NGOs and Elite Press Discourse in Pakistan: A Framing Analysis
Keywords:
NGOs, Pakistan, framing theory, qualitative analysis, editorials
Abstract
Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) have emerged as important sociopolitical actors in the larger siocio-political landscape of Pakistan. Lately, NGOs have come under heated debates both in the political and public discourses in Pakistan. Although there is a considerable scholarship on the role of NGOs in the public sector development, there is
scant literature on how the NGOs are framed in the mediated discourse. Addressing this question is important because the public opinion about NGOs formed by the media could have implications for the legitimacy of the NGOs and the services they render. Using framing theory and qualitative textual analysis as methodological approach, this study aims
to dwell on how NGOs are framed in the editorial genres of the elite newspapers of Pakistan. The analysis identified three major frames within which the NGOs are discussed in the English press of Pakistan viz. welfare frame, threat frame and accountability frame. The analysis reveals that NGOs are represented positively in most of the editorials. However, certain
newspapers have also supported the new NGOs regulation policy promulgated by Pakistan. The study concludes that despite the global critical voices on NGOs, the news media in Pakistan mostly favouraly famre the NGos and their working in Pakistan and that NGOs are depicted as important actors doing welfare acttivites in the Pakistani society. The
findings are discussed in the light of the possible political and institutional reasons due to which the NGOs are portrayed favorably in the elite press discourses of Pakistan.
References
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Dickson, S.H. (1992). Press and U.S. policy toward Nicaragua, 1983-1987: A study of the New York Times and
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Dzhengiz, T., Barkemeyer, R., & Napolitano, G. (2021). Emotional frmaing of NGO press releases.
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Entman, R. M. (1989). Democracy without citizens: Media and the decay of American politics. New York: Oxford
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Gamson, W.A., & Modigliani, A. (1989). Media discourses and public opinion on nuclear power: A constructionist
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Ghosh, S. (2009). NGOs as Political Institutions, Journal of Asian and African Studies, 44 (5), 475-495.
Gibelman, M., & Gelman, S.R. (2004). A loss of creditability: Patterns of wrongdoing among Nongovernmental
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Gibelman, M., & Gelman, S.R. (2001). Very public scandals: An analysis of how and why nongovernmental
organizations get into trouble. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntaryand Nonprofit Organizations, 12
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Gitlin, T. (1980). The whole world is watching. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Goffman, E. (1974). Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience. New York: Harper & Ro Hall, S.
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Herman, E.S., & Chomsky, N. (2010). Manufacturing consent: The political economy of the mass media. New York:
Random House.
Hussain, A. (August11, 2016). Redefining civil society’s role. The News International. Accessed from:
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Iyengar, S. (1987). Television News and Citizens’ Explanation of National Affairs. The American
Political Science Review, 81 (3), 815-832.
Izadi, F., & Saghaye-Biria,H. ( 2007). A discourse analysis of elite American newspaper editorials; the case of Iran’s
nuclear program. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 31 (2), 140-165.
Iyengar, S. (1987). Framing responsibility for political issues: The case of poverty. Political Behavior, 12 (1), 19-40.
Lee, C C., & Yang, J. (1995). Foreign news and national interest: Comparing US and Japanese coverage of a Chinese
student movement, International Communication Gazette, 56, 1-18.
Lewis, S. C., & Reese, S. D. (2009).What is the War On Terro? Framing through the eyes of journalists . Journalism &
Mass Communication Quarterly , 86 (1), 85-102.
Li, Y., Shin, J., Sun, J., Kim, HM., Qu, Y., & Yang, A. (2021). Organizational sensemaking in tought times: the
ecology of NGOs’ COVID-19 issue discourse communities on social media. Computers in Human Behaviour,
122, 1-15.
Najam, A. (2000). The Four Cs of third sector-government relations, Nonprofit Management & Leadership, 10 (4), 375-
395.
Onyebadi, U. (2016). Framing from the inside: an examination of Pakistani newspapers' house editorials on Osama bin
Laden's targeted assassination. The Journal of International Communication, 22(1), 108-125.
Overview of Civil Society Organizations: Pakistan, Asian Development Bank, 2009, Accessed
from: http://www.adb.org/publications/overview-civil-society-organizations-pakistan
Pan, Z., & Kosicki, G.M. (1993). Framing analysis: An approach to news discourse. Political Communication, 10,
55-75.
Rasul, A., Robinson, B.C., & McDowell, S.D. (2015). The Taliban factor: conflict in Afghanistan and elite South Asian
newspapers. The Journal of International Communication, 22(2), 273-292.
Salman, A., Ibrahim, F., Abdullah, M.Y., Mustaffa, N., & Mahbob, M.H. (2011). The impact of new media on
traditional mainstream mass media. The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal, 16 (3),
article 7.
Salmon, L. (1994). The rise of nonprofit sector, Foreign Affairs, 73 (4), 109-122.
R., Sheng Li, C., Basavaraj, M. (eds) Building Sustainable Communities. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2393-9_5.
Archetti, C. (2010). Comparing international coverage of 9/11: Towards an inter disciplinary explanation of the construction of news. Journalism, 11 (5), 567-588.
Asian Development Report (1999). A study of NGOs in Pakistan.
Banks, N., Schulpen, L., & Brockington, D. (2020). New sectaoral perspectives on international NGOs: scale,
dynamics and infleunces. Development in Practice, 30 (6), 695-705.
Bano, M. (2008). Non‐profit education providers vis‐à‐vis the private sector: comparative analysis of nongovernmental
organizations and traditional voluntary organizations in Pakistan, Compare: A Journal of Comparative and
International Education, 38 (4), 471-482.
Berg, B.L. (2001). Qualitative Research Methods for Social Sciences. Allyn & Bacon: Boston.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3:77-101.
Dawn (October 1, 2015). New Policy for NGOs prepared: Chaudhry Nisar:
Retrieved:http://www.dawn.com/news/1210209, Accessed on 22 August 2023.
Derrida, J. (1976). Of Grammatology. London: Johns Hopkins University Press.
De Souza, R. (2010). NGOs in India’s elite newspapers: a framing analysis. Asian Journal of Communication, 20 (4),
477-493.
Dickson, S.H. (1992). Press and U.S. policy toward Nicaragua, 1983-1987: A study of the New York Times and
Washington Post. Journalism Quarterly, 69 (3),562-571.
Dzhengiz, T., Barkemeyer, R., & Napolitano, G. (2021). Emotional frmaing of NGO press releases.
Reformative versus radical NGOs. Business Strategy and the Environment. 30 (5), 2468-2488.
Entman, R.M. (2003). Framing: Toward a clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43 (4), 51-
57.
Entman, R.M. (1991). Framing US coverage of international news: Contrast in narratives of the KAL and Iran Air
incidents. Journal of Communication, 41(4), 6-27.
Entman, R. M. (1989). Democracy without citizens: Media and the decay of American politics. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Fursich, E. (2009). In defense of textual analysis. Journalism Studies, 10 (2), 238-252.
Gamson, W. A., & Lasch, K. E. (1983). The political culture of social welfare policy. In S. E. Spiro & E. YuchtmanYaar (Eds.). Evaluating the welfare state. Social and political perspectives (pp. 397–415). New York:
Academic Press.
Gamson, W.A., & Modigliani, A. (1989). Media discourses and public opinion on nuclear power: A constructionist
approach. American Journal of Sociology, 95 (5), 1-37.
Ghosh, S. (2009). NGOs as Political Institutions, Journal of Asian and African Studies, 44 (5), 475-495.
Gibelman, M., & Gelman, S.R. (2004). A loss of creditability: Patterns of wrongdoing among Nongovernmental
Organizations. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 15 (4), 355-381.
Gibelman, M., & Gelman, S.R. (2001). Very public scandals: An analysis of how and why nongovernmental
organizations get into trouble. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntaryand Nonprofit Organizations, 12
(1), 49-66.
Gitlin, T. (1980). The whole world is watching. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Goffman, E. (1974). Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience. New York: Harper & Ro Hall, S.
(1980). Encoding/Decoding. In Dorothy Hobson, Andrew Lowe & Paul Willis (Ed.). Culture, Media and
Language. London: Hutchinson.
Herman, E.S., & Chomsky, N. (2010). Manufacturing consent: The political economy of the mass media. New York:
Random House.
Hussain, A. (August11, 2016). Redefining civil society’s role. The News International. Accessed from:
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/141643-Redefining-civil-societys-role, On September 10, 2016.
Iyengar, S. (1987). Television News and Citizens’ Explanation of National Affairs. The American
Political Science Review, 81 (3), 815-832.
Izadi, F., & Saghaye-Biria,H. ( 2007). A discourse analysis of elite American newspaper editorials; the case of Iran’s
nuclear program. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 31 (2), 140-165.
Iyengar, S. (1987). Framing responsibility for political issues: The case of poverty. Political Behavior, 12 (1), 19-40.
Lee, C C., & Yang, J. (1995). Foreign news and national interest: Comparing US and Japanese coverage of a Chinese
student movement, International Communication Gazette, 56, 1-18.
Lewis, S. C., & Reese, S. D. (2009).What is the War On Terro? Framing through the eyes of journalists . Journalism &
Mass Communication Quarterly , 86 (1), 85-102.
Li, Y., Shin, J., Sun, J., Kim, HM., Qu, Y., & Yang, A. (2021). Organizational sensemaking in tought times: the
ecology of NGOs’ COVID-19 issue discourse communities on social media. Computers in Human Behaviour,
122, 1-15.
Najam, A. (2000). The Four Cs of third sector-government relations, Nonprofit Management & Leadership, 10 (4), 375-
395.
Onyebadi, U. (2016). Framing from the inside: an examination of Pakistani newspapers' house editorials on Osama bin
Laden's targeted assassination. The Journal of International Communication, 22(1), 108-125.
Overview of Civil Society Organizations: Pakistan, Asian Development Bank, 2009, Accessed
from: http://www.adb.org/publications/overview-civil-society-organizations-pakistan
Pan, Z., & Kosicki, G.M. (1993). Framing analysis: An approach to news discourse. Political Communication, 10,
55-75.
Rasul, A., Robinson, B.C., & McDowell, S.D. (2015). The Taliban factor: conflict in Afghanistan and elite South Asian
newspapers. The Journal of International Communication, 22(2), 273-292.
Salman, A., Ibrahim, F., Abdullah, M.Y., Mustaffa, N., & Mahbob, M.H. (2011). The impact of new media on
traditional mainstream mass media. The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal, 16 (3),
article 7.
Salmon, L. (1994). The rise of nonprofit sector, Foreign Affairs, 73 (4), 109-122.
Published
2023-12-31
How to Cite
Ali, A. (2023). NGOs and Elite Press Discourse in Pakistan: A Framing Analysis. Journal of Social Sciences and Media Studies, 7(2), 38-46. https://doi.org/10.58921/jossams.07.02.0298
Section
Articles
