A Comparative Framing Analysis of the Red Mosque Incident in the Coverage of Local Right Wing and Western Print Media (June – Aug 2007)

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to analyze how a crucial incident of Pakistan’s recent political history - the Red Mosque military operation of 2007 has been reported and narrated by selected Western and Local Right wing newspapers. How these media forums framed the news stories about the Red Mosque incident in their respective contexts. This study explains the news framing trends using framing analysis of Western and Pakistani Local Right wing media. At the first phase, Framing Analysis elucidates the language of the news stories of two factions through framing forms/tools which are based on rhetoric sense. Then, at second phase, comparative analysis technique elaborates the major frames of two newspapers. The study finds how various frames used by Pakistani Local Right wing media (The Daily Islam, The Daily Jasarat & The Takbeer Weekly) and selected Western media (The Guardian, The Washington Post & The Economist) to describe the story of the Red Mosque incident in 2007.