ONE DEATH, THREE REGIONS AND TWO STORIES: A STUDY OF THE MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE KILLING OF OSAMA BIN LADEN IN PAKISTANI, BRITISH AND AMERICAN MEDIA Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy AMIR HAMZA MARWAN Department of Journalism Studies October 2015 i PREFACE I always wished to pursue PhD research studies on an issue which could keep me active throughout the four years. Perhaps it was the reason that after landing in Sheffield, it took me months to decide a topic. My wish for a catchy topic was materialized in a meeting with Ralph while sipping tea. I still remember the moment and my feelings when it clicked. The topic was so fascinating and engaging, to the extent, that it kept me awake for a couple of nights. Once the topic was decided and a brief sketch was drawn, I never looked back. It never disappointed me, even for a moment, in these four years. In my opinion, PhD is a multipurpose project, and it helps shaping your personality in many ways. It forces you to be a good writer, good reader, good communicator and a good listener. But, for me, the most important function of the PhD was to open up my mind. If PhD has opened new horizons of your thinking, you‟ve done justice to your research, and also, you have truly been schooled in the world of research. Perhaps, this was also one of my primary aims to pursue a PhD by heart to learn as much as possible. I give credit to Professor Ralph Negrine for stretching my mind. It is also true that one of the major objectives of research is to identify and elaborate a problem, in such a systematic way, that people from all walks of life can benefit from it – besides other fellow researchers. This reasons compelled me to select most of the media outlets from Pakistan as I felt that the private TV channels have not been studied in as much detail as it should have been – especially its comparison with the official broadcaster (PTV) and the print media. There might have been a debate on the lapses in the coverage of different media outlets of Pakistan, but it must all be taken professionally – rather than personally. I personally have great respect for all the media outlets of Pakistan or any other ii country; the purpose of this research is only to show where the strengths and faults lie and how better can they be coped. Likewise, I have respect for all the institutions of Pakistan – including Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) or Pakistani military. I respect them from the core of my heart for their services and sacrifices to the country and to the people of my country and me. While exploring the geostrategic interests in the region, every effort has been made to balance the narratives as each country wants to achieve its own objectives. Personally, I don‟t hold any bias for anyone. I still wish that every country in the region may pursue their geostrategic interests peacefully and diplomatically. I will recommend this thesis to media researchers, media practitioners, owners of media outlets, think tanks, heads of different institutions and even crisis managers for reading. I wish this thesis may serve the purpose for which they have been written. Amir Hamza Marwan 6th of October 2015, Sheffield iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Foremost, I am extremely thankful to Professor Ralph Negrine, who thoroughly supported and guided me during entire four years of my PhD. I believe that nothing would have been possible without his help and support. I will forever remember his involvement in my topic and his valuable feedback on my content. He gave me an ideal model of supervision, and I wish to supervise my own students, later on in my life, the way he supervised me. I‟ll remember him with great respect! I am also thankful to my viva voce examiners – Professor Daya Kishan Thussu and Irini Katsirea – for showing satisfaction over the thesis, and also recommending it to the University that I should be awarded the PhD degree. I am also thankful to Professor Jackie Harrison, Dr. Stephanie Pukallus, Dr. Jairo Lugo-Ocando, Dr. John Steel, Tony Harcup, Dr. Emma Briant and Mark Hanna for their feedback on my presentation in different research seminars. I would also take this opportunity to say thanks to My thanks and appreciation also goes to my colleagues Scott Eldridge, Tianbo Xu, Ximena Orchard, Xuelian Jin, Yiran Zhao, Andy Hu, Sara Gracia Santamaria, Jose Antonio Brambila, Razie Hanafi Azhar, Steven Harkins, Alaaddin F. Paksoy, Divya Jha, Alessandro Martinisi, Renata Brandao, who contributed, in one way or another, to improve this research and dissertation. I am sure four years in Sheffield would have not been possible without their interaction or the socials which we enjoyed together. iv I am too grateful to my wife Madeeha Marwan for supporting me till the end, and for putting faith in me throughout this process of PhD. Without her support and encouragement, I am sure; I would have not been able to finish this project with such zeal. Though, she faced my mood swinging more than anyone else, but her patience and services will remain quite high in my heart. She was the constant source of inspiration and support, and I never returned empty whenever I looked at her. The way she supported and comfort me, especially in the last year, I wish I could return part of it later in life. I am also thankful to my mother Zahida Parveen and my brothers – Farjad Asar, Sher Afghan and Nizam Uddin, for their kind support and help. They were always there whenever I needed them, and tried to keep me relaxed every moment despite being thousand miles away. I have great respect for the prayers of my Mom which she wished for my success. My success would have not been so delicious without her wishes! I am also indebted to the few colleagues in Pakistan who helped me during my filed trip to Pakistan for collection of data. They are the ones who helped me in granting permission from the TV channels or ensuring hard copies of the newspaper. It includes: Moneeza Hashmi of Public Media Alliance, Akhtar Viqar Azeem of Hum TV, Abdullah Jan and Nehal Alvi of Geo News, Rauf Yousafzai of Express newspaper, Safiullah Gul of Duniya News and Mohammad Haroon Khan of The News International. In the end, my earnest thanks to my best friends and colleagues – Shafi ul Haq and Adam Khan – whose valuable suggestions have helped me a great deal in life! v DEDICATION To my dearest Parents – Sher Bat Khan and Zahida Parveen! My Father left us forever, with a wish in his heart to see me a Doctor; my Mother supported me to materialize this dream! vi vii ABSTRACT This research study explores the death coverage of Osama bin Laden across the seven media outlets of the three countries – US, UK and Pakistan. These three countries are closely tied to each other in the fight against terror, and have also suffered a lot in this regard. This study focuses only on the content of the selected media outlets which includes both print and electronic media. These include: The New York Times from the US, The Daily Telegraph and the Guardian from the UK, the Geo News, the Duniya News, Pakistan Television Corporation and the daily Dawn from Pakistan. The basic research question raised in this study is: How the seven identified media outlets across the three different countries covered the death of Osama bin Laden? This basic research question is supplemented with some additional research questions to explore the content from different dimensions in order to show a broader comparative picture of the coverage carried out by these identified media outlets in these three countries. This study focuses only on the content of the broadcast and print media outlets. It does not explore the production of the content. The research study is based on „Quantitative Content Analysis‟ and has examined 957 news articles. The findings support that despite being close allies in the ongoing War on Terror, two different set of stories appeared. It includes: the story of dominance and reliance; the story of joy and grief; the story of mistrust and incompetence; the story of success and embarrassment; the story of politics and geostrategic interests; the viii story covered through joint reporting and individual reporting; the story reported from the field and studio; and the story of mistrust (among the allies) and the future of the war on terror. Additionally, this research study also investigates the questions whether most of the coverage, of the selected media outlets, was based on counterterrorism, i.e., highlighting the narratives of Allies vs bin Laden; or show the impact of bin Laden‟s death on the future of War on Terror, on the volatile region, or even on the Al Qaeda itself. It also points out that how these media outlets approached the Pakistani government, Pakistani military/ Intelligence Agencies, and the US government/ Army – besides looking at the rhetoric used for Osama bin Laden and Abbottabad Operation. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface …………………………………...………………………………………………… ii Acknowledgements …………………...……..…………………………………………….. iv Dedication……………………………………….…………….…….………………………vi Abstract ………………………………………………………………………...…………viii List of Tables …………………………………………………………..…………….…….xv Abbreviations ……………………………………………………………………..……..xviii CHAPTER1: INTRODUCTION 1.1. Structure of the thesis …………………..………………...……………………………13 CHAPTER2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1. Introduction ………………………………………………...…………………………18 2.2. Media coverage of 9/11 attacks ………………..……………...……………………….20 2.3. US, Pakistan, Taliban and War on Terror ………...…………..………………………33 2.4. Specific literature on bin Laden‟s death coverage ………………………….……..42 2.4.1.Summary of the Studies …………………………….……………..……42 2.4.2.