FRAMING OF THE MUMBAI TERROR ATTACKS BY THE INDIAN AND THE PAKISTANI PRINT MEDIA

Political communication scholars argue that language and images are often used to highlight only certain aspects of a social or political reality. This is the reality that the political elites of a nation want their public to believe so that they can further their own political agenda. Due to the existing routines of newsgathering in the profession of journalism, journalists often find themselves echoing the same issues as the political elites, thus consciously or unconsciously aiding their political agenda. Consequently the public is only exposed to selected slices of reality and only that "reality" resonates with them. In this study I explore how the print media in India and Pakistan covered the Mumbai terror attacks of November 2008; to find out whether the print media in each country may have constructed an enemy narrative while reporting the terror attacks and whether the sources used to construct the narrative were the political elites of India and Pakistan. Since the news media play a central role in shaping public perception, if the enemy narrative did dominate the media coverage it might have accentuated the negative perception that each side has of the other. This could impact the renegotiation of peace talks between the two nuclear-armed neighbors and thus impede the peace process.

Author

• Raina, Pamposh

Language

• en

Date created

• 2011

Type of Work

• Master's Thesis

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• Media and Public Affairs

Degree

• M.A.

Advisor

• Waisbord, Silvio R

Committee Member(s)

• Phalen, Patricia F
• Entman, Robert M

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/qn59q409q