Journalism and the regime change in Pakistan (2022): exploring the solidarity and political discourses on the social media

Abstract

For the first time in Pakistan, a sitting prime minister has been ousted through a ‘No-Confidence Motion (NCM)’ initiated by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) in April 2022. PDM, the coalition of 15 political parties, claimed the success of NCM as the win of democracy. The ousted PM and Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Mr. Imran Khan, alleged that the motion was a ‘regime change’ attempt backed by a foreign conspiracy initiated by internal and external elements. Pakistani journalists, who are already labelled as political partisans, took to the social media platform Twitter, and started spreading the ‘political discourse’ about the removal of Khan from the PM office. This research explores the predominant themes within the discourse produced through the Twitter handles of the selected journalists; Arshad Sharif, Hamid Mir and Mazhar Abbas. Secondly, to determine whether and to what extent the journalists have produced the ‘political discourse’ and or the ‘solidarity discourse’. We have employed thematic analysis as a theoretical and methodological tool to achieve the research objectives. The findings show a clear divide between the journalists and an explicit polarization within the discourse produced through their Twitter posts on the issue, and the solidarity discourse is virtually non-existent.