A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PRINT MEDIA COVERAGE ON FORCED CONVERSIONS IN SINDH

Abdul Bari; Usama Hassan Soomro

doi:10.58921/jossams.04.01.0103

Abdul Bari Research Scholar, Barged Organization for youth development
Usama Hassan Soomro Research Scholar, Barged Organization for youth development

DOI: https://doi.org/10.58921/jossams.04.01.0103

Keywords: Print Media, Forced Conversions, Comparative Analysis, Sindh

Abstract

Forced conversions in the rural areas of Sindh has become a common cultural practice. This research study aims to investigate and explore the print media coverage of the news on forced marriages and conversions in Sindh. In order to investigate the coverage patterns of the newspapers, a quantitative approach is employed in the light of agenda setting theory. The primary data were collected through the content analysis of Daily Dawn and Daily Kawish. One month of newspapers i.e. 15^th March, 2019 to 15^th April, 2019 were analyzed in terms of its front, back and opinion pages. The result reveals that the Daily Dawn published 09 reports, while the Daily Kawish published 25 news reports. Moreover, the Daily Dawn has given space to 01 editorials, 02 articles, and 02 letters to editors, while the Daily Kawish has published 01 articles and 02 letters to editors. Besides, it was found that both the newspapers have covered the force conversion issue in a neutral perspective. Finally, it was observed that the regional newspaper Daily Kawish has given more coverage to the issue in its news reports and the mainstream newspaper Daily Dawn has covered the issue more in its articles, editorials and letters to the editor.