Image of Civil and Military Establishment of Pakistan in Perspective of Combating Terrorism and Extremism: A Qualitative Analysis of Mainstream British and American Print Media

Abstract

Since the 9/11 incident, a new fragile image of Pakistan has been reflected around the globe, and the effort of the 'War on Terror has never been appreciated by Western societies (e.g., America & Europe). On the other side, Pakistan conducted several military operations for combat terrorism in the post-9/11 era, and the country suffered a lot on socio-economic and humanitarian grounds before the killing of Osama Bin Laden (OBL) in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The international media played a significant role in presenting the terrorism discourse of Pakistan in front of the world. However, the civil and military establishment of the country has failed to gain the utmost acknowledgment over the last two decades, and this phenomenon has received a substantial amount of attention from media scholars. Therefore, the present study was based on the propaganda model of Herman and Chomsky and Shoemaker and Reese's theory of influence on media content. Through a qualitative approach, 289 published contents, including news stories, articles/features, editorials, and letters to the editors, were analyzed that were published one-month pre- and post-Operation Neptune Spear in the four selected newspapers of the UK (the Telegraph & the Guardian) and the USA (the New York Times & the Washington Post). It has been analyzed that Western mainstream print media criticized Pakistan's civil and military establishment regarding terrorism and the OBL killing issue precisely. The Armed forces' activities in Pakistan have been painted unfavorably because both the British and American print media have always safeguarded their national interests and followed their foreign policy regarding OBL killings while projecting the image of Pakistan.