EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF POLICY CERTAINTY AND VIOLENCE ON MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE U.S WITHDRAWAL FROM AFGHANISTAN AND RE-EMERGENCE OF TALIBAN COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEWS

Abstract

This article examines the nature of cross-national media coverage of two selected issues including the U.S forces’ withdrawal and re-emergence of Taliban in the context of foreign policy. Testing the Bennet (1990) indexing theory and Pier Robins (2000,2017) media-policy interaction model, the study contently analyzes the news coverage of daily newspapers i.e. Outlook Afghanistan, The News and New York Times on selected issues, with a major aim to evaluate the nature of media coverage on the basis of policy certainty [certain or uncertain policy line of governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States on the issue re-emergence of Taliban and the U.S withdrawal]. The findings of this study show significant policy uncertainty, leading media to criticize Taliban and the U.S in the context of re-emergence of Talibanization in Afghanistan. Whereas the findings also confirm the key arguments of indexing theory as all the selected media, comparatively, framed high the U.S officials and Taliban, who dominate both the issues as key actors. Overall results indicate mixed approach of the selected media as Pakistani newspaper is found adopting a ‘balance approach’ that indicates Pakistan’s policy towards changing political environment in Afghanistan while the Outlook Afghanistan and New York Times were more supportive to the U.S forces withdrawal, however criticized the re-emergence of Taliban.