Coverage of Peace and War Journalism in Local Press: A Comparative Analysis of Daily Shamal and Daily Azadi of District Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Abstract

This study has been conducted to analyze the coverage and treatment of peace and war journalism in local press of District Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is assumed that local press is giving more coverage to war journalism instead of peace journalism in the area. It is also presumed that local press is more reliable for the war and conflict issue than social and developmental issues of the area. The researcher collected data from two local newspapers daily Azadi and dialy Shamal of three months from January, 2015 to March, 2015. The researcher collected data though coding sheet by purposive sampling technique. It is revealed that both of the newspapers has given coverage to the phenomena, in which daily shamal given more coverage to peace journalism instead of war journalism. On the other hand, daily Azadi were given more coverage to war journalism instead of peace journalism. It is also proved that Shamal were framed more positive stories as compare to daily Azadi which showed that daily Shamal was created awareness regarding peace among the community of Swat. It is also confirmed that both newspapers covered stories regarding peace journalism on the back pages which shows that both newspapers have given more coverage to peace journalism instead of war reporting in the area. The results of the study explored that most of the news stories were published by daily Azadi and Shamal regarding security forces than militant activities