Daily Times

In one of his recent press conferences, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry laid out his vision of how he wanted to utilise government media for building a positive image of Pakistan abroad.

Along with structural and capacity building reforms, he expressed his desire to bring Pakistan Television (PTV) upto international standards of news channels with the likes of British Broadcasting Channel (BBC). This discussion comes at a very opportune time. Now more than ever, Pakistan needs to reach out to regional and international audiences and convey its point of views on important issues. And for this to happen, effective mediums for reaching target audiences is a daunting task.

Implicit in this discussion of revamping PTV is the idea that broadcast transmission model will remain relevant in today’s day and age. Many scholars believe that this simplistic shortwave transmission model may not be viable for a digitalised, post-broadcast era we are living in. For starters, shortwave faces intentional disruption from receiving countries for censorship purposes. The signal also faces disruptions from battery powered bikes which are ubiquitous in urban spaces in many countries.

While there is no denying the fact that public diplomacy through international broadcasting has been taking place for decades such as BBC or CNN but it is not feasible in today’s digital age. For Pakistan’s public diplomacy efforts to be effective, it needs to come up with a more flexible, interactive and diffusive model which would be more adept at finding solutions to challenges facing public diplomacy.

Advancement in technology is one of the reasons for the need for such an unprecedented shift. The world has truly entered the post-broadcasting era. While many countries still do not enjoy extensive internet coverage but for the most part, majority of the countries are highly digitalized. Majority of the people in these countries access audio and visual content through online platforms which is directly delivered to their smartphones. The government needs to think beyond the traditional ways of content delivery to be truly effective. This would include mediums such as digital tv shows, podcasts, vodcasts etc.

Another reason for this change is social. The number of Pakistani migrants around the world has grown greatly. According to the Migration Policy Institute, around 453,000 Pakistani immigrants live in the United States alone, with high levels of education and household income on average than in the general US population. These people routinely travel back and forth to Pakistan. Their media consumption practices also vary. There is a high level of overlap and interface between what they consume in the US and Pakistan.

Advancement in technology is one of the reasons for the need for such an unprecedented shift. The world has truly entered the post-broadcasting era

This development increases the potential of diasporic ethnic-language media as an effective instrument of public diplomacy on behalf of Pakistan. The current government in Pakistan has made pledges to engage Pakistani diaspora around the world but so did the previous governments and very little was done towards this end. This is an untapped opportunity for Pakistan’s public diplomacy which should be used properly.

As part of this changing transmission model, the government should also concentrate on narrowcasting, as the strategy for content development. This means that while a country-specific approach will be increasingly used but the government should also think over how to use various approaches together to target one particular country/region. A one size fits all approach will no longer work.

Pakistan’s public diplomacy initiatives have so far ignored this area. It is time that the Government takes full advantage of diasporic ethnic-language media as a gateway to tell Pakistan’s story to all parts of the world. For this to happen, a paradigm shift in how we look at diplomacy is required. Public diplomacy is no longer a small subject in International Relations but a multi-faceted field of study which derives from other subjects such as communication studies, business studies, and cross-cultural studies.

Pakistan’s exercise of public diplomacy and soft power have been used as mere buzzwords by scholars and practitioners but very little has been done to really delve into this area with all its nuances and intricacies. The new Government would be wise to utilize the required resources towards this goal.

The writer works for Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI)

Published in Daily Times, November 2^nd 2018.