(MS Clinical Psychology) Government College University, Lahore, PhD Scholar (Punjab University, Lahore), Research Coordinator & Clinical Psychologist, Department of Psychiatry, Mayo Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan
The role media plays to formulate, influence and consequently mould the public perception about various issues is unprecedented. There are serious implications for both the media and the youth in a society increasingly influenced and managed through the news channels. The profound impact of news channels on Pakistani society has been an interesting subject of research in the recent past. However, the impact of new found freedom of expression in the face of censorship and other means of control on media qualifies further in-depth research. The present study focuses on the impact of media, particularly news channels on the youth in Lahore, Pakistan. Two groups were separately studied: One who watched news channels daily and the other who watched headlines of news channels on weekends only. The convenient sampling method was adopted. The samples included cohorts of both the genders aging 20-25 years. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to investigate their experiences of being affected by watching news channels on daily basis, and headlines on weekends, separately. Moreover, what factors they considered affective on their perception. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was applied as a research method. Five categories emerged from first group after coding the data, namely: Perception of News Channels, Perception of Political Systems, Stressful Experiences, Effects of News Channels on One's Life, and Effects of News Channels on Society as a whole. Four categories emerged from second group, namely: Intentional Avoidance of News Channels, Perception of News Channels, Perception of Political Systems and Effects of News Channels on Society. The results clearly suggested that those who were more exposed to the news channels got more influenced consequently.