"This study discusses the relationship among the various dimensions of populism, hate speech, and disinformation within the political discourse on X (formerly Twitter) in India and Pakistan. Employing manual content analysis, we examined 7,141 posts from both populist and non-populist political lead
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ers in both countries. Our findings reveal a significant correlation among these three challenging concepts, indicating that posts exhibiting higher levels of populism also tend to score higher on both hate speech and disinformation. Although certain aspects of populism, such as a pro-people and anti-elite approach, are not inherently harmful, our study emphasizes that Manicheanism is a problematic concept in political discourses because of its close association with hate speech and disinformation." (Abstract)
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"This study examines the online harassment faced by political journalists in Pakistan on Twitter, specifically focusing on the actions of users affiliated with various political parties. By selecting the 12 most active journalists on Twitter, we combined both content and textual analyses to examine
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comments posted on their tweets. Drawing upon the theoretical framework of the practice-based theoretical approach, the findings reveal that these journalists predominantly encountered negative comments encompassing personal abuses, culturally sensitive expressions, and attacks on their professional lives. Commenters associated with the populist political party, Pakistan Tehreek Insaaf, were more likely to engage in uncivil comments compared to those affiliated with traditional political parties. Interestingly, both male and female journalists received a comparable number of comments on their tweets; however, the nature of the comments differed significantly. Male journalists were primarily criticized for their perceived lack of professionalism, whereas female journalists were subjected to gender-targeted offensive comments. The study highlighted how socio-cultural conditions were exploited by political parties and netizens to suppress critical journalists. Overall, this research sheds light on the multifaceted dynamics of harassment faced by journalists in the digital age, emphasizing the need for effective measures to safeguard freedom of expression and counteract online abuse within the Pakistani media landscape." (Abstract)
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"Applying an inclusive concept of ‘conflicted societies’ that goes beyond those affected by violent conflict to include traditionally ‘stable’ but increasingly polarised democracies, such as the UK and the USA, contributors engage with longstanding questions and new challenges surrounding co
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ncepts of responsibility, trust, public service, and public interest in journalism. The unique span of studies offers international scope, including societies often overlooked in media and journalism studies, such as Northern Ireland, Turkey, Cyprus, Pakistan, The Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic. Chapters also feature contemporary case studies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, as a route into understanding the pertinent issue of fake news, and the ‘local turn’ in journalism." (Publisher description)
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"Following seminal study on journalistic attitudes towards wars and peace journalism, in this study we investigated the perceptions of conflict reporters in the three most deadly countries in the world including Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. A total of 317 journalists participated in this study. T
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hough generally we found support for the earlier study, the analysis shows journalists engage in wider practices than predicted that overlap war and peace journalism approaches. A closer examination showed that journalists favored active war journalism practices and passive peace journalism practices. Finally, we did not find that journalistic experience and contextual factors influenced preferences towards war and peace journalism substantially." (Abstract)
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"This study proposes a classification framework for conflict journalism with respect to its potential for conflict escalation and de-escalation in Pakistan—a country marred by a number of deadly conflicts. While building on the existing literature, the study proposes the varying levels of intensit
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y of a conflict and the resulting escalatory and de-escalatory coverage as important factors in the process. Through content analysis and focus group discussion, it was found that de-escalatory coverage is inversely proportional to the intensity of a conflict in terms of its perceived threats to national security. Secondly it was found that the coverage was spread across a range of thematic frames though certain perspectives got more prominence as compared to others. Noting the variations in the presence of peace journalism, the study concludes that critical pragmatic approach to peace journalism is better suited to address queries relating to its theory and practice than other approaches because it accommodates the retention of peace as a value and at the same is pragmatic and hence honors the requirements of journalistic profession." (Abstract)
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"This study analyzes the scholarship on the classification of war and peacemaking potential of media in the conflict-ridden milieu of Pakistan. Borrowing from peace studies and the existing journalistic practices in the country, the researchers present and empirically test a new model for evaluating
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conflict journalism in terms of its escalatory and de-escalatory trends. For this purpose, news stories telecasted in two leading TV channels (PTV and Geo News) relating to seven deadly conflicts were analyzed. We found support for our model—the higher the intensity of a conflict, the higher the escalatory trends in coverage. Patriotic and elite-controlled media produced more escalation as compared to conflict in which journalists were using relatively free media. Despite the dominance of escalatory coverage, we also found some traces of peace journalism in the reporting of conflicts. The study recommends that to promote peace journalism in Pakistan and elsewhere, the local context of a conflict and the journalistic environment should be studied. A mere replication of Western scholarship on peace journalism in non-Western settings would render it an impracticable ideal in real conflict scenarios." (Abstract)
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"This study aims to investigate the reporting of major conflicts in Pakistan by two leading TV channels i.e. Geo TV and Dunya TV, to ascertain the nature of the coverage in terms of being escalatory or deescalatory. It aims to explore these conflicts from a peace journalism perspective. The conflict
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s include: the Taliban conflict, Balochistan conflict, sectarian conflict and ethno-political conflict in Karachi. The study is primarily a quantitative content analysis to explore the media coverage of conflicts during both high and low intensity periods from 2014 to 2015. The findings suggest that Pakistan news TV channels reported the Taliban and the ethno-political conflict in Karachi in an escalatory fashion, ridden in a de-contextualised pattern. While, on the other hand, the Balochistan and the sectarian conflict were mainly reported in de-escalatory terms owing to various socio-cultural reasons impacting the coverage. The findings are quite consistent with the existing literature on conflict journalism, which suggests that the media, in general, adopts a more propagandist and nationalistic stance, when the threats to national security are highest whereas it adopts a more humanistic stance, when the threats to national security are assumed to be low." (Abstract)
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"If the focus of peace journalism is to press for quality journalism during conflict reporting which will ultimately contribute to peace, then the findings of this study show that the available reporting on the Balochistan conflict passes the litmus test. The coverage is pro-people, and the reporter
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s are aware of their responsibility to society. Despite acute security problems, the journalists have been able to bring the conflict onto the public agenda. A majority of Pakistanis now agree that the people of Balochistan have been maltreated by both politicians and the army, and the time has come to grant them the rights for which they have been fighting for decades, sacrificed thousands of lives and endured great suffering." (Abstract)
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