, Social Media, The Internet, Social Media and political change, Exactly What Role Did Social Media Played in the Egyptian Revolution? .............................................................5-18

Chapter2- Change in Pakistan through Media. Branding a Nation, Branding Pakistan, History of Media in Pakistan.18-29 Chapter3-The Curse of Media. Media's Negative Influence, What should be the Role of Media in Pakistan................................................................................................................................................................29-36 Chapter4- The Power of Media. How did TV Channels Emerged in Pakistan, Miracles of Electronic Media, Challenges to Media, Importance of Media in Pakistan36-41

Chapter5- The Media in Pakistan an Analysis of PEMRA Quality of media and journalists, Media distortion.41-48

Suggestions.....................................................47-49 Conclusion..49 Bibliography.50-51

Chapter One INTRODUCTION

The role of Media is very important nowadays. As Pakistan is facing with a lot of problems like corruption, inflation, terrorism, load shedding, target killing etc. The duty of Media is to show the truth but it should not always portray the negative aspects of our country. We also have some good things which media should have to tell the world in a positive manner. Why dont people like Pakistanis? Why we are being called as terrorist? It is none other than the media who show each and everything on print/electronic media. It is against ethics of Media that they shouldnt be showing everything. They have to follow certain rules but they dont. Freedom doesnt mean that you are free to do anything. We have an example of our neighbor country India, India is more corrupt than our government, our country but why dont their media talks about it? Why only we Pakistanis are responsible for everything? The responsibility of our Media is to spread true stories but media should be careful in this regard. Media definitely affects peoples perceptions and priorities, their thinking about t he political contents. Media shapes the publics behavior about the issues and plays vital role in highlighting certain issues. We can say that in Pakistan the responsibility of media is much more than any media in the world, because Pakistan needs a true change and only media is now as much powerful who can change the thinking of the people especially thinking of our youth so that the revolution can take place. Media should realize its role and play in a good and positive manner so that it can bring a positive change in our country.

Background
In studying how social media influences branding, we need to look at what social media is, what it is composed of and what existing literature says about the correlation between social media and branding. Branding per se is a vast and widespread area, where opinions diverge concerning the basic definitions, such as brand equity for example. We need to clarify which parts of branding that we will focus on in this context.

SOCIAL MEDIA

What is meant by the term social media? Or what comes in your mind when you hear the word social media? Heinlein and Kaplan (2010, p60) define the term social media as it is a group of applications which are internet based that basically build on the ideological as well as technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow exchange of user-generated content and the creation. Social media is based on Web 2.0 (Carlson 2010) Social media can be categorize into different forms, having Internet forums, micro blogging, pictures, and video, Weblogs, social blogs, rating and social bookmarking( Kaplan and Heinlein, 2010; Weber 2009). Weber includes search engines in the definition of social web, and describes them as reputation aggregators with the task of aggregating sites with the best product or service to offer and usually put things in order of reputation (Weber 2009). Weber approaches the question of branding in the social web. He defines this as the dialogue you have with your customer, and claims that the stronger the dialogue is, the stronger the brand is, and vice versa. Actually he questions the very core concept Of traditional marketing and branding, and means that rather than broadcasting messages to audiences and target groups, in the era of social web that we live in today, branding and marketing is about participation in social networks to which people want to belong, where dialogue with customers and between customers car flourish. (Weber 2009) According to a study made in 2010 in the United Kingdom amongst 30 companies (which are early adopter business and perhaps not representative of the mainstream UK businesses), the importance of participating in social networks in order to develop the brand and build relationships with key customers is in fact recognized by the companies. It is argued that online

communities will play a key role in the future of marketing because they replace customer annoyance with engagement, and control of the content with collaboration. The authors of this study, Harris and Rae, claim that the prosperous businesses of the future will be those who embrace the social media and who see change as an opportunity. (Harris and Rae 2010)In order to get a necessary overview of the state-of-the-art in branding literature, it has been deemed necessary to look closer into brand strategy, brand equity and assets that underlie brand equity which are brand awareness, perceived quality, brand loyalty, brand association and other proprietary brand assets. Social media has become an integral part of modern society. There are general social networks with user bases larger than the population of most countries. There are niche sites for virtually every special interest out there. There are sites to share photos, videos, status updates, sites for meeting new people and sites to connect with old friends. It seems there are social solutions to just about every need. Social media has exploded as a category of online discourse where people create content, share it, bookmark it and network at a prodigious rate. Examples include Face book, MySpace, Digg, Twitter and JISC list serves on the academic side. Because of its ease of use, speed and reach, social media is fast changing the public discourse in society and setting trends and agendas in topics that range from the environment and politics to technology and the entertainment industry. Since social media can also be construed as a form of collective wisdom, we decided to investigate its power at predicting real-world outcomes. Surprisingly, we discovered that the chatter of a community can indeed be used to make quantitative predictions that outperform those of artificial markets. These information markets generally involve the trading of state- contingent securities, and if large enough and properly designed, they are usually more accurate than other techniques for extracting diffuse information, such as surveys and opinions polls. Specifically, the prices in these markets have been shown to have strong correlations with observed outcome frequencies, and thus are good indicators of future outcomes. (Asur, Sitar am, 2010; Huber man, Bernardo A, 2010) In the case of social media, the enormity and high variance of the information that propagates through large user communities presents an interesting opportunity for harnessing that data into a form that allows for specific predictions about particular outcomes, without having to institute market mechanisms. One can also build models to aggregate the opinions of the collective population and gain useful insights into their behavior, while predicting future trends. Moreover,

When designing marketing and advertising campaigns. (Huber man, Bernardo A, et al., 2006). Although Twitter has been very popular as a web service, there has not been considerable gathering information on how people converse regarding particular products can be helpful published research on it. Huber man and others studied the social interactions on Twitter to reveal that the driving process for usage is a sparse hidden network underlying the friends and followers, while most of the links represent meaningless interactions. Java, et al. investigated community structure and isolated different types of user intentions on Twitter. Jansen and others have examined Twitter as a mechanism for word-of-mouth advertising, and considered particular brands and products while examining the structure of the postings and the change in sentiments. However the authors do not perform any analysis on the predictive aspect of Twitter. There has been some prior work on analyzing the correlation between blog and review mentions and performance. Gruhl and others showed how to generate automated queries for mining blogs in order to predict spikes in book sales. And while there has been research on predicting movie sales, almost all of them have used meta-data information on the movies themselves to perform the forecasting, such as the movies genre, MPAA rating, running time, release date, the number of screens on which the movie debuted, and the presence of particular actors or actresses in the cast. Joshi and others use linear regression from text and metadata features to predict earnings for movies. Shard a and Dalen have treated the prediction problem as a classification problem and used neural networks to classify movies into categories ranging from flop to blockbuster. Apart from the fact that they are predicting ranges over actual numbers, the best accuracy that their model can achieve is fairly low. Zhang and Skeena have used a news aggregation model along with IMDB data to predict movie boxoffice numbers. We have shown how our model can generate better results when compared to their method. (Huber man, Bernardo A, et al., 2006).

Twitter

Launched on July 13, 2006, Twitter is an extremely popular online micro-blogging service. It has a very large user base, consisting of several millions of users (23 million, unique users in Jan3). It can be considered a directed social network, where each user has a set of subscribers known as followers. Each user submits periodic status updates, known as tweets that consist of short messages of maximum size 140 characters. These updates typically consist of personal information about the users, news or links to content such as images, video and articles
1 http://www.twitter.com http://blog.compete.com/2010/02/24/compete-ranks-top-sites-for-january2010/

Major Advances in Social Networking The early 2000s brought some huge developments in social networking and social media.

Friendster

Friendster was really the first modern, general social network. Founded in 2002, Friendster is still a very active social network, with over 90 million registered users and 60+ million unique visitors each month. Most of Friendsters traffic comes from Asia (90% of it). (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) Friendster operated by allowing people to discover their friends and then friends-of-friends, and so on to expand their networks. Its goal was to be a safer place to meet new people than in real-life, as well as being faster. Friendster was, in part, a new kind of dating site. Instead of matching complete strangers based on shared interests, it operated on the assumption that people with shared friends and acquaintances would have a better chance than those who had no shared connection. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) Friendster was most popular with three different groups: gay men, attendees of Burning Man and bloggers. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d)
2 http://www.friendster.com/

Hi5

Hi5 is another major social network, established in 2003 and currently boasting more than 60 million active members according to their own claims. Profile privacy works a bit differently on Hi5, where a users network consists of not only their own contacts, but also second (friends of friends) and third (friends of friends of friends) degree contacts. Users can set their profiles to be seen only by their network members or by Hi5 users in general. While Hi5 is not particularly popular in the U.S., it has a large user base in parts of Asia, Latin America and Central Africa. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d)

LinkedIn

LinkedIn was founded in 2003 and was one of the first mainstream social networks devoted to business. Originally, LinkedIn allowed users to post a profile (basically a resume) and to interact through private messaging. They also work on the assumption that you should personally know the people you connect with on the site. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d)

MySpace

MySpace was founded in 2003 and by 2006 had grown to be the most popular social network in the world. MySpace differentiated itself from competitors by allowing users to completely customize the look of their profiles. Users could also post music from artists on MySpace and embed videos from other sites on their profiles. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d)
3 http://www.hi5.com/ 4 http://www.linkedin.com/ 5 http://www.linkedin.com/profile 6 http://www.myspace.com/

Face book

While Facebook7 started out as a Harvard-only social network back in 2004, it quickly expanded to other schools, then to high schools, businesses and eventually everyone (by 2006). In 2008 Face book became the most popular social networking site, surpassing MySpace, and continues to grow. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) Face book doesnt allow the same kind of customization that MySpace does. Face book does, however, allow users to post photos, videos and otherwise customize their profile content, if not the design. Face book has added a number of features over the past few years, including instant messaging/chat and apps (and their developer platform). (Chapman, Cameron, n.d)
7 http://www.facebook.com/

Media Sharing Social media is not just limited to social networking sites. Sharing photos, videos, and other Multimedia content is also a popular social media activity.

Photo bucket
Photobucket8 was the first major photo sharing site, launched in 2003. Photo bucket allows users to share photos publically or in password-protected albums. They allow users 500MB of storage (lowered from 1GB in August of 2009). Pro accounts get 10GB of storage (lowered from 100GB to 25GB in July of 08 and then to 10GB in August of 09). Photo bucket also hosts video content. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d)

Flicker

Flickr9 has become a social network in its own right in recent years. They claim to host more than 3.6 billion images as of June 2009. Flickr also has groups, photo pools, and allows users to create profiles, add friends, and organize images and video into photo sets/albums. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d)

YouTube

YouTube10 was the first major video hosting and sharing site, launched in 2005. Users can upload videos up to 10 minutes long and share them through YouTube or by embedding them on other websites (social networks, blogs, forums, etc.). YouTube now allows users to upload HD videos and recently launched a service to provide TV shows and movies under license from their copyright holders. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d)

8 http://www.photobucket.com/ http://www.photobucket.com/home 9 http://www.flickr.com/ http://www.flickr.com/home 10 http://www.youtube.com/

ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN PROPAGATING CHANGE

Basically, Media enhances the knowledge of public and communicates all the happenings to the public. Nowadays Media industry is growing very fast with much potential and seemingly bright future ahead. Media should not use negative tools to increase their viewership. Media is playing very important role in reshaping, and changing the people in World. It has revealed the facts to the people about crimes and social issues and also informed the people about the issues outside their country and most importantly, media has shown the behavior of other countries to the World, The media mainly television has become the main storytelling vehicle and the journalists have become the key players in legend making and identity building. Professional journalists are responsible to create a sense of belonging and to encourage the youth of World to behave like a responsible Human. Somehow media, on the name of freedom of press, is completely going in a new direction. There is a great competition among the channels and it has gone to fierce conditions, that they have starting to use negative tools, too increase their viewership. Media has been thinking to be a positive and sophisticated tool to talk about image building. When something comes about the national interests, it is the responsibility of media to handle the situations and prosperity of the country. Media is considered to be a watchdog in a democratic country. No doubt media is doing fine work with positive approach towards the people and society. Its the requirement of time that media should work for the positive and real soft image of World. THE INTERNET, SOCIAL MEDIA AND POLITICAL CHANGE The political uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt in 2011 have further intensified discussions on the political potential of internet communication which, since the very beginning, have been closely tied to the worldwide expansion of the medium: the new information and communication technologies (ICT) are generally seen as facilitating a more open information exchange, the

formation of alternative political opinions, and the mobilization of social actors previously excluded from political participation. Six months after Twitter messages about the protests of Iranian voters against the manipulation of the presidential elections in June 2009 had mobilized worldwide attention; US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared internet freedom a new priority in American foreign policy. Drawing on Cold War rhetoric, Clinton warned of a descending new information curtain and likened the battle against internet censorship to an overall fight against authoritarianism (Clinton 2010)11. Coupled with the powerful impressions from Egypt where protesters allegedly used social media like Face book to organize their vast presence in Cairos central Tahrir Square, the perception of the internet as a means for democratization and development is bound to shape future political expectations and decisions. As a consequence, the new medium increasingly attracts the interest of civil society activists, policy makers, and development organizations. In the US, as in many other Western countries, this has already led to a sharp increase in projects and funds dedicated to harness the supposed democratic potential of the internet. (Michelson, Marcus, 2011) Yet the narrative of the Twitter/Face book-Revolutions has been contested. In his detailed rebuttal of cyber-optimism Evgeny Morozov argues that a mere focus on information freedom and technology access neglects the way authoritarian rulers are using the internet for propaganda purposes, online surveillance, and targeted censorship. A one-sided approach to supporting net- activism would risk not only a waste of funds and resources but also carry dangers for the very activists the assistance is directed at (Morozov, Evgeny, 2011). Also, research on the Kenyan post- election crisis of 2007 has shown that the new communication technologies actually exacerbated conflict and violence (Goldstein/Rotech 2008, BBC 2008)12. The Tunisian blogger Sami Ben Gharbia points out that the sudden interest in digital activism, the politicization of cyberspace, and the proliferation of funding affect the independence, autonomy, and authenticity that have characterized online initiatives in the Arab world so far. Moreover, due to the involvement of giant private companies like Google and Face book he considers the Internet Freedom Agenda a new strategy for advancing the geopolitical and economic interests of the West (Gharbia, Sami, 2010; Michaelsen, Marcus, 2011).
11 Clinton, Hillary Rodham (2010): Remarks on Internet Freedom. U.S. Department of State, January 21. http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/01/135519.htm. 12 Goldstein, Joshua/Rotich, Juliane (2008): Digitally Networked Technology in Kenyas 2007-2008 Election Crises. Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard. http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/sites/cyber.law.harvard.edu/files/Goldstein&Rotich_Digitally_Networked_Technolog y_Kenyas_Crisis.pdf.pdf

Exactly What Role Did Social Media Played in the Egyptian Revolution? The January 25th revolution in Egypt was an incredible achievement by its people and a truly inspiring example of the power of peaceful protest. Yet the work towards an effective transition to democratic government within Egypt has just begun. Meanwhile a debate continues to rage in the blogosphere as to the exact role played by social media. While commentators such as Brian Solis and me have argued against the off-hand dismissal of social media by Malcolm Gladwell, Evgeny Morozov and Will Heaven, Jeff Jarvis and Jay Rosen made the sobering point that it's silly to argue the issue in absolutist terms. Rosen argues "Factors are not causes," and insists that social media was neither fully responsible for the revolution in Egypt nor irrelevant, and that social transformation is far more complex involving a high degree of mystery. With sobriety and complexity in mind, I want to take a closer look at the specific role that social media played in terms of scaling awareness and support among anti-government protesters that ultimately resulted in the resignation of President Mubarak. The role of social media is critical because it helps to spread cognitive dissonance by connecting thought leaders and activists to ordinary citizens rapidly expanding the network of people who become willing to take action. Brian Solis describes this process as creating the necessary "density" of connections, writing "If unity is the effect, density is the cause."Similarly, Stowe Boyd writes: "Ideas spread more rapidly in densely connected social networks. So tools that increase the density of social connection are instrumental to the changes that spread. *+ And, more importantly, increased density of information flow (the number of times that people hear things) and of the emotional density (as individuals experience others' perceptions about events, or 'social contextualization') leads to an increased likelihood of radicalization: when people decide to join the revolution instead of watching it." So how was such density achieved in Egypt and what impact will it have beyond its borders? Let's consider this question in three dimensions -- vertically, horizontally and in the compounding effect social media generates from one country to another. i) Vertical Threshold: Compared to United States and Europe, social media has little penetration in the Arab world. In fact, there are only 21 million Face book users across the Arab world. So how did social media play such a significant role in fueling a popular revolution? Let me explain by way of an example. As many commentators have noted, one of the early catalysts for the January 25th revolution in Egypt was a Face book page created in honor of Khalid Said, a young man who had been brutally beaten and killed by the police. This page became a focal point around which 470,000

"fans" organized their dissidence while a YouTube video about his murder was viewed by more than 500,000 people fueling further public outrage. Inspired by the protests against and the eventual overthrow of Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on 14 January 2011, the Khalid Said Face book page then became a focal point for the dissemination of popular protest throughout Egypt. As such, the limited penetration of social media within the country was overcome by the fact that it first scaled vertically through key Face book sites such as those of Khalid Said, 15-year old Asmaa Mahfoz and later, Google executive Wael Ghonim. ii) Horizontal Expansion: Buoyed by the success of Tunisian protesters and emboldened by the courage of young protesters on their own streets, social media also helped expand the ranks of Egyptians in Tahrir Square from young, well-educated students to doctors, lawyers, judges, Christians, women and finally State TV personnel. Such alignment around shared values counteracted attempts by President Mubarak to divide local and foreign support for the protestors. Tweets, Face book posts and You Tube videos flooded the Internet also serving as critical, transparent content for the dominant Egyptian media outlets such as television including Al Jazeera English (AJE). iii) Compounding Effect: From Tunisia to Egypt to Syria to Iran to Algeria and China, social media is also playing a pivotal role in scaling connections between people, in achieving density, in disseminating courage and in countering misinformation generated by oppressive regimes in many countries around the world. The most powerful consequence of this revolutionary tide is to challenge the false separation between a country's ideals and its interests. By allowing citizens from all professions to align around shared values for the sake of their country's future, they are challenging the monopolies of power that have impoverished the lives of millions allowing them to re-assert their core belief that government officials are democratically elected to serve the interests of the people. Thomas Friedman, columnist for the New York Times, observed thousands of Egyptians volunteering to clean up Tahrir Square in the last 48 hours and wrote about the experience quoting the aphorism that "in the history of the world no one has ever washed a rented car." As he concluded, Egyptians are now re-taking ownership of their national identity, pride and country after thirty years of an oppressive regime. Just as Egypt followed Tunisia, citizens of other Arab counties are rising to the challenge of shaping their own futures in the face of political and military might. Social media did not make this happen single-handedly, but by enabling people to connect more rapidly around shared values, it is shifting power back to the people and allowing them to re-align the interests of a country around the values that serve its entire people.

This phenomenon and the contributory role played by social media are a powerful demonstration of what I call a We First (as opposed to me first) thinking and behavior. This mindset involves a fundamental recognition that communities, companies and countries must now embrace and demonstrate an expanded definition of self-interest that includes the greater good. To do otherwise not only threatens their own survival, but invites a revolution led by those united by shared values and connected by social technology.

Chapter two Change in Pakistan through Media

Branding a nation Nation branding is a field of theory as well as practice which aims to measure, build and manage the reputation of countries. Countries are usually brands, by design or default. A country brand can be a generic label or ubiquitous wrapper, or can become the compelling glue between political, social and economic pillars of a nation. Nation Brands Index (NBI), criteria: People: Measures the population's reputation for competence, openness, education, and friendliness and other qualities, as well as perceived levels of potential hostility and discrimination. Governance: Measures public opinion regarding the level of national government competency and fairness and describes individuals' beliefs about each country's government, as well as its perceived commitment to global issues such as democracy, justice, poverty and the environment. Exports: Determines the public's image of products and services from each country and the extent to which consumers proactively seek or avoid products from each country-of-origin. Criteria for NBI Tourism: Captures the level of interest in visiting a country and the draw of natural and manmade tourist attractions.

Culture & Heritage: Reveals global perceptions of each nation's heritage and appreciation for its contemporary culture, including film, music, art, sport and literature. Investment & Immigration Determines the power to attract people to live, work or study in each country and reveals how people perceive a country's economic and social situation. Criticism of NBI This system does not meet uniform approval. Nation Brands Indexs methodology pretty weak, noting the enormous undertaking it would require to comprehensively understand global perceptions through polling data. Foreign direct investment, tourism arrivals, and trade levels can be potentially useful metrics. Discussion Countries have always projected positive image, change in methodology due to globalization, every country today is competing for a greater share of the global consumers and marketplace, A number of countries around the globe have hired PR firms and consultants to help them develop and launch impressive brand campaigns, branding a nation and positioning it positively in the world is not only being recognized by the various country heads but also by the United Nations. A number of countries have all taken serious steps towards building a strong profile and a powerful country brand. There can be multiple objectives behind such efforts, ranging from luring foreign investment to attracting tourists, from countering a negative perception to promoting trade, from projecting a very modern and liberal image to breaking free from a stereotypical image etc. Examples To use a nations image to promote exports, e.g.; Rover cars use the Union Jack as part of its logo - The new Zealand Way, To promote a country as a tourist destination or an opportunity for foreign investors (place marketing), e.g.; 100% pure New Zealand, To promote the people, culture, etc, e.g.; Cool Britannia, To manipulate ones own countrys image against enemy countries (political marketing) e.g.; Axis of evil To promote a region, e.g.; The Four Dragons in Asia, a term coined in 1980 to symbolize the newly industrialized countries, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and Singapore. Examples Post Yugoslav countries Slovenia and Croatia have used NB South Africa Proudly South African for its exports Some unsuccessful campaigns: Switzerland and cool Britannia. Reasons of failure of NB

Countries need to give their brand campaigns time to show results. It is more like watching a flower grow that requires patience. Country branding failures are the poor coordination among different ministries of a country to project one big positive image. There needs to be collaboration of purpose amongst the higher ups in a country both from the government and the private sector. There are fundamental differences between product branding and country branding

BRANDING PAKISTAN

Pakistan is a country that is on the front of post 9/11 US led war on terror. Pakistanis today suffer from a psychological setback whereby the balance of the society stands severely shaken. A country that was formed with a dream to be a place where tolerance and patience would be the hallmark, where prosperity and stability would prevail and where security and self esteem would be looked after, is now marked with internal conflict, social insecurity and political instability.
Current brand position

A good product but a very poor brand. Surviving in a world surrounded by terrorist threats Unstable political system Major leadership crisis Law and order situation High corruption level Perception as a dishonest nation Role of local media

Current scenario

The war on terror has changed Pakistan from a country under severe US sanctions and military restrictions to one of the largest beneficiaries of US military assistance in the world. Pakistan receives billions of dollars that get directly invested into projects; however, the impact of this financing is not very clear. The public at large eyes them with mistrust and skepticism. The negatives overshadow the positives and the net effect is a highly doubtful society that does not believe any good can be brought about.

USP of Pakistan

Pakistan is an investor friendly nation. Pakistan is a well recognized name when it comes to the Sports Industry. The largest mosque is Shah Faisal Mosque, near Islamabad, Pakistan. Pakistan has the largest volunteer ambulance organization. Pakistan has the world's 1st largest salt mine in Khewra. Pakistan has the world's 2nd Largest Coal Reserves. Pakistan has the world's 3rd largest gas reserves. Pakistan is the world's 4th largest cotton producer, third largest cotton consumer, second largest importer and with fourth largest cotton area. Pakistan has the World's 5th largest copper & gold reserves. Pakistan has the world's 5th largest army. Pakistan is the World's 5th largest milk producer, 11th largest wheat producer and World's 12th largest rice producer. Since 1995, Dr. Muhammad Mustansar of the Children's Hospital and Institute of Child Health in Lahore, Pakistan has been collecting dummies as an educational movement against them. Pakistan also has the honor of producing the youngest civil judge. Pakistan has recently (2009) been ranked the 4th heaviest SMS user country in Asia Pacific. Contrary to the popular misconception of being as a terrorist state, Pakistan leads in the list of the 10 main contributors to UN peacekeeping.

Steps to reinvent the image

It involves the role of Government, Civil society, Food for thought, and finally Media.
Government role

Education is not only a basic human right but also critical for socio-economic development. It is common knowledge, after all, that Pakistan has amongst the poorest educational indicators in the world. To quote just one report - Unesco's Education for All Global Monitoring Report Pakistan is ranked amongst the top three countries in the world that have the highest number

of out-of-school children. The issue of quality comes later, yet presents an equally dismal picture - even when compared to neighboring South Asian countries. Realizing the crisis we face in this important sector, the government has recently constituted the National Task Force on Education. The crucial role of government intervention in education sector - something that we have come to disregard over the past few decades under the influence of neo-classical economic philosophy (that itself is being challenged in the wake of the recent financial crisis) - and to suggest how blind reliance on the private sector, without any regulation, can have dire consequences on both the achievable quality of education as well as its affordability and access to it. Education is a commodity in economic terms, but it differs from other commodities because of its public nature. To put it differently, unlike other, investment in education not only yields private benefits in terms of higher earnings but also social benefits that spill over into society in several ways: a farmer may become more productive through basic numeracy and literacy skills; a literate woman may be able to take better care of the health needs of her family; and an educated person may potentially be a better citizen who is able to exercise his political and social rights. Standard economic theory tells us that investment in such activities that yield positive externalities, if left to the individuals and markets alone, will always lead to underinvestment. This is because individuals, while making investment decisions, take into account the private returns only and not the social returns. This results in the level of investment being less than what is desired from a societal perspective. So in order to encourage individuals to invest in education, the government needs to subsidize education - particularly basic education where the social returns are higher than at any other level. The Pakistan government has, in general, been targeting the education sector through supply side interventions and inadequate attention has been paid to the demand side. Subsidizing education, which can take several forms such as subsidies in school fees for lowincome parents or the provision of free meals in schools, essentially targets the demand for education - something that the government may want to look into. Then, if we are concerned about equity in education - a highly desirable goal from a policy perspective - we need to remember that leaving everything to the market will not achieve this goal, as markets may be efficient but equity is not their concern. Despite this clear and justifiable role of public intervention in the provision of education, the government has, over the years, been abdicating its responsibility in favor of an unregulated private sector. While the private sector has played a crucial role in filling the vacuum left by the public sector in providing quality education, it nevertheless leaves a lot to be desired. High-quality private education remains outside the reach of the majority, and the unfettered drive for profit in the

private sector has led to virtual cartelization where a handful of elite schools exploit parents whose collective bargaining position is already weak. What is the role of the 'Private Schools Association' in the free market, for example, when there is no such association for parents to enhance their bargaining position? Given the huge societal and national stake involved, private schools need regulation to ensure that they are meeting certain pedagogical standards. The private sector needs to realize that education is serious business and that it is accountable. Currently, private schools are not accountable to anyone and can, to take just one example, set or raise school fees at will. Teachers are rarely trained and poorly paid even in the best of private schools, which charge full fees for summer vacations but spend hardly a penny on teacher-training. Why not devote a few weeks during the summer vacations to training teachers? And why do schools charge full fees during the summer when their running costs and utility bills are minimal? Most schools in Pakistan, including elite schools, do not have a teaching philosophy that meets current international standards. Syllabi are often outdated and it is at the absolute discretion of the school administration to follow whatever teaching strategy it thinks appropriate. Some schools, for instance, have gone to the extent of using advanced syllabus ahead of the relevant class, although research shows that teaching a child something he is not mentally ready for may be counterproductive. Given some of these undesirable features of private-sector education at particularly the school level in Pakistan, it is crucial that the government provide quality education on the one hand, and regulate while encouraging the private sector on the other. Only then will quality standards be met and education provided in a transparent and affordable manner. Annual or biannual audits of private schools are urgently required to make sure that schools are not making undue profit under the excuse of providing quality education. Teachertraining must be made mandatory and a legal minimum standard should be set in terms of teachers' salaries.

History of Media in Pakistan

Print is the oldest media of mass communication. Newspapers can reach greater masses of public. They allow readers to control exposure. This not only gives us the facts about an event or issue but also explains and interprets them.

In 1947, Pakistan inherited a weak press with very little law for controlling and regulating the pres. Very few news [aprs were published in the newly born Pakistan. In East Pakistan and Baluchistan not a single newspaper was published. The NWFP had two daily papers. Newspapers owned by Muslims came to Pakistan. These include Daily Azad and morning news (shifted to Dhaka), Dawn, Jang and Anjam (set up in Karachi) After independence, a number of newspapers were published but due to financial constraint and many other reasons, their publication did not continue i.e. Roshni, Inqallaab, and Musalman. English press was not so healthy at the time of independence due to educational under development. Not a single daily newspaper could be published from the area of East Pakistan from 1947 till 1971. The first news agency of Pakistan was associated press of Pakistan (APP). It was established in 1947by an Eastern news trust. It was a private agency from 1947 to 1961. Government took over its control on 5th June 1961 by an ordinance called Associated Press of Pakistan taking ordinance 1961 Other than APP, there are six more news agencies: Pakistan Press International (1968), Pakistan Agency (1992), News Network International (1992) and United News Agency (UNA).

Pakistan broadcasting corporation

At the time of independence, there were only three radio stations in Lahore, Peshawar and Dhaka in Pakistan. Radio Pakistan Lahore broadcasted the news of independence Pakistan on 14th 1947. Pakistan broad Casting Corporation was established in dec 1972. It has board of directors consisting of a chairman, a director general and six directors.

Radio Pakistan

Radio is very effective and strong media of mass communication because of its quickness, east access and infinite reach. As Pakistan is a developing country, many areas of our country are without electricity, and literacy rates very low and means of communication are adequate. Radio is not only source of information in several areas, it is also playing a vital role in disseminating information about national policies of government, highlighting the Islamic Ideological basis of our country, providing entertainment to the listeners of different age groups, inform the listeners about the events taking place in the world and make them aware of the general information on health, education and many other things. Pakistan broadcasting corporation has 24 radio stations which daily broadcasts programs of general entertainment. Overall, Islamabad emerged as the media threat capital of Pakistan, the place most dangerous in the country to practice journalism with no less than 143 of the 368 cases of various categories of intimidation of the media recorded here. In the city, during the period under review, three journalists were murdered, seven were arrested, 58 were injured and 66 were harassed or explicitly threatened while there were three cases of attacks on media properties and 47 instances of gag orders on media organizations. Sind remained the second most dangerous place to practice journalism in Pakistan with a total of 93 cases of intimidation and Punjab third with 48 cases while 30 cases were recorded in NWFP, 23 in Baluchistan, 16 in FATA, a dozen in AJK and three in Northern Areas. How media suffered in Pakistan history?? What was shocking about the coup was that it was not ostensibly against the government of the day (Musharraf's own) but against the judiciary and the media. Both were blamed for the deterioration of law and order and proliferation of terrorism. Glorification of violence by the media, explained Musharraf, was a major factor in his decision to impose the emergency. Even before the emergency was officially announced, draconian curbs were imposed on the media. The measures to control and restrain the media included suspension of broadcasts of all national and international news channels, except the dour PTV, until further notice. Nongovernment satellite TV channels were prevented from up linking to satellites and banned from

carriage on domestic cable networks - the source through which most Pakistanis have access to independent TV news. At least 34 Pakistani channels were taken off air, including a dozen popular 24/7 current affairs channels such as Geo TV, ARY TV, Aaj TV, Dawn News TV, KTN TV, and Khyber TV, as well as international news channels such as CNN and BBC

Media Power: Promises and Pitfalls

Strengths Increased media space 40 private Pakistan-owned TV channels, 170 FM stations; Enhanced citizen interest viewership, listenership increasing as well as interaction; Heightened political engagement citizens participating on issues (elections, judges, terrorism, economy, etc); Greater awareness of central issues (role of military, politics of coalitions, foreign & domestic policies); and Vibrant development sector and higher public profile for civil society sector Weaknesses Media expansion is too rapid professionalism, standardization, audience profiling is lacking; Media content there are problems of relevance, quantity and quality; Over-focus on electoral politics and political wheeling dealing might lead to politics fatigue; Fiercer intra -media competition may lead to sensationalism as a ratings solution (e.g., the footage of a police guard being run over by a suicide vehicle in Lahore caught on tape and played repeatedly on several TV channels) Opportunities Media pluralism TV (national, regional and foreign), radio (potential of 650 FM stations, according to PEMRA), print (3 million newspaper circulation only 15 million readers in a country of 165 million); Internet (20 million users and growing, falling prices, faster speeds); Mobiles phones (80 million users at start of 2008 and growing); Media going local TV, radio in local languages and therefore focusing on local issues: this can help evolve local consensus and local solutions

Threats Non-institutionalization of public-interest information (as culture of secrecy within government offices continues); No institutionalization (so people end up with talk shows as a substitute for information-based programming, case studies and human interest stories that humanize issues; Issues may remain abstract / philosophical and not citizen-centric and accessible in a country with barely 50% literacy; Non-citizen stakeholders, not citizen groups keep largely dictating news agenda. Television in Pakistan was introduced in 1964. Urdu channels, Business channels, Entertainment channels, Food channels, Lifestyle and fashion channels, Music channels, Kids channels, News channels, Miscellaneous channels, Movie channels, Religious channels, Sports channels, Youth entertainment channels, English channels, News channels, Movies channels, Metropolitan channels, Community television Channels for overseas Pakistanis, Regional channels like Sindhi, Punjabi, Balochi, Kashmiri, Pothwari, Pahari, Saraiki, Pashto, Virtual University channels, International channels, Entertainment channels, Kids channels, News channels, Music channels, Sports channels.

Media in Pakistan
"When complaints are freely heard, deeply considered, and speedily reformed, then is the utmost bound of civil liberty attained, that wise men look for."-- Milton

No power on this earth can block the truth as it is God who, being the truth Himself, guards it. Nowhere in history could the truth ever be suppressed, it always revealed itself in some other

form and with dangerous consequences. British philosopher John Stuart Mill underlined the need for free speech mainly for three reasons. He believed that freedom to read or write is an important element to expose and reveal the truth, to ensure self-development and selffulfillment of citizens and to help ensure participation of the citizens in a democracy. The Pakistani media is an enthusiastic member of the new warrior clan of the 21st century and despite belonging to war-torn country, is playing active role in keeping with the demands of the modern times. By airing divergent views and engaging in cross questioning on significant national and social issues the media reflects and informs public opinion and practically shares the task of the parliament. Investigative reporting and live discussions can undermine the spell of many a magicians. This has facilitated public access to the hitherto unseen workings of the political and bureaucratic set-up while simultaneously highlighting the injustices suffered by the common man as a result of the shady practices of the elite. After a significant role of media in restoring the judicial crisis, media has an unprecedented ability to act as a catalyst in civil society efforts to strengthen democratic polity. The fundamental ingredient making democracy possible is the flow of information. The media (plural of medium) electronic, print, cyber and internet ensures this flow of information. If restricted, censored or hindered in any way the people will remain ignorant, ignorant of events, ignorant of their rights, their duty to the State, their needs and the role that they can play for the betterment of the society they live in and the country as a whole. Macaulay called the Press as Fourth Estate of the government, but the advent of technology the media has gained new dimension, great strength and very sharp transforming the present age into information explosion. The media plays an extremely important role in transmitting the claims of social, economic and political movements to the decision-makers and the public. A free press and electronic media is an essential attribute today of a democratic polity because only these sources of information can keep not only information flowing freely but also help maintain a constant dialogue between the policy makers and the masses.

Chapter three The Curse of Media

Media is a curse. Media emphasizes on celeb activities more rather than any social activities. It affects teenagers especially by influencing them to try out new stuff whether dangerous or not. It makes major issues on any kind of religious issues without any reason and that even doesn't make sense. Media's Negative Influence Blind Imitation: When you try to imitate your role models from the glamour industry, do you give a thought to whether you are doing right or wrong? It is often seen that young girls and boys imitate celebrities blindly. The impact of media is such that the wrong, the controversial, the bad is more talked about. Sometimes, little things are blown out of proportion thus changing the way they are perceived by the audience. Media highlights controversies and scandals in the lives of celebrities. The masses fall for this being-in-the-news and end up imitating celebrities without much thought. Those at a vulnerable age, especially children and teenagers are highly influenced by anything that is put before them in a jazzy way. At that age, they are attracted to anything that's flashy and anything that can make news. Wrong Message: The negatives in society are highlighted with the purpose of awakening people about them. For example, the negative effects of addiction are portrayed through advertisements. Newspapers, television and the Internet are used to convey social messages. But unfortunately sometimes, the message is misconstrued. The 'awakening' does not reach everyone or it reaches the masses in the wrong way. So there is a section positively influenced by the media while there are others who take the wrong message from it. Media influences them negatively. What is shown with intent to 'spread a message' ends up becoming a bombardment of the bad, the ugly. The bad is overinflated and the good goes unnoticed. Depiction of the bad has a negative impact on kids not mature enough to interpret what they are being shown. It's not just media to be blamed in this case. Parents and teachers have a big role to play in selecting what the young should see and what they should not. Negativity: To some extent, media is responsible for generating negative feelings among those exposed to it. An early exposure to bold or violent films, books publishing, adult content and news portraying ugly social practices has a deep impact on young minds. If children are bombarded with fight sequences, stunt work, sex and rape scenes, suicides and murders

through books or movies, they are bound to leave a scar on these impressionable minds. And not just children, the unpleasant can impact even an adult's mind. Adults may have the maturity to distinguish between the good and the bad, but bombarding only the bad can affect anyone at least at the subconscious level. Haven't you had experiences of a bad dream after watching a violent movie? Or of imagining something scary happening to you after watching a horror film? Or a sudden fear gripping your mind after reading about a murder in your city? The reality should be depicted but not so gaudily that it'll have a lasting impact on people's minds. Unhealthy Lifestyle: Media is held responsible for the change in eating habits of teenagers and the unhealthy lifestyle they are adopting. You ask me why? Well, because there are these junk food advertisements everywhere. There's no one advertising the benefits of eating fresh fruit every day, no one's promoting drinking 8 glasses of water daily. The benefits of following a balanced diet are not being hyped anywhere. Media is exposing the masses to fast food products, canned food, fad diets and energy drinks. This is leading teenagers to adopt unhealthy eating habits. No one's propagating the importance of exercising to keep fit. But there are advertisements of expensive exercise equipment and weight and fat loss programs. Watching TV or browsing the web late night is spoiling the sleeping habits of many. Information Overload: The media in itself is so addictive that once glued to it, you tend to forget everything else. When you are not watching TV, you are surfing the Internet, when you are not on the web, you are reading newspapers, when you are not reading anything, you are listening to something. Thus, all the time, you are glued to some form of media. It is bombarding you with content, news, information, gossip, rumors - it is exposing you to everything it has, some things necessary, some not; some things important, some not, some things you want to ignore, some things you cannot. Media is everywhere, affecting every aspect of life. Media Addiction: The negative effects of media on children are manifested in terms of their changing mental setup and the declining quality of their lifestyle. Children should invest more time reading good books, studying, playing outdoors and exercising. Due to the oh-so-alluring media, most of their time is spent glued to the television, reading celebrity gossip, listening to something sensational or wandering aimlessly on the Internet. With a 'world' of information and entertainment waiting on the other side of a computer or TV screen, it's not unnatural for anyone to spend hours exploring it; it's addictive. This affects kids and teenagers the most as they are exposed to things they might interpret wrongly or may not even understand at that age. Self-hatred: Women with petite bodies and girls with a Barbie figure are always shown to be more popular or attractive while the overweight are portrayed as less popular, having less friends and being bullied. This leads to a notion that thin is sexy and fat is not. When this thought grips the minds of youngsters, they take to fad diets or turn to cosmetic surgeries to get that so-called perfect body. The craze for models or actors and actresses, makes teenagers want bodies and facial features like theirs. To get rid of a big nose or to get those big pouty lips, teenagers are ready to even go under the knife.

Health Problems: Media has negative effects on the physical and psychological well-being of society. People spending hours in front of a television or surfing the Internet experience eye problems. Lack of physical activity leads to obesity problems. Media influences public opinion and impacts the choices that people make. The media does play a role in portraying thin as beautiful and fat as ugly. It has led to a general opinion that size-zero is the in thing and fat and chubby are out. This makes the overweight feel out of place. They are ready to starve themselves to lose weight. This can and has led to increasing cases of anorexia. An inferiority complex and lowered confidence in people with not-so-perfect bodies can lead to eating disorders. In a survey done on fifth graders by the National Institute on Media and the Family, it was found that kids had become dissatisfied with their bodies after watching a video of a certain very popular artiste and a certain scene from a popular TV show (names omitted on purpose). Changed Outlook: The media has, in its own way, changed people's outlook towards life. Media is the interface through which millions look at the world outside. Media claims to depict the 'today', but not all types of media show only the truth. With the intent of stressing their point or for grabbing greater attention from the masses, media hypes or exaggerates things to a certain degree. Not everyone is able to filter that element. Most believe everything to be real, especially kids and teenagers. Fact Fantasy Confusion: Vampires, werewolves, witches, ghosts - where did they come from? Fairies, superheroes, angels - where did they come from? It's not only media to be blamed, as these characters belong to folklore. But media did play a role in propagating these characters and making them seem real. Aren't there ghost and vampire stories that media claims as real? These characters enter our world through books and movies. There is no denying their amusement value or entertainment quotient. But isn't it too much to blindly believe they exist? Fiction is amusing only till the distinction between fact and fiction is clear. The reel entertains only till its difference from the real is understood. When the two worlds mix, life becomes difficult. Right or Wrong Dilemma: The media is so overwhelming that the masses end up believing everything it says/shows. Media sources are so many in number and all of them so convincingly make their point that it is hard to distinguish between right and wrong. The media is constantly bombarding us with information. How far do we go to check its authenticity? How deep do we dig to get to the root of something that's making news? How critically do we judge the reality of reality shows and the truth behind true stories? We don't think, we believe. We don't judge, we get influenced. And that's how imp active media is. While a certain amount of exposure to media is essential for introducing ourselves to the world outside, excessive exposure, uncontrolled access and belief without thought won't lead us anywhere. They will only make the negative influence of media more obvious.

Consumerism our society is consuming all messages being spread by the Media. Media has made us a talking nation, the Mobile Mania-kids, ladies, youngsters all are just talking on the mobile phones. The effect of media is very strong with respect to advertisement on consumer products, instead of being producer media has made us consumer. Moral Vacuum the dramas, programs etc shown on media glamorize everything they depict, this has created a moral vacuum and our younger generation is going away for our values (religious, social).

Westernization Western / Indian cultural invasion has taken place through media and is permeating Pakistan society. Our commercials are depicting western values and causing a loss of national identity. There are media talk shows on subjects including sex etc which otherwise are taboo in our society.

Not Developing National Image Our Media is blamed for not developing /projecting our national image. Our media at times uses Indian language; projects Indian Stars in our ads, etc, the threats posed to our values are immense and must be countered. Our country lacks a defined policy to promote national image through media. False Values Pakistani Media is projecting false values in its programs, etc. The projection of family planning, love stories in dramas, hi-fi living styles / material depicted in dramas, etc. are not real and are not based on ground realities. (a)Media lacks compact programs to educate Pakistani nation. (b)Projected values on media are not congruent with our values / ground realities. It is actually projecting False Values. (c)Programs / dramas shown are exaggerated beyond imagination. Manifestation of Interests Media is negatively manipulating the interests of the people. People of Pakistan are yet not critical / educated enough to realize this manipulation / twisting of facts. There is a famous dictum that a lie spoken 100 times becomes greater than a truth.

Exaggeration

Pakistani media is also blamed for overwhelming negative exaggeration. It glamorizes issues, resorts to negative exaggeration of matters, newspaper headlines are depicting violence, etc all this demoralizes the nation. At times news are given without authentication / confirmation. Unethical material /photographs / scenes are shown on our media promoting vulgarization. Media is damaging basic fiber of our nation and has created a crisis of misidentification. Dangers to Socialization we remain fixed to TV screens at the cost of socialization. We cut short our social activities just to watch some favorite programs on TV. We are not undertaking socialization / giving time to our kids, parents, etc because we are glued to TV etc. This is developing a generation gap. We are giving more time to TV channels and less time to social activity and a sort of isolation is being developed. Sensationalizing / Creating Uncertainty Our media sensationalize the issues / accidents / incidents. When too much of information is available it creates confusion. Our media is broadcasting every type of information at times even compromising the accuracy and is creating uncertainty. Overloaded with Information Pakistani Media is discussing so many of topics are actually bombarding the audience with information. Media has flooded us with information. (a)This is psychologically not good for our scenes and disturbs our body functions. (b)Media is stuffing our minds with all types of information and has converted us into generalist. Media is misusing our energies. (c)Media has become corporate; it possesses / uses lot of resources and has phenomenal business / financial benefits attached to it, accordingly it bombards the viewers with information. Different surveys are undertaken to find out various methods on how to attract the viewers / readers. Media Marketing has converted us into recipient. Media is spending so much of money on efforts to attract / enhance its viewer ship. (d)Commercials breaks are introduced at the peak points of programs. Such commercials are very expensive.

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_media_boon_or_curse#ixzz1v4boCrQp: Political gimmick The blackmailing by the media persons to get personal gains as now practically, media is not answerable before any institution. Sensationalism of news channels to get cheap popularity. To show one as Evil and other as Liberator by continuously repeating the comments or visuals Social Evils The vulgarity due to inflow of foreign culture. The English and Indian channels are affecting the moral of the youth. Time wastage due to constant watching the dramas. More materialism by diminishing simplicity. Generation gap is increasing on account of fast approach towards life

Religious impressions Weakening religious impressions due to foreign culture and time wastage Pakistan's media should understand that it presents the country which is of high importance not only for Islamic world but also for peace in whole world. Media should become highly sensitive towards its responsibilities while presenting this country to the world and guiding the people of Pakistan to bring out the country from the sea of issues. Pakistan's media tell the world that what is Pakistan in fact, what think of Pakistani people towards world issue. It depicts the culture of Pakistan. It is its responsibility to tell the whole world that what is Islam and what are implications of Islam in Pakistan. Most of hot channels of media are highly politicized whereas they should cover cultural and religious norms and values of Pakistan. Some of the media channels are totally Islamic whereas others are highly ultra mod. This shows existence of two totally different cultures in Pakistan whereas Pakistan was achieved on the name of Islam which has one Book, one Prophet (P.B.U.H), one Allah and one culture.

This type of media with totally two different sectors creating a cultural gap in Pakistan. This cultural gap is increasing hatred groups. Our media showing world existence of two totally

different cultures in Pakistan and directs people to divide in two groups one with fundamental thoughts and other with secular thoughts. For a peaceful environment and a democratic culture, it is important for all media channels to preserve real culture of Pakistan which is neither extremist and, nor ultra mod.

What should be the Role of Media in Pakistan?

The media mainly television has become the main storytelling vehicle and the journalists have become the key players in legend making and identity building. Professional journalists are responsible to create a sense of belonging and to encourage the youth of Pakistan to behave like a responsible Pakistani. On the contrary, Pakistani media has taken a completely new direction and is determined to create a dreadful situation in the name of freedom of press. The competition has gone so fierce that they need negative tools to increase their TRPs which results in huge revenue chunks. Is this what they are working for? The effort should be focused to support the national image rather than highlighting the most harmful and depressing news to de-motivate the common man in Pakistan. It is not good to come up with such comments that our media works as paid workers of our rivals, but sometimes, you are strained to pronounce it. Media has always been a unique and sophisticated ground to play on when we talk about image building It is good to be truthful, but when we talk about national interest, its our obligatory to be noiseless on certain instances so the issues can be sorted out within our own people without being influenced or carried away by the international community who will never come forward to extend their support to resolve our domestic problem. They will take advantage of the situation and will work on their aged tale of divide and rule. Image building is more likely to produce desirable perceptions when action conforms to the projected images. It is important to identify a fact that that it is easy to maintain an old negative image or to gain a new negative image, but, it is extremely difficult to build a new positive image of a country. To put it in a different way that it is painless to be branded with a horrific image and very hard to rectify and heal the wound.

Media are swapping diplomats. Diplomatic profession is being undercut by the arrival of global television. In this regard, diplomats are conventionally occupied in intelligence gathering, negotiation, reporting and representation. No institution is perfect in this world, so is the media, and still there is still a huge scope for improvement where media can work according to the aspirations of the people of Pakistan where they want to cultivate the attitude of Pakistan First in every Pakistani. Media is like a watchdog in a democracy that keeps government active. With the passage of time it has become a more matured and a more responsible entity. But few talk shows and programs are required to be monitored who portrays a negative image of the country in the name of autonomy of press. Government media and the private sector should remember that managing and creating a positive image building is by far a colossal task. Its no more a matter of choice; its a prerequisite in present days situation. Its about time that our media must work on the Positive Image of Pakistan.

Chapter four The Power of Media

In the 21st century, media has become very powerful. It is the medium through which we get to know the happenings of the world. Media can remove the curtains to show the world the truth. Also media brings front the injustice done to people. However, there is a bad side to it too. For example, many media people conduct polls when given money. Todays media has the power to change a truth into a lie and a lie into a truth, just by a few impressive lines making it looks the same. The media is the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the innocent, and thats power. Because they control the minds of the

masses. Our people need to be educated to the highest standard in this new information age and surely this includes a clear awareness of how the media influences shapes and defines their lives. Power of media can be judged through its important role as a source of information, education and entertainment. It accommodates the world into a single village which is saturated with media information. It is a mirror of the society. It helps us know the current affairs. They put their lives in danger during terrorist attacks or natural disasters, just to inform us about it. It is partly because of them that there is awareness spreading in the society. This is how many countries are able to contribute to the affected areas. Who are the people who tell us about the crimes and corruption? It is the media who tells us. It is they who shape our lives. The impact the media can now have upon our perceptions of others has reached an unprecedented scale. Media has a great power and by focusing on the real challenges faced by humanity in objective and transparent manner, media can contribute towards fostering peaceful relationship among peoples and nations. Media plays different roles. For the audience, it is a source of entertainment and information while for media workers; it is an industry that offers jobs and therefore income, prestige and professional identity. The media is a source of profit and a source of political power. The immense power and unlimited potential of the media make it an excellent tool both for a societys progress or its totalitarian oppression.

Importance of Media in Pakistan

Media and Judiciary are two independent pillars to save the country from sudden slippage. Judiciary put down number of good decisions in her little age of independence which is only one year. Whereas media is older than judiciary and it shows no positive alterations in people's attitude towards the ridiculous change. Hence we can say that in Pakistan the responsibility of media is much more than any media in the world, because Pakistan needs a big change and only media is now, as much powerful. At present media is the only source which is easily accessible by all walks of people through various electronic appliances i.e. TV, Radio, Internet, News Papers and now mobile phones also used by people to aware of events every time.

Media affects people's perceptions and priorities their thinking about the political contents. Media shapes the public's behavior about the issues and plays vital role in highlighting certain attributes of issues. Gatekeepers of the media i.e. (editors, news editors, and other journalists) they all play central role in shaping the media agenda which becomes public agenda after sometime. Media of any country is reflection of that country. It shows that how person behave and live in their country. The way of expressing news, way of talking of politicians in political debates and discussion programs shows the behavior of people of that country. Although media's responsibility is to spread true stories but media should be careful in this regard. They have to adopt such a way in which they could aware public without impacting negatively their mind sets and make them able to protest in a true manner which could result oriented.

How did TV Channels Emerged in Pakistan

Surprisingly, the free electronic media in Pakistan was initiated by a dictator General Musharraf, though he had his own interests to present himself as a democrat President before the West. Growth of Satellite system facilitated it technical side. President Musharraf projected Enlightened Moderation and democratic image. Multinationals advertisements provided huge income to make the business viable. The world after 9/11 and talk shows got the attention of the Pakistanis and the Muslim world. Talented anchor persons became the voice of the people. Fewer readerships and more viewer ship due to busy life spread the culture of watching. Availability of TV sets due to China imports and cheap manufacturing in Pakistan. Allowing media freedom was not a choice for Pakistans establishments. It was their compulsion. During the Kargil conflict the Pakistani establishment had learnt the bitter lesson that PTV commanded only a limited audience. People watched Zee News and other Indian channels to get the other side of the story. In this backdrop it was decided the Pakistan needed its own independent electronic media channels.

Miracles of Electronic Media

Modern-day electronic media, on the other hand, has employed advanced technology to wage a bloodless war in the form of investigative reporting and live debates. The combined usage of auditory and visual sensory perceptions by the electronic media can succeed in stimulating deep emotions and sensations. Televised news is the most powerful medium today, especially in Pakistan where the literacy rate is extremely low. Due to impact of TV channels, the people are more informed. The electronic media, along with the print media, often criticize the government for going against the spirit of the constitution, violating democratic traditions and being unaccountable to the public at large for inflation, unemployment, poverty, deterioration of the law and order situation and highhandedness against opposition. It can be used as a motivational force to bring consensus on vital issues like education and health. The truth is that the significance of the media as a medium of interconnectedness of human affairs cannot be undermined in an age of rapid globalization. It seems to have overtaken the press in forms of impact on the target population in as much as it reproduces events and characters on the screen directly and promptly. The advent of independent TV channels in the country substantially transformed our culture and political discourse. Television is far more effective pervasive, intensive and graphic than print media. Its impact on the public mind is substantially higher than that of the print media. Live coverage on television not only provides us with the most up-to-date information about events but also engages the viewer in a way that print media cannot do the in the same way. It is usually claimed that the job of the media is the dispassionate presentation of facts. The fact is that the job of the media person is not to serve as a post office but more importantly to educate the public through informed reporting so as to facilitate as objective an opinion formation as possible. A free media that works conscientiously can serve as the collective conscience at the national and international level. This, however, is often easier said than done. The reporter or journalist is after all human and endowed with biases and in some cases prejudices and as with all power bases the media too is vulnerable to the corruption of the absolute power. There will always be those in their ranks who can be bought with cash or perks or promises of paradise. But then there will always be those who are

not purchasable because they know that their reporting can make or break individuals, communities and nations -- a heavy burden indeed. Level of Awareness The level of awareness has increased. Media has contributed a lot in increasing the general knowledge, who is who and what is what, knowledge of current issues etc. The programmers having media discussions, current affairs, documentaries, etc have been instrumental in enhancing the common mans awareness. Development Efforts of State Media has assisted in development efforts of state .Programmers like Parah Likha Punjab, Coverage of Earthquake, have contributed in projecting efforts being made towards state development. Development of Public Opinion Media discussion / other programs highlight the issues, hold cross-discussions, and identify what are reasons / angles of different interest groups / people. Stances of different segments of society on key issues are brought out: it helps make / develop public opinion on different issues. Helps in Educational Efforts Media is also used by the state / society /organizations to promote educational activity. AIOU use media for education. Supports Democracy Media supports democracy by bringing out the democratic norms and inculcating the same in the general public / polity. Providing live coverage of parliament proceedings, activities of politicians, programs on democracies are few of the examples. Support to Public Issues / Affairs Media provides viewpoint of the public on public issues. Media has given voice to the public. Impact of Media on Pakistani Society Media is strengthening development in Pakistan. Media has supported Democracy. Media has highlighted Public issues. Media has given voice to neglected element of society. Media has become entertainment industry; it satisfies all segments, age groups of our society.

Challenges to Media
The violence stricken areas like FATA, Baluchistan, and the journalists are terribly vulnerable.. It has curbed the free flow of information. Pakistan is facing conflict of ideologies between conservative and secular approaches. Therefore media is cautious in debating on such sensitive issues by big groups is also obstructing the expansion of smaller channels. The government indirectly restricts media by withholding advertisements PEMRA have frequently threatened to cancel the license. Also other government agencies pressurize. The political issues are so debated that other social, religious and psychological aspects are not properly addressed. Though the media as an institution enjoys enormous power and influence, media organizations are not charity houses: they operate as businesses and have commercial interests. There is a natural tendency to indulge in corruption and malpractice when an institution enjoys absolute power, particularly in the absence of a strong system of accountability.

Chapter five An Analysis of PEMRA

Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority

Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) was promoted by the government as an open media policy reform and was fortified with strong regulatory teeth but it is in reality one of the major hurdles to press freedom in the country. The establishment of PEMRA was initiated in 2000 through the formation of the Regulatory Authority for Media Broadcast Organizations which was mandated to improve standards of information, education and entertainment; expand the choice available to the people of Pakistan in the media for news, current affairs, religious knowledge, art, culture, science, technology, economic development, social sector concerns, music, sport, drama and other subjects of public and national interest;

facilitate the devolution of responsibility and power to grass roots by improving the access to mass media at the local and community level; and lastly, to ensure accountability, transparency and good governance by optimizing the free flow of information. (International Media Support, 2009) Many pro-democratic campaigners consider this four-point mandate to be a solid foundation supporting democracy processes and comprehensive media liberalization. However, the general opinion among media practitioners is that PEMRA only acted as a license issuing office that has implemented regulatory barriers for broadcaster. It is a Bhatta (means money extortion in Urdu) body that collects money from broadcasting operators in a legal way. Nothing more can be expected, notes media law activist and journalist Matiullah Jan. (International Media Support, 2009) The PEMRA laws were utilized by the Musharraf regime in his attempts to tame the media. Some stations were shut down and some were under severe harassments using these laws. The 12-member authority was dominated by bureaucrats and ex-police officers a phenomenon that had been partly changed after the assumption of office by the present government. (International Media Support, 2009) However, media activists are still not comfortable with the composition of the 12-member committee where they highlight the need of a greater representation from the media itself. Regulation of the TV and Radio should be through the participation and representation of the stake holders. What must happen is the restructuring of the Board of PEMRA with independent eminent people. It is still full of bureaucrats and ex-policemen, so there you find lack of ownership, say Matiullah Jan. (International Media Support, 2009) PEMRAs leadership agrees to that the institution needs to be more engaged with its stakeholders. Its a combination of regulator and the stakeholders. The refore, the chain is Law /Regulator / Stakeholder, says Dr. Abdul Jabbar, the Executive Member of PEMRA. (International Media Support, 2009) However, the present government is under pressure to amend or repeal these laws. Many media practitioners confirmed that the harsh use of the PEMRA laws during the Musharraf regime had not occurred during the past year. The PEMRA board has been reconstituted to some extent and includes some media professionals. Furthermore, the government is making some attempts to reintroduce some democratic norms in its media regulation reform. The Code of Conduct made by PEMRA has been subjected to criticism by the industry players, and is now being reviewed by the government. The former Minister of Information has requested Pakistani Broadcasters Association to draft a new Code of Conduct to replace the existing Code of Conduct of PEMRA. (International Media Support, 2009) Still, a somewhat top-down approach is taken from PEMRA authorities on this matter. Referring to the issue on Code of Conduct, Dr. Abdul Jabbar said that presently there are many Codes of Conduct, one by PFUJ, one by South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) and the broadcasters

are in the process of formulating another. The Government will not agree to any of these, most probably. But taking all these documents into account, the government will come up with a comprehensive document that can be acceptable to all stakeholders. Then everybody has the ownership. He continued: PEMRA will function it will not be silenced or nullified. We will be the regulatory body. But the stakeholders will have a say in the Code of Conduct. Thats what we call self-regulation (International Media Support, 2009) Journalists and media workers in Pakistan The working conditions of a Pakistani journalist varies greatly depending on the form of the media (electronic/print), its readers (rural/urban), language (English/Urdu) and the size of the media (local/national). Financially, the greatest divide is between print journalists on the one hand and TV- journalists and other electronic media workers on the other. A fulltime TV employee earns up to 100,000 rupees a month (1.200 Euros). The most prominent reporters and anchors have higher salaries than cameramen and other TV employees under regular contracts. (International Media Support, 2009) Newspaper journalists earn less, often with no clear contracts and irregular payment of wages. The minimum wage at a newspaper is officially 10,000 rupees a month (120 Euros). At a larger paper a regular employee will typically make 15-20,000 rupees a month. Salaries at the large national papers and especially those in English are higher. (International Media Support, 2009) According to the general secretary of PFUJ, Mazhar Abbas, up to 80% of the print journalists have no contracts or employment letters and media houses invent scams to avoid paying higher salaries. Dawn, according to Abbas, contracts some journalist through a subcontractor in order to avoid having complaints about wages directed at the newspaper itself. (International Media Support, 2009) Working for a rural newspaper can be particularly difficult. Sometimes the owners of rural newspapers tell the journalists, that there is no salary, but that they can make money by selling advertising says Abbas. (International Media Support, 2009) Many rural journalists work part-time for a local paper or they freelance and provide local news for a larger urban or national media. Besides poor financial conditions these journalists also lack backing for their safety concerns and support in legal matters and insurance. Journalists training vary greatly. Some local journalists have no education or training at all. Many came from low-paid jobs as for example schoolteachers. Journalists who are able to write and speak English are more likely to make a decent salary. A job with the urban elitist media is considering favorable if you are print journalist. (International Media Support, 2009) These urban media also have a number of columnists, who often come have different backgrounds. Many of these columnists are retired army officers, academics and intellectuals, who often are financially well off and belong to the higher middle or upper classes. They are

often very influential and provide background information related to specific news reporting. (International Media Support, 2009) Female Pakistani journalists have very different work area. In general female journalists are not assigned to cover conflicts or politics, but find themselves confined to reporting on social and cultural topics. Most female reporters work for the large urban and national media, and especially in the electronic media. (International Media Support, 2009) Quality of media and journalists Pakistan has many excellent and professional journalists, who are able to produce high quality journalism under very difficult conditions. But the standard of journalism varies widely from the best trained, educated and most professional journalist to the uneducated, untrained and unprofessional. Even the most professional journalists often work under conditions that make it hard to maintain a high journalistic standard. (International Media Support, 2009) The boom in electronic media has led to a surge in the number of journalists working in Pakistan in recent years. Some experienced TV-journalists have left the state broadcaster PTV to work at the new TV-channels, but the bulk of the new TV-reporters have come from the print media. TV- channels offer better salaries and the prospect of gaining celebrity status attractive work places for a young journalist. (International Media Support, 2009) Sufficient training and education of TV-professionals have not accompanied the sudden boom of TV-channels. Major TV-channels and reporters are criticized for sensationalism and too heavy a focus on breaking news. News events are followed on minute-by-minute basis with reporters on the spot, but these contain little background information, analysis or follow up that could put events in a context. Few journalists care about the quality of the news and have little knowledge of issues, says Farrukh Tanveer Malik, Senior Assignment Editor at Geo TV in Islamabad. They just report on what is happening. (International Media Support, 2009) Commenting on the issue of the breaking news trend, Farrukh Tanveer Malik explains that owners insist on a focus on breaking news. Stories are broken up into mini -stories, where insignificant details are blown out of proportion. Now the Chief Justice comes out of his house, now he sits in his car, now This is not breaking news. We are forced to practice it. Sensationalism is also prevalent in the political talk shows. Seeking to raise ratings by airing opinions presumed to be popular among their viewers, talk show moderators sometimes step outside their roles and become biased stakeholders in a debate. (International Media Support, 2009) According to Khalid Jameel, Bureau Chief of Ajj TV in Islamabad, five or six moderators on the TV channels dominate national debate. Acting as hosts to a group of retired army personnel and professional opinion makers, these Programme anchors sometimes espouse ungrounded speculations and unfounded conspiracy theories. (International Media Support, 2009) To some extent this sensationalism can been seen as part of the growing pains of a recently

liberalized and booming electronic media with ambitious journalists trying to learn to deal with the responsibilities of a powerful medium. Farrukh Tanveer Malik, at Geo News, thinks that too few journalists care about the quality of the news and have knowledge of the issues. He stresses the need for more training. In general TV journalists come from three backgrounds. Former print journalists that have gone into TV reporting, because of the much higher salaries, better working conditions and higher status; young journalists or newcomers that have begun their career in television. The third group is of the few seasoned television reporters, or senior newspaper journalists, who often fill the editorial and management positions or function as anchors. (International Media Support, 2009) Both in the electronic and print media, reporters, anchors and editors also unfounded speculations. Political talk shows on TV are crammed with guest analysts and retired army officers who often are biased and are not being challenged about their personal agendas. The same goes for the opinion pages in the newspapers, which sometimes print erroneous and untruthful manipulative content. This is often the case for foreign affairs news reporting. The Pakistani medias coverage of foreign affairs is limited, superficial and, at times, misleading. (International Media Support, 2009) Commercial interests, hidden political agendas, and attempts to coerce media are often the motivations behind airing biased information in newspaper and TV reports, interviews and talk shows. But journalists have so far not been able to unite and raise their concerns about the lack of objective, balanced journalism with the powerful media owners. Training and education is not part of the media budgets. Few journalists do mid -career training or refreshment courses. They are trying to do their best, but are not up to mark, says Farrukh Tanveer Malik from Geo TV. (International Media Support, 2009) Media distortion Media content in Pakistan is distorted most of all because of coercion, pressure, bribery and propaganda from outside actors. Radical Islamist influence on the media first manifested itself in the 1950s, when the government in Punjab used the media to promote radical views against the Ahmadis Muslims. The newspaper Nawa-e-Waqt was among the papers receiving money from the Punjab government to incite public anger against the Ahmadis. (International Media Support, 2009) Since then radical groups and political parties such as Jamaat-i-Islaami, Sipahi- Sahaba and more recently the Pakistani Taliban, have infiltrated the mainstream media or strengthened and expanded their own media platform. The radical organizations have grown strong enough to threaten violence with such leverage that the mainstream media often give in to their agenda. A survey by the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies found that 69% of 16 journalists and editors thought that radicalization was crippling freedom of expression. 50% found that the radical media had an impact on mainstream media, and 57 % thought that the media was concealing

facts about radicalization.13 (International Media Support, 2009) Coercion comes in different forms and affects the media in many ways. When journalists are in the field in NWFP, says an interviewer that prefers anonymity, the militants use to follow journalists around to ensure that they are not talking to ordinary people. They are not honoring our independence. (International Media Support, 2009) This is a mild form of coercion. Radicals also threaten to kill journalists and their families, media owners and editors. According to Waseem Ahmed Shah, resident editor of the Dawn in Peshawar, journalists and media representatives live in fear, and therefore they censor their reporting so the public are not getting appropriate and balanced information.18 The situation is very different from region to region. In the south and middle regions of the country radical influence is not as dominant as in the NWFP and FATA. (International Media Support, 2009) Part of the radical influence has also been generated by the medias own dynamics as media sees the conflict as hot news and follows it intensely. During the Red Mosque incident in 2007, the media was criticized for covering the event as an entertaining spectacle, and thereby for giving too much airtime to the radicals inside the mosque. Journalists are not sufficiently trained to have a critical eye, to sort out undocumented information and radical viewpoints when these are not relevant or necessary to the present story. Radical organizations seek media coverage because they want to spread their messages. The media is aware of this and, consequently, give the radicals extensive coverage to avoid their wrath. (International Media Support, 2009) Part of the problem is that journalists, TV-anchors and reporters want to be popular and increase their programs ratings by covering what they believe to be popular events and issues. This is true at both the large TV stations as well as at small newspapers. The Urdu media however prefers to propagate radical views as they believe that their readers and viewers are conservative and more likely to appreciate Islamist agendas. (International Media Support, 2009)
Muhammad Azam, Radicalization and Media, Conflict and Peace Studies, vol. 1 2008, PIPS, p. 13.

In addition to the radicalization of mainstream media, the Islamists also have their own media. Pakistan has always had religious media, but in the 1980s a new type of radical Islamist media came into existence that was established in order to support the call for Jihad in Afghanistan and building support for Islamist movements. This has now become a parallel media industry. (International Media Support, 2009) The number of radical publications runs into hundreds. Six major jihadi outfits print more than 50 newspapers and magazines alone. The Urdu monthly, Mujalla Al-Dawa, has a circulation of approximately 100,000. It is published by the Jamaat ud-Dawaa, an organisation run by Lashkare- Taiba which has been label as a terrorist organization. Lashkar-e-Taiba also publishes the

weekly paper, Ghazwa, claiming a circulation of approximately 200,000.20 The Islamist party Jamaat-i-Islami publishes 22 publications with a total circulation equaling that of a large mainstream Pakistani newspaper. (International Media Support, 2009) Many of these publications can be found in newsstands across the country; the banned publications are distributed around mosques, or delivered to subscribershome address. Glorification of the Mujahidin and disparage of the US and its allies are the dominant features of these publications. They criticize the government of Pakistan; and encourage true believers to die for Islam. (International Media Support, 2009) Militant activities are highlighted and glorified as are calls for the Umma to unite against the enemies of Islam. The jihadi and other radical organizations are also using electronic media. According to Altaf Ullah Khan, Professor in Mass Communication at Peshawar University, there are hundreds of underground Jihadi radios in FATA and NWFP. Mullahs use the radio to glorification and to propagate their cause. But another very important use of the radios is to generate fear. Mullahs began using the radio to spread hate and fear a few years ago and realize that it is an effective weapon useful to instill terror in inhabitants of FATA and parts of NWPF who are cut off from the rest of the country and hostage to the Taliban and other militant groups. In Swat the notorious Mullah FM run by Maulvi Fazl Ullah broadcasts threats of attacks. These are always followed up with action the next day if the people named do not comply and capitulate to the verdicts announced on the radio. People regularly listen to the radio to hear whether they are named, or their business or profession banned. Children want to have a radio to hear whether their schools will be allowed to function or whether the age limit for girls to go out in public is further reduced. (International Media Support, 2009) Many community radio stations in Pakistan have fallen into the hands of radicals. One of the reasons for this is that PEMRA has not been willing to issue licenses for community or noncommercial FM radio operation. PEMRA has the authority to issue special licenses for community radios, but the special community radio licenses have not been put into effect on a large scale. FATA is not under the jurisdiction of PEMRA. The central government has the authority to issue radio licenses in the tribal areas. Shabbir Anwer, Principal Information Officer at the Ministry of Information suggests that a system for issuing free frequencies for community radios could be establish. (International Media Support, 2009) According to Altaf Ullah Khan, community radio could have a major impact in fostering social change, public healthcare, education and the spread of democracy. It is impossible to close down or jam the radical stations but providing access to an alternative and a voice for normality would be valuable. (International Media Support, 2009) The government, military and intelligence agencies also influence the medias agenda through coercion, bans and revoking of advertisement budgets. According to Samina Ahmed of the International Crisis Group, bribery is also used. Prominent journalists are on the take and

corrupt. But the journalist associations and union dont want to come to terms with it, she says. (International Media Support, 2009)

Suggestions
The role of media in Pakistan is getting irresponsible; as there are so many talk shows and political debates on the screen all the time and sometimes they seems to be crossing their limits. Media have to work for country branding. They have to also show the positive things. The media as an institution and fourth estate is accountable to the public and responsible for its actions. Media practitioners should stop thinking they are above the law. Let the media introduce an internal scheme of checks and balances. Undoubtedly, this is an uphill task. Accountability of the media is not possible under the disputed regulatory regime. Media organizations and civil society should jointly constitute a commission for this task. The recent coming together of several leading TV channels to frame rules for terrorism coverage is a step in the right direction. This move may help purge the elements abusing the power of the media in violation of the public mandate. The aim of media activism should be to strengthen the weak and vulnerable segments of society. It is they who need our support, activism is not merely reporting but it involves deep passion and research. While covering a big story, especially in the war zones, the human sides of a conflict are often ignored by the general media. Here media activism can play its true role in reminding the world of the miseries and sufferings of the ignored segments of society. In the same context the NRO has made even the highest office of the country questionable. In such an environment it is the honest and straight-forwarded media which can make some difference by acting as a pressure group and the recent action of the government amounts to treason. First and foremost, media must help in stabilizing the national institutions and national socio-economic, political and administrative structure by pointing out the flow and appreciating any rod work done by the Government or State institutions and organizations in private sector. Serving the country honestly and sincerely must be projected. The need to strengthen our socio-cultural and ideological foundations was never as great as it is today. There is cultural invasion from the West and Indian TV channels and Cable TV networks.

Our values are being attacked and are in danger. Media must build our confidence and faith in our values. We as viewer should mend ourselves, so that we may not be carried away with the media hype. We should know when t o stop viewing the repeated hysterics. Media going through a turbulent transition, with a new found liberties. It is hoped they will settle to a saner posture in due course. It must create a pride in our glorious past, our culture and our way of living. Pakistan is the seventh atomic power in the world and the only Muslim country, which has achieved this status. This is a matter of great pride and prestige. We have mat beautiful normative and social value structure, which needs to be preserved, promoted and strengthened. Media must help sustain confidence in our national institutions such as parliament, armed forces and our social structure. Erosion of such confidence in our institutional set-up can be dangerous. All problems and issues such as relating to functioning of our institutional framework have to be explained effectively to the people so that they develop a positive opinion and attitude. At present, we are living in a world, which is moving too fast. And in the ensuing din and noise masses must be helped by the mass media to see things clearly so that they are not misled. The prime objective of media must be national stability in all its dimensions. A social and political climate needs to be created in which people could engage-themselves in positive and healthy activities and could contribute to the overall national development. The feelings of despondency, frustration and deviant tendencies need to be neutralized. Only an effective media can do this. This also places far greater responsibility on the shoulders of those running its affairs. The nature of their functions is such that all those involved in the process including reporters, analysts, anchors, editorial staff and the management are required to make difficult choice every day. It is essential for their credibility that they remain visibly impartial, evenhanded and demand from the passions of the moment. A system of journalistic accountability, both internal and external, is in place on the news side, which leads to more responsible reporting and editing. The sudden boom in the media has led to severe shortages of trained manpower, so that people can be appointed to positions that

require more journalistic experience than they really have. The print and broadcast media must make every effort to ensure that their coverage is factual, balanced and informed. Live pictures must be responsibly broadcast

Conclusion

This is an era of satellite televisions, internet connectivity, and mobile telephony. To summarize, media can help stabilize and strengthen the country by playing educational and informative role and by imparting knowledge to the masses as knowledge is power and only a well-informed society can develop a positive approach towards fife. The objective of media freedom can be realized only when public trust and confidence reposed in the media is respected and protected by the media itself by acting as a true watchdog, keeping an eye on the government on behalf of the public. Freedom of conscience, of education, of speech, of assembly, is among the very fundamentals of democracy and all of them would be nullified if freedom of the press be successfully challenged, maintained US president Roosevelt. The print and broadcast media must make every effort to ensure that their coverage is factual, balanced and informed. Live pictures must be responsibly broadcast.

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