Post 9/11 Scenario and Image of Pakistan: Portrayed by top US Newspapers

Abstract

The objective of this research is to study the image of Pakistan in top American newspapers, particularly in the post 9/11 scenario. For this purpose, two leading American newspapers, The New York Times and The Washington Post, have been selected. The time period selected for this study starts from September 11, 2001 and ends at May 31, 2007.

During the research, as many as 165 items (editorials, articles and letters) published by both the newspapers on Pakistan on their editorial pages during aforementioned period are studied out of which 89 (53.93%) appeared in The New York Times and 76 (46.06%) The Washington Post.

The studies conducted by many researchers like Chang, Ramaprasad, Zheng, Largio, Shoemaker & Reese and Berry advocated the idea that the US media generally toe the American government’s foreign policy and framed the US allies in a favourable manner.

The results of this particular study, however, go against the aforementioned idea and instead supports the empirical researches conducted by Khan, 2007; Khalid, 2001; Galtung, 1992; Mughees, 1995; Said, 1987; Karim, 2000; Graber, 1980 et al. who located a general bias prevailing in the US media against Muslims and Islam. It was observed during the research that despite all out support by Pakistan to the US in war on terror and her subsequent enlistment as an ally and favourite country by the latter, the top American newspapers subjected her to strong criticism. Therefore, the results support cultural difference theory instead of media conformity theory.