LAHORE: (Tuesday, March 1, 2022): A researcher at Punjab University in his PhD dissertation has developed the “Propaganda News Identification Model” to detect presence of propaganda content through covert means in a news item in Pakistani newspapers. The model can also identify application of Herman and Chomsky’s Propaganda Model to news stories for formation of public opinion.
The study reveals that the new model has identified propaganda content through covert means 533 times in The News, 420 times in The Nation and 321 times in Dawn during the study period. The researcher claims that based on empirical evidence, it is found that 11 covert techniques are being employed in the news items of Pakistani newspapers and application of propaganda model has been detected through investigation of research questions with the help of scientific indicators. The study mainly covers the field of grey and black propaganda.
With the help of scientific model, the study reveals that the most utilized mean of fanning propaganda in a news item was non-attributed analysis of any incident, happening, situation, development etc. He states that such analyses were made without any attribution in the news stories in an attempt to present opinion as a fact. According to data, 173 news items in daily The News, 154 news items in daily The Nation and 128 news items in Dawn were found in which this specific technique was used.
Mr Khuram Shahzad, a PhD scholar at School of Communication Studies has completed his PhD dissertation titled “Propaganda Model Application to News Stories in Leading English dailies of Pakistan” under the supervision of School of Communication Studies Director Prof Dr Noshina Saleem and Assistant Professor Dr Shabbir Sarwar.
The Propaganda Model was originally presented by Edward S. Herman and Prof Noam Chomsky in 1988, with a little revision in 2002. However, no tool had previously existed to detect operations of propaganda models in a scientific and unbiased manner. With reference to Pakistani media, there was absence of study in the field and dearth of such research work. Therefore, to contribute in the body of knowledge, the researcher and supervisors took the task to develop a scientific model which can identify propaganda content in the news items, which is otherwise masked to be objective, fair and impartial. Therefore, the whole research work was totally exclusive in nature, seconded by a foreign evaluator of the thesis. In his review report of the PhD thesis, the foreign referee has stated, *“while the topic is very important but to my knowledge such research work has not been undertaken by any scholar in Pakistan.”*  The second foreign referee of the thesis writes in his review that “the Discussion section refers to several theoretical standpoints that indicate that both the media and structural powers jointly influence the way news is constructed and projected in press.” He states further, “one of the significances of this study is that the visual analysis is also coupled by a very useful data analysis in tabular format that provides an overview of news items the way they scored against every indicator designed as a part of this study’s analysis.”
The researcher has studied newspapers from January 2013 to December 2018, an area which covers two general elections and important developments on national level. The study argues that most of the scholars of communication believe that a news item must be an objective reporting of happenings and must be free of any subjective interference. The researcher states that the news organizations purport to be an objective dispenser of facts and reality, but on the contrary, facts and investigations are subjectively interpreted in news items to form or strengthen an opinion. He states that all the leading news organizations claim objectivity, especially with reference to news items. However, the study reveals that the practice of Pakistan’s leading English newspapers has led to the development of the hypothesis that Dawn, The News and The Nation are publishing opinions and analysis in the news items without relevant citations to form public opinion. The researcher states that according to scientific collection of data and its qualitative content analysis, the hypothesis has been supported and such elements had been scientifically identified which are useful to ‘fan propaganda’.
The researcher states that there is a common understanding that the people see news items published by reputed and leading newspapers as a matter of fact, most of the time. The researcher states further that a news item, a tool of journalism which is thought to be objective, and this particular impression a news item bears that it is an objective reporting of happenings, is being ‘misused’ and ‘maneuvered’ by the influential elements in power structure that apply propaganda model through covert means to achieve their objectives.
Elaborating his scientific model, the researcher states that the 11 covert means of fanning propaganda include prediction of future in form of opinion without citing a document, personality or any forum etc in the news. For example, the actions of “A” will improve living conditions of the poor and this statement is without attribution. Second covert technique is mentioning of apprehension (s) which is not raised by any personality, document, organization etc in the news. For example, it is mentioned that some action would put the government or people in danger or “A” fears that “B” will bring danger.  The third covert mean is analysis of any incident, happening, situation, development etc which is attributed to anonymous sources. For example, that sources/official said that the initiatives of “A” are meant for bringing revolution in the structure of the organization. The fourth covert technique, which has been found the most utilized technique in Pakistan’s English dailies, is analysis of any development, incident, situation, happening etc without any attribution. For example, mentioning straightaway that “C” is getting the benefit of the conflict between “A” and “B” and there is no mention from where this statement has come in the news.  The fifth covert mean is a news item which includes (selective) historical background or latest developments. For example, covering an incident of mass/public shootout by individuals, only those related incidents from the past are mentioned in which the attackers are the Muslims. Thus, historical background or latest developments are mentioned in a selective manner to form or strengthen public opinion/ideas/beliefs. The sixth covert technique is publication of an opinion in the name of experts/analysts but there is no mention of any particular name of the expert in the whole story. For example Political experts/economists / legal experts/analysts/diplomatic observers/critics etc say or believe that…. and thus making an effort to generalize the specific opinion. The seventh covert technique is an analysis of the personality (ies) and their actions without any reference. For example, mentioning that the politician or bureaucrat is ambitious to serve people and his/her action is tantamount to his love for his country or work. This technique is mostly used at the time when a new assignment is being given to any bureaucrat, politician etc or relieving a bureaucrat, politician etc from an assignment. The eighth covert technique is mentioning analytical questions without defining the originator of questions. For example, whether somebody has followed the rules while doing some action? Or raise doubts and/or answer those doubts. This technique seems helpful to urge people to think in a specific direction too. The ninth technique is mentioning a discussion without proper citation where it took place. For example, it is mentioned in the news that it is being discussed, it is said, business/political/bureaucratic/Islamabad circles are discussing etc and there is no particular mention of place and participants of discussion. The tenth technique is any news item which includes suggestions. For example, “A” should do “B” to avoid “C” and there is not reference who is giving this suggestion. The eleventh technique is opinion-based reasons behind any incident in the news. For example, the news not mentioning a proper source and saying that the failure or success of “A” was because of “B”.
The second foreign referee in his review report states, *“The chapter on research methodology is straight forward and author deserves the credit to provide a clear idea that which newspapers were chosen, which pages were investigated and how many pages were analyzed using conceptualization/operationalization approach”.* The researcher has NOT taken any news-style item published on front and back pages for his study which has been tagged “Analysis, News Analysis, Comment, Diary etc,” because it is already labeled that it contains analyses etc. The researcher has adopted the methodology of qualitative content analysis. However, to avoid researcher’s bias in selection of unit of analysis out of population i.e. news items, the technique of systematic sampling has been used and 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th newspaper editions of every month have been taken for the study. Only those news items have been studied which are published on front and back pages of the newspapers. Moreover, to avoid researcher’s bias, the news content has not be subjectively detailed and interpreted and the news items have only been analyzed against the prescribed indicators reflected in the model. Moreover, to ensure objectivity while analyzing the data, no any such analysis is made which reflects subjective discussion of data.
The overall similarity index of the PhD thesis is 02 percent.