Media plays an important part in political socialization. With the advent of mass media, it is generally believed that the role of media is very important in creating political awareness among peoples and their participation in the democratic process in the society. It also plays an important role in changing the society. Socialization is the process in which people experience their role in the society and the electronic and print play a great role in generating political socialization within society. Media as an information source affects the daily routine of human life and also provides information related to different activities and information about political developments on national and international level.
Political socialization is a messy, in some ways elusive, process. Broadly construed, political socialization is the transmission of political culture to new generations of citizens in a given society. It is the product of interlocking sets of macro and micro level phenomena. In a broad sense political socialization is referred to as a means by which political parties and other factors induce suitable norms and practices in residents, citizens and members of that society. Television and radio are the main components of media. Established patterns of polities are conveyed through educational groups, norms and laws, folkways and traditions, through educational system, peer groups, mass media, community organizations, political institutions, military and also religious organizations. The print media in Pakistan is very active in creating political awareness among people. Press media keep the public aware about its politicians and their activities. The print media adapt to the public demand and also provide an opportunity for describing the issues related to the public. Conversely, the press also provides healthy public opinion. The electronic media play a very significant role in creating awareness in society and also inform about a range of issues including political, economic, security and social issues. In Pakistan, television is playing a three-dimensional role i.e. information, education and provision of entertainment to the public. There are many channels in Pakistan that are providing information thereby creating political awareness in the country. Media thus convey latest information about events, news and developments and inculcate a sense of political activism within the public domain.
The agents and factors are very important in the process of political socialization and also have permanent effects on individual perceptions. The most important and prominent factors are the following. Family is the most important agent of socialization. The family forms the political values of children, resultantly they adopt the same culture and belief which make the foundation of the children’s top political values. In the United States the children who are born and raised in Republican houses are not interested in voting for Democrats and children raised in Democratic houses are less interested in the Republicans. Similarly, in Pakistan, families have traditionally had a great impact on the impressions of children and youth related to politics. The development of political beliefs in children is due to the fact that they spend much time with their families which in turn, mould their opinions.
Schools and education are very important in making and changing the beliefs and views related to politics. Information obtained and acquired in schools helps to construct a view in generals on politics and their government structures in specific. Students are made to think about their national symbols, their history and experience to patriotic values and norms like honor of the flag and national songs. Furthermore, education also enhances awareness and understanding of politics.
In political socialization, peer groups are also important;children start to separate themselves from the thoughts of their parents and are affected more by their friends. A child may be in a popular clique in school, member of a soccer team, or a member of a band while each peer group has its own rules, behavior, expectations and hierarchies. As such, the peer groups they belong to influence behaviors and beliefs. Opinion leaders are important in creating awareness and influencing individual behavior and opinions, to move the capacity and function of media creating and circulating information or stimulation toward the objective of moving the masses toward particular sorts of social goals. Despite the fact that the presence and impact of opinion leaders has been generally embraced by communication experts, the part of opinion leaders or “influencer” in the communication procedure has not tested satisfactory by scholastics and communication specialists. The reason being that while opinion leaders do affect the opinion of the audiences, the media also has a direct effect in audience perception that cannot be ignored.
Role of Media
In Pakistan the electronic media has become the most powerful medium in the present age, spreading education, information and entertainment. It brings latest news of events and developments at home and abroad. While Pakistan’s media keep the public aware of even the tiniest detail about politicians and their activities, we can have a better view by defining their role separately. Before the liberalization of media in Pakistan, the governments had maintained strict adherence over media monitoring and criticizing the government was not common practice. However,these now belong to the by gone era.
There is a noteworthy unwinding in the laws of publication, followed by an astounding increase in the quantity of productions and publications. In 1987 there were 1748 daily newspapers and periodicals in eight different languages: out of these 125 were dailies and 346 weeklies. Regarding language there were 1315 daily papers and periodicals, out of these 317 were in English language, 88 Sindhi and relatively smaller numbers catering Punjabi, Balochi, Gujrati, and 2 trilingual daily papers.The aggregate dissemination of the dailies was 1.5 million, of which the Urdu daily papers asserted more than 80 percent. English dailies were around 212,000: Regional dialect press and the Sindhi dailies guarantee a flow of about 60,000 copies. At present there are 2538 daily papers and periodicals, of them 275 are dailies, 4 bi-weeklies and 510 weeklies. Of the dailies 184 are distributed in the region of Punjab, 48 in Sindh, 27 in NWFP and 12 in Balochistan. Of course, in readership Urdu and English daily papers become the heart of the national press and has assumed a crucial part for the familiarity and awareness with the masses.
Radio
Radio Pakistan started its telecast on 14th August 1947 as a government entity. Through 25 stations on air for 24 hours every day, both on Medium Wave and Short Wave. Transition takes place through 20 languages and dialects and it reaches 75 percent of the area and 95 percent populace of the nation. Politicians are offered a platform to discuss and debate about vital issues; developmental projects and their feasibility are brought to the fore; political malpractices and misuse of funds are also exposed. Radio provides a readily available source of news to the people and plays an extremely important role in shaping their political views. As per the PBC’s own figures, its 69 medium (33), short wave (7) and FM (29) stations cover more or less 80 percent of Pakistan’s region, or 96.5 percent of the population, and it has a general group of audience of 95.5 million listeners.
Television
Television is the main source of information and has the greater viewership of electronic media. It is assuming a primary role in effectively playing a three-dimensional part of informing, educating and stimulating people in general. Separated from the government owned PTV today many private TV channels are working in Pakistan. Electronic media in Pakistan, especially television channels have exhibited mushroom growth over the years. Private TV channels are now part of Pakistan’s media landscape where political commentary is broadcast on vital political concerns on a timely basis; regular talk shows highlight socio-political and economic issues of the country. However, their out compass to viewer ship and audience ship is confined through laws and instruments that frustrate any improvement towards empowering the environment.
Newspapers
Newspapers are an essential wellspring of information in illuminated societies providing the latest data to readers. Newspapers fill different needs for diverse classifications of clients. The three fundamental media groups that are still dynamic to date have their sources in the Muslim autonomy development of British India and were firmly related to some of its most unmistakable political figures. In any case, as the politics issues of the newly born Pakistan transformed into an unforgiving rivalry for force, those same media gatherings decided to cut their own particular space for survival by taking sides in the ongoing struggle, so as to get a better comprehension of the ways and the reasons why these gatherings work today as they do, it is critical to have at least a glimpse at their origin and early development.
Effect of Media
Although the research at hand does not focus on the role of social media, this enacts a huge role in making people aware of political socialization. In the 21st century, media is an important source of information for modern societies and has a great influence on their behavior. The world has turned into a global village because of the fast and quick development of new media. Individuals sitting in diverse parts of the world are in contact with one another through their cell telephones and the world wide web. The new media has not just strengthened the conventional print and electronic media it has had a large effect on the lives of normal individuals all over the world. The new media have in many ways fortified the customary print and electronic media and had an incredible effect on the lives of the average individuals in diverse parts of the world. Notwithstanding different circles of media impacts, the new media innovation has put an incredible impact on political correspondence. Political communication consists of the use of media by the political parties and governments to gain attentions of their voters at the time of elections or at any other time than during elections. The political science and political mass communications are interlinked with one another in the subject of political communication. The different magnitude of political communication comprises the analysis of the media messages and also political statements of political parties and leaders of the country as well as important world leaders belonging to different countries. There are diverse examples of political communication in different parts of the world relying on their own socio-economical and financial circumstances.
Challenges
The evolution of Pakistan’s press system has been highly convoluted with setbacks over the years from strict military to unconstitutional checks on free expression. This report deals with major turning points that have affected media improvement over the past decade. Until the midst 1990s, the state-owned channel Pakistan Television (PTV) dominated the media scene. Pakistanis turned to illegal satellite dishes and illegal channels as alternatives to PTV. A genuine awakening began in 2002 when President Pervez Musharraf broke the State’s monopoly on broadcast media, giving new life to electronic media.
According to a 2009 report presented by the Danish NGO International Media Support (IMS), the administration, scholarly people, security organizations, and the military accept that Pakistan was left with no means to respond because its electronic media was inferior as compared to India’s.
For the following couple of years, the Pakistani public appreciated a surge in independent TV channels and radio stations like they had never seen. Additionally, the print media worked with fewer restrictions, however this loosening in state control was brief. General Musharraf moved to counter the developing resistance from the country’s Supreme Court, political gatherings and hardliner Islamists.
In March 2007 General Musharraf fired the then Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry which resulted in the Lawyer’s Movement and grassroots protests that brought thousands of peoples into the streets to oppose this interference with the judiciary. The non-stop coverage by television channels plus the political commentary helped fuel public opinion, posing a public relations bad dream for the regime. During this time, the government’s tactics in attacking media shifted in a way that rather than targeting individual journalists as it had in the past, it began aiming at media organizations, “harassing them legally, financially and through attacks on their offices,” according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Due to the rapid advancement in the media landscape, the number of journalists has also grown within a short time. Although there are various institutes and universities offering courses in journalism and mass communication, the new graduates are generally not prepared for the requirements of the profession. The media institutions as well rarely offer in house trainings or mentoring programmes.
The outcome is a considerable lack of professional standards. In the newspapers, the lines between analysis, comment, and news are blurred; many of the articles published rely on and reproduce statements rather than giving proper and legitimate information. The fierce competition among the private television channels has created an unhealthy culture of “Breaking News” where almost every new story is touted as ‘Breaking News’. With sensationalism dictating the agenda of these media, stories on social developments or investigative reports are seriously underrepresented.
The second level assumes that citizens take interest in politics due to provision of proper information. In the third level, citizens voice their opinions and have equal rights to participate in the decision making. The fourth level expects that all decisions are submitted to the public for dialogue and thoughts. The effects of media that can be on psychological, cognitive and behavioral levels are controlled by the type of citizens’ participation. Pakistani media has unveiled numerous scams and corruption cases including Hajj corruption, Pakistan Steel Mills, National Insurance Company, rental power projects corruption, PIA and railway scams, ephedrine quota case, NATO containers case, etc. However, the relationship between pluralist media and good governance is not established. To cope with the above challenges, media may choose to apply self accountability, promotion of peace and security by improving educational standards of journalists, playing a positive role, promotion of citizen journalism, implementation of code of ethics, and flourishing democratic-participant media, etc. In the wake of the 2018 general elections, traditional as well as social media played a significant role that activated and mobilized political behavior and attitude of the masses. As a result, there was a remarkable voters’ turn out compared to previous general elections. The media has played a positive role in shaping opinions towards democratic norms but notwithstanding the positive contribution of media in affecting political socialization, there also remains a dark side which involves commercial matters as well as affairs pertaining to political interference that have made inroads into the realm of Pakistan’s media.
While today’s media is far more independent than it was in the pre-liberalization era, freedom does not always signify responsibility. It does, however bring to the fore a range of issues and affects the opinion of the consumers, whether readers, listeners or watchers. The consumer of such news content is thus made to focus on core issues which the media projects but his/her judgment is also affected by his family, peers and opinion leaders. On the whole, media in Pakistan has come a long way and continues to leave impressionable mark on the political opinions of citizens.
