Media & Foreign Policy: Portrayal of Pak-U.S. Relations in Elite Press during Pervaiz Musharraf & George W. Bush Regime; September 2001 to August 2008

This study “Media and Foreign Policy, Portrayal of Pak-U.S. relations in Elite Press during Pervaiz Musharraf and George W. Bush Regime, September 2001 to August 2008” is an effort to analyze the foreign policies of Pakistan and the United States of America in the elite press of both countries, especially after 9/11. In this study two elite English newspapers “New York Times” from U.S. and “The Daily Dawn” from Pakistan are selected for study from September 11, 2001 to August 2008 (when president of Pakistan General Pervaiz Musharraf left his office). The current study is focused to find the relationship between Pakistan and U.S. during Pervaiz Musharraf regime. The major motive behind this work is to dig out the phenomenon of the foreign policy making by the governments of the concerning states and the role played by the leading mass media in this arena of international politics. The theoretical framework refers to the Agenda Setting Theory as the study intends to determine the ‘Media Agenda’ of the press of both the countries and framing theory is also used to determine that how media frames different incidents regarding the foreign policy determinacy. In this study Pak-U.S. relations are considered by analyzing the contents of the editorials of the selected newspapers. The findings show that media does not necessarily follow the government's view point regarding the foreign policy of the country.