Photographic Reportage of War on Terror: A Perspective of Mainstream Print Media in Pakistan

Abstract

The current study focuses on the depiction of ‘war on terror’ in Pakistan's mainstream print media in 2014-15. After the APS (Army Public School, Peshawar) assault in December 2014, there was a large number of sensitive contents shared on media. This research examines visual content published in leading newspapers of Pakistan, namely, Dawn, Daily Jang, and Nawa-i-Waqt from December 2014 to November 2015. The researchers examined the front and back pages of the chosen newspapers for specific photojournalistic evidence during a set period of time. For this research, quantitative content analysis and simple random sampling method was used. According to the findings of the study, the frequency of negative pictures related to the ‘war on terror’ is higher in Pakistan's print media. In addition, when compared to English print media, the Urdu press has a higher frequency of graphic content connected to the war on terror. It's also been noted that the mainstream print media (Dawn, Jang, and Nawa-e-Waqt) aren't doing a good photojournalism related to war on terror. When compared to the English press in Pakistan, the Urdu press provides greater sensationalism and dramatization in terms of pictorial coverage of the incident.