Minorities Urdu Press, Pakistan, Representation, Portrayal.
Abstract
The fundamental goal of this research article was to investigate the coverage of minority groups in Urdu press of Pakistan. For this purpose, 1 Pakistani newspaper daily Jang Karachi and 1 weekly magazine Akhbar-e-Jehan was selected. 198 newspapers and 48 magazines were selected through systematic sampling from June 2020 to June 2021. It was found that 100 news stories were published in daily Jung while 10 news stories about minorities were published in Akhbar-e-Jehan, which means during the last year from June 2020 to June 2021, minorities have been represented only 0.404% in Daily Jang Newspaper and only 0.771% in weekly Akhbar-e-Jehan. For this purpose, a content analysis of selected news items were undertaken in which it was also found that 40% positive news and 60% negative news were published related to minorities of Pakistan in Daily Jung while 90% negative and 10 positive news were published in weekly magazine Akhbar-e-Jehan during June 2020 to June 2021. The research also revealed that the major problems which minorities are facing that is blasphemy allegations forced conversions etc. were not highlighted as it should be.Two hypothesis have been developed and tested. The facts and figures firmly supported the foretell of these hypotheses. Overall, it was found that the Urdu Press of Pakistan is not covering the issues of minorities properly.