High News Consumers: A Profile

by Gayatri Murthy

News and current affairs feature high on the list of media content in which Pakistanis are interested. Many of the most watched TV stations are primarily news based—PTV News and Geo News, for example—underscoring the importance of news and information (compared to entertainment and other kinds of content) for respondents.  (See our media outlet matrix section for more on popular outlets).

Even though broadcasting news on the radio is not permitted by PEMRA (the electronic broadcast regulatory authority in Pakistan), news and current affairs trumped sports, music, business, health programs, etc., when respondents were asked to weigh in on their favorite kinds of radio programs. 

In addition, nearly half said they access news and information on any medium at least once a day. Thirteen percent said they did so 2-3 times a week; 8 percent once a week (see chart 1). 

Chart 1

Based on this data, we separated “high-news consumers” (HNC) from “low-news consumers” (LNC) and analyzed differences in their characteristics and media use habits.  High-news consumers (46 percent of the survey) are defined as those who access any type of news and current affairs at least once a day (every hour, 2-3 times a day or once a day). Low-news consumers (37 percent of the survey) are defined as those who access any type of news and current affairs less often than that. [1]

When broken down by demographics, education level, location (urban or rural) and gender seem to play a decisive role in determining who accesses news daily (See chart 2-4). As education level increases, news access increases. Men access news more than women, urban respondents more than rural. 

                                        Chart 2 (A, B, C and D) Pakistan: Demographic Breakdown of High-News Consumers
                                                             Percent of those who are identified as high-news consumers 

BBC Pakistan, survey of adults (15+), n = 4020, where High News Consumers = 2098, Low News Consumers = 1357 and Excluded Category in the Charts above “Don’t Know/People who had never watched or listened or read any medium = 565.

High-news consumers (HNCs) thus tend to be: urban, well educated with high incomes, and are more likely to be men. Inevitably, their high socio-economic status also give them access to more varied media outlets, including cable television channels, satellite television, etc. (See our media overview section for access and use trends for Pakistan. For demographic differences click here).  

In addition to demographics, when we analyze the spread of  HNCs across states, there are two notable exceptions to the socio-economically elite make-up of the HNC:  

Chart 3 Pakistan: State-Wise Breakdown of High News Consumers
Percent of those who are identified as high news consumers

          
BBC Pakistan, survey of adults (15+), n = 4020, where High News Consumers = 2098, Low News Consumers = 1357 and Excluded Category in the Charts above “Don’t Know/People who had never watched or listened or read any medium = 565. 

 

North West Frontier Province (NWFP)- In spite of lower economic development there, the NWFP has the highest proportion of HNCs among respondents.  Lower economic development and large sections of rural regions translates into lower access to television, cable and satellite connections, newspaper and new media. However, NWFP respondents are frequent radio listeners (compared to the national average). 

As such, there are growing concerns over the Taliban and other militant groups using airwaves to form illegal radio stations to spread extremist messages in this region.   The BBC reports that “With mullahs and militants using the airwaves to broadcast propaganda against their opponents and Western governments, illegal FM radio stations have mushroomed in Pakistan's north-west.”   [2] Experts believe there are close to 150 illegal FM radio stations in the NWFP, run either by extremist religious groups or militants, including Pakistani Taliban, which might be spreading an extremist brand of Islam to uneducated and poorer residents who have less access to other legitimate sources of information. [3] Therefore, a high proportion of information available to news consumers might be dangerous and misleading. The BBC report also suggests that PEMRA has only been partially successful in curbing these illegal stations, and although many have been stopped, new ones sprout up immediately to take their place. [4]

Punjab- Another anomaly is Punjab.  Despite having  higher economic prosperity, large access to cable and satellite news channels, and the largest availability of FM radio stations, Punjab has the lowest number of HNCs. Although their television viewership is higher than the national average,  residents of Punjab have the lowest weekly radio listenership (just 19 percent) and one of the lowest readership of newspapers (23 percent), higher only than Baluchistan’s 21 percent. Newspaper readership in Sindh is 37 percent, in NWFP 29 percent.

For a detailed analysis on media use and access in various states, click here

Popular Media Outlets and HNCs

Increased access to news, as discussed above, is characterized by higher incomes, education levels and socio-economic status. This also indicates that HNCs have greater access to private, commercial sources available on cable and satellite television compared to low-news consumers  (See Tables 1 and 2).

Table 1

State-run Pakistan TV is popular with all respondents. HNCs watch state-run PTV News (news channel) in greater proportions than do their low-news consuming counterparts.

HNCs are far more likely to be watching cable news channels, such as Geo News, Express News, Aaj TV, ARY One World (see table 1), than are LNCs.

The situation is different for radio, since private stations broadcast mostly music and entertainment. News broadcasting on private radio is not allowed by PEMRA and although some channels find ways around this, it is still rare. The only real alternative to state-run radio is the BBC, the second-most-listened-to radio service in the country. BBC does not broadcast from Pakistani territory so it is exempt from PEMRA news broadcast rules.

Of those who listen to radio, HNCs turn to BBC World Service (on shortwave generally) for news in much larger proportions than do LNCs. In addiiton, Voice of America's Aap Ki Duniya which does not feature in our top 5 most listened to radio stations with the overall population does in fact seem rather popular when HNCs are separated out from the overall population (see table 2). 

Table 2

          

High News Consumers’ Attitudes towards News
HNCs place more importance on the trustworthiness of a news source than do LNCs (Chart 4A). They also tend to attach greater importance to unbiased and objective news (Chart 4B).

Chart 4 A and B


BBC Pakistan, survey of adults (15+), n = 4020, where High News Consumers = 2098, Low News Consumers = 1357 and Excluded Category in the Charts above “Don’t Know/People who had never watched or listened or read any medium = 565.

In general, as news consumption and levels of education increase, respondents show evidence of engaging with news content at a deeper level. HNCs and those who had received secondary or post secondary education are most likely to value new opinions and look for more analysis, debate and comment. 

Related Articles:

News Television: Who's Watching?

News Radio: What Choices Do Some Pakistanis Have?

Religious Media: A Cable TV Phenomenon

Attitudes to News and Information

[1] A third category comprised those who didn’t know the answer, or declined to answer. Those who had never accessed any media (for news or otherwise) were also included in this third category. (n = 4,020, where high-news consumers = 2,098; low-news consumers = 1,357 and Excluded Category in the Charts above “Don’t Know/People who had never watched or listened or read any medium” = 565).

[2] Azami, Dawood. "Pakistan's Taliban Radio Insurgency". BBC World News Service. 22 June 2009. Accessed April 2010.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8108881.stm

[3] ibid

[4] ibid