The Journalist's Perception of How Pakistani Media Cover the US-China Trade War

The Journalist’s Perception of How Pakistani Media Cover the US-China Trade War 

Abstract

This research article attempts to analyse the economic war between the United States of America and China with a historical approach while drawing a comparison from the existing body of literature about the current-day trade war along similar economic conflicts in past. It also examines perception of Pakistani journalists regarding the current conflict between the US and China. The research has four major objectives; to investigate the knowledge of journalists regarding on-going China and America’s war on trade, to investigate the perception of journalists towards conflicts of trade between USA and China, to examine the extent of coverage given to the China-USA trade war in Pakistan on different media platforms; and lastly to determine if the Pakistani media favours China or the US in this conflict. A questionnaire was used to collect data from working journalists associated with different media organizations in the country, including reporters, assignment editors, producers, anchors, freelance journalists etc. Data source for the study includes 100 Pakistani working journalists from local, national and international media as well as free-lance journalists. The study was theoretically informed by framing theory and political economy of communication theory. The findings indicate that according to the perception of journalists the electronic media gave more coverage than the print media to the US-China trade war. The researchers found journalists believed that the Pakistani media was pro-China. The study also revealed that the current dispute between two nations was perceived to have great political and economic consequences that may lead to a global economic crisis.