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Media Construction of Tehreek-E- Taliban Pakistan

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Media Construction of Tehreek-E- Taliban Pakistan Örebro University School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences Date 12 May, 2013 MEDIA CONSTRUCTION OF TEHREEK-E- TALIBAN PAKISTAN: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the News Reports of the FATA Conflict Published in Pakistani newspapers, The Daily Jang and Daily Nawa-i-waqt MA Thesis Global Journalism Supervisor: Leonor Camaüer Author: Abdul Qayyum Bhatti Abstract Pakistan allied with the US in the Global War on Terror (GWOT) between late 2001 and early 2002. Being the US’s ally, Pakistan launched military operations in the semi-governed Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) to drive out the jihadists who sought refuge in the areas after conducting guerrilla operations against NATO led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. Pakistani security forces (SFs) met with considerable resistance by the tribal insurgents, who in 2007 named themselves the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The FATA conflict related news reports often make headlines in the most-read Urdu-language newspapers in Pakistan. As news media is regarded as an important element in influencing public opinion, this study focuses on the news reports published in The Daily Jang and Daily Nawa-i-waqt in order to figure out how the newspapers effect the public opinion by constructing the actors (Pakistani security forces and Pakistani Taliban) and the action (the military operations). As I was not able to find any research conducted on the conflict which analyses Pakistani newspapers, this study is an addition to the literature available on the FATA conflict and the GWOT. This study fills the gap by analysing 30 news articles which are systematically selected from the newspapers published in the last ten years. The study analyses how the main discourses in the news articles construct the actors and the action. This study further analyses how the dominant features of the news discourses relate to socio-cultural practices in Pakistan and Pakistan’s policy in matters of terrorism. The theories on war journalism, “us versus them”, terrorism and media lay a theoretical foundation for the research being conducted in this study. Moreover, Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) theory serves to lay theoretical foundation for the choice of Fairclough’s CDA methodology to deconstruct the opaque knowledge constructions forwarded in the news discourses. This study concludes that the newspapers construct Pakistani Taliban as evil, while they support the SFs in their news coverage. The study further concludes that the newspapers construct the military operations are launched to help the tribal population against TTP militancy. II Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ II Table of Contents ................................................................................................................. III List of Acronyms ................................................................................................................. VI 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Statement of the Problem ............................................................................................. 2 1.2 Aims and Research Questions ...................................................................................... 3 1.3 Background .................................................................................................................. 4 1.3.1 The FATA Conflict ............................................................................................... 4 1.3.2 TTP activities ........................................................................................................ 7 1.3.3 Pakistani Media Landscape .................................................................................. 10 1.3.4 Reporters' Working Conditions ............................................................................ 11 1.4 Scope of the Thesis .................................................................................................... 14 1.5 Thesis Outline ............................................................................................................ 14 2 Theoretical Framework and Previous Research ................................................................. 15 2.1 Theoretical Framework .............................................................................................. 15 2.1.1 War Reporting ..................................................................................................... 16 2.1.1.1 Media Management in War Times .............................................................. 17 2.1.1.1.1 Propaganda ............................................................................................ 17 2.1.1.1.2 Psy Ops and Deceit ................................................................................ 18 2.1.1.1.3 Embedding System ................................................................................ 19 2.1.1.2 Censorship .................................................................................................. 20 2.1.1.3 Nationalism and Identification .................................................................... 21 2.1.2 Terrorism and Media ........................................................................................... 22 2.1.2.1 Defining Terrorism ..................................................................................... 22 2.1.2.2 Media and Terrorism .................................................................................. 23 2.1.3 “us versus them” .................................................................................................. 26 2.1.3.1 “us versus them” in the FATA Conflict ....................................................... 28 2.1.4 Critical Discourse Analysis .................................................................................. 29 2.2 Previous Research ...................................................................................................... 30 2.2.1 Research Questions.............................................................................................. 31 2.2.2 Topics, Countries and Type of Media .................................................................. 31 2.2.3 Theories and Methods.......................................................................................... 32 2.2.4 Results of the Studies........................................................................................... 32 2.3 Summary .................................................................................................................... 33 3 Material and Method ......................................................................................................... 37 3.1 Research Material ....................................................................................................... 37 3.1.1 The Sample ......................................................................................................... 37 3.1.2 Sampling Strategy ............................................................................................... 37 3.2 Method: Critical Discourse Analysis .......................................................................... 40 3.2.1 Fairclough’s three levels ...................................................................................... 42 3.2.1.1 Linguistic Text Analysis ............................................................................. 42 3.2.1.2 Discursive Practices .................................................................................... 43 3.2.1.3 Sociocultural Practices ................................................................................ 44 3.3 Challenges and Limitations ........................................................................................ 45 3.4 Validity, Reliability and Generalizability .................................................................... 46 III 4 Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 48 4.1 First Period ................................................................................................................. 49 4.1.1 Textual Level....................................................................................................... 49 4.1.1.1 The Insurgents ............................................................................................ 49 4.1.1.2 Pakistani Security Forces ............................................................................ 51 4.1.1.3 Military Operations ..................................................................................... 53 4.1.2 Discursive Practices ............................................................................................. 54 4.1.2.1 Ways of Reporting and Usage of Sources.................................................... 54 4.1.2.2 Assumptions and Absences ......................................................................... 57 4.1.3 Sociocultural Practices ......................................................................................... 58 4.1.3.1 Dominant Discourse .................................................................................. 58 4.1.4 Summary ............................................................................................................
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