Daily Times

PESHAWAR: A recent research revealed the role of United States media in shaping the US Foreign Policy towards Pakistan. The study presented media framing of Pakistan; how it is portrayed in the U.S. mainstream media and examined their stance towards U.S-Pakistan relationship after 9/11 while testing the foreign policy decision-making theory. The research was conducted by Ms Shamaila Farooq, Ph.D Scholar at the Department of International Relations (IR) University of Peshawar (UoP) during her successful defense examination, held here on Wednesday at Department of International Relations.

The research work is the conclusion completed after examining the two U.S. mainstream newspapers including The New York Times and The Washington Post’s editorials from 2001-2008. The study verified that the U.S. media contributed in shaping Pakistan’s image, thus influencing its policy towards Pakistan while supporting its national security interests. The findings also postulate that the U.S. media is relatively independent and does not follow the U.S policy position and its dynamic shifts except the broad national interest, contrary to a perceived notion that media is a propaganda tool of the US Government. The independent role of the US media is found in its critical nature when the US Government supported General Musharraf’s military rule in Pakistan. The topic of Ms Shumail Farooq research work was “The Role of US media in shaping foreign policy towards Pakistan after 9/11: A case study of New York Times and Washington post (2001-2008)”. Her thesis was supervised by Dr. Ijaz Khan, Professor International relations and Dr. Anwar Hassan, Vice Chancellor, Preston University, Peshawar. The study also proposes a list of the policy level recommendations for Pakistan to enhance the media’s role through a revived media policy in national security policy and improve Pakistan’s image through enhancing sense of nationalism in Pakistani media. Ms Shumail Farooq is also serving Director Media & Publications at University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Peshawar.