The purpose of this research paper is to understand the role of media in Pakistan. The media is a large institution in Pakistan, and is free like any other media in the world, but is it informative, entertaining, or manipulative? Pakistan’s media gives head-to-head competition to international media. This paper discusses media in two broad terms, news channels and drama industry. I have pointed out how the media has evolved overtime in both contexts. My research mainly compares recent times with past ones and discusses the social and cultural impact media have on their audiences. I conducted a survey to analyze what people of different ages and genders say about media. The analysis of the questionnaire gives us a better and clearer understanding of where our media stands at present.
INTRODUCTION
It is the 21st century and everyone has not one but several television sets in their homes. For this reason, our media is a very important part of our lives. But is the media a source of information, entertainment or manipulation? I will discuss two branches of media that are very influential in our society, news channels and our drama industry. Both have a wide variety of channels. There are many news channels available with a wide variety of spicy gossip political talk shows. Popular ones are Jio, Express, Dunya, Sama and many more. There are many popular talk shows such as Capital Talk, On the Front, Live with Talat, Meera Maasak etc. The format of a political talk show is that people from different political parties sit together and debate like illiterate people. What are they trying to show about Pakistan? These talk shows are not concerned with how they are portraying Pakistan in the world. They have forgotten their responsibilities to be “responsible” current affairs providers. Media has become more dramatic than sincere, it has become a dirty business where news channels compete with each other to see who reached the scene first or who has the spiciest gossip. Pakistan’s media, despite being very strong, is misusing its power and has become a mafia.
DRAMA INDUSTRY
Our drama industry is also growing rapidly, with many new dramas, more innovative and moving forward in culture. There are many drama channels like Hum, Jio, ARY Digital and Latest One Urdu 1. But there is a need to wonder whether the drama industry is flourishing or collapsing. The 80s and 90s were a golden era for the Pakistani drama industry with epic dramas like “Waras”, “Tanhaiyan”, “Dhoop Kinar” and “Alpha Bravo Charlie”, which were popular not only in Pakistan but also across the border. happened India too. Not only this, but the real culture of Pakistan was also shown in these dramas. Today’s dramas like “Humsafar”, “Zindagi Gulzar Hai”, “Mira Naseeb”, “Balqis Kaur”, “Kafir” and many more, may be very popular but do they reflect the real Pakistani culture? They don’t, they only show wealthy families whose glamorous women dress inappropriately. Where one woman is plotting against another and openly shown drinking! One thing that old dramas had that these dramas don’t have is morality!
Talking about news channels, prime time is from 8 to 10 PM which has all the spicy talk shows. All the dramas are aired at the same time. So basically as soon as the clock strikes eight, the big men in the family want to watch political talk shows and everyone else wants to watch drama. But nowadays even older male members want to watch dramas on talk shows because talk shows have become very monotonous, same old discussion and format. Another reason why people don’t want to watch talk shows is because the quality and standard of the shows have gone down. Clumsy language is used which is highly inappropriate. Gone are the days when proper Urdu and English were spoken on PTV. Now colloquialism is used and considered cool. Our young generation does not even know how Urdu sounds, although it is our national and first language. The use of Hindi words is very common which is very disturbing for us, sometimes extreme abuse and derogatory language is used to suppress each other. There is no proper code of conduct for these kinds of shows. It is an insult that these shows are aired internationally and are damaging the image of Pakistan badly. India has a lot of social problems but they project their image as “bright and colorful India”, but our media shows all the negative aspects of the country. No one trusts these shows anymore, they know it’s all a scam and all for ratings.
More like manipulation media?
Coming to dramas, we cannot definitely say whether the drama industry has recovered positively or negatively. It is true that some of the recent dramas are very good, especially “Meri Zaat Zara Benshan” and “Humsafar” which were also telecast internationally, but do they really represent our true culture? are doing Showing the wealthy families and their lifestyles, this is only 10% of our society. No one shows what happens in the middle or lower class. Every hit drama is a drama that features rich people. It has become a trend that people just love these kinds of dramas, and somehow they are very inspired by the lifestyle they portray. The second problem is the language problem I mentioned earlier. Surprisingly, I have learned many proper Urdu words after watching “Waris” and “Tanhaiyan”, these days dramas use profanity and loose language, be it English or Urdu. Dramas also show vulgar things like youth dating and alcohol is openly displayed! Do these producers and directors have any idea of ​​the impact these dramas have on the audience when they are screened abroad? Currently, a new scenario has emerged where Pakistani actors and actresses are condemning the Turkish dramas which are translated into Urdu and are being aired at prime time at 8 pm. They say that these dramas threaten the autonomy of our local dramas. Because if people prefer to watch Turkish dramas over Pakistani dramas, the industry will be in danger. Talking to Daily Times, Samina Ahmed said that by dubbing Spanish and Turkish soaps into Pakistan, they are competing with and destroying our own drama industry. Turkish soaps are not only a threat to the country’s drama industry but also to our culture.
CONCLUSION
Be very careful about making accusations or insinuations about a celebrity’s behavior or intentions in entertainment articles. Libel, defined as defamation of character in a published source, is a serious offense that can lead to legal action against you.
