Session 24: Pakistan's Enemy

Media; perhaps the only enemy Pakistan cannot defeat with the threat of nuking. Pakistan is a culturally rich state, drowning in nationalism, but attacked by the media. Call me an optimist, but despite the never ending adversities Pakistan has been through, there will come a time when Pakistan will be a proud prosperous state. The only way, however, it can become its long awaited esteemed self is by altering the way the media portrays Pakistan. 

Be it the Pakistani media, or the international one; Pakistan is represented by its unfortunate natural disasters, territorial conflicts, failed government representations, and terrorism; Pakistan needs not a pity party, but an awakening and recognition of its potential. This can only be achieved through the media; which never seems to be optimistic about Pakistan's conditions, taking away any hope that its nationalists have of it. This can be explained through the The "Magic Bullet" theory; which graphically assumes that the media's message is a bullet fired from the "media gun" into the viewer's "head". It suggests that the media injects its messages straight into the passive audience. This passive audience is immediately affected by these messages. The public essentially cannot escape from the media's influence, and is therefore considered a "sitting duck". Models suggest that the public is vulnerable to the messages shot at them because of the limited communication tools and the studies of the media's effects on the masses at the time. It means the media explores information in such a way that it injects in the mind of audiences as bullets.

This theory accurately represents the state of the Pakistani optimism throughout the world. Whatever the media tells the people, they believe, and rather allow it to become their reality. What needs to be done is that the people of Pakistan need to understand this, and change it. Once the influence of the media is demolished and rather replaced by a more positive portrayal, Pakistan will flourish into the state that it was always destined to become.