Journalism's Brian Bowe publishes new paper on the effects of media on Pakistan's 'fragile democracy'

Assistant Professor of Journalism Brian Bowe has published "Mediatization in Pakistan: Perceptions of media influence on a fragile democracy" in the journal "Journalism." Bowe co-wrote the paper with Lawrence Pintak of WSU and Syed Nazir of the Lahore University of Management Sciences in Pakistan.

Abstract:

A survey of Pakistani journalists, members of the policy community and media academics
found that the mediatization of Pakistan is having a mixed effect on the stability of the
country’s fragile democracy. Members of the policy community generally have a more
positive view of the impact of the media on Pakistani society than those who work in
the profession and say they take media reaction into account before making decisions,
although all groups said the media are still unable to fulfill its watchdog role without fear
of retribution. The results are in line with studies in the developed world that found
that the more politicians believe in a stronger media effect, the more susceptible they
become to media agenda setting. The findings also bolster the ‘co-evolution’ theory that
argues media gain influence as democracy stabilizes in post-autocratic environments.

The full paper is available online at http://jou.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/09/08/1464884916663624?papetoc