Framing the Political Reality of 2014 Sit-ins: An Analysis of Mainstream English Newspapers of Pakistan

This paper aims to study how the mainstream English newspapers of Pakistan i.e. Dawn, The News, The Nation, and The Daily Times exploited different frames to make audience/readers believe in a certain way during their coverage of 2014 anti-government sit-ins led by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT). Owing to the remarkable role played by media in reshaping the politics of the state during this movement, it becomes important to study how it framed reality for its readers. The study utilizes frame analysis method which focuses on different frames which are used to restrict meanings for constructing a particular interpretation in mind of the reader. The analysis of the data collected majorly from headlines of the four newspapers show that in most of the cases the frames were selected which could produce a little anger against the government; hence they contributed a little in mobilizing people during the sit-ins.