The Uks Research Centre on Tuesday launched ‘Talking back – II: From Passive to Proactive’, a report based on the outcomes of the project on promoting media literacy in Pakistan by building linkages between media and public at a local hotel.
The report marks the conclusion of ‘Promoting Public Discourse on Media Content in Pakistan’ – a one-year project, the first of its kind in Pakistan, undertaken by Uks in collaboration with the National Endowment of Democracy (NED).
The project is based on Uks’ monitoring and analysis of media content in Pakistan in collaboration with its partner universities and bringing forth the results of this research to the media practitioners. This project aims to point out the need to educate, both the audiences and journalists, on key related concepts, which is the only tool that can equip them with the skills to comment, critique and influence change in the way media content is packaged.
As part of this project, Uks partnered with eight universities in Pakistan to promote public discourse and discussion on media content in Pakistan. A selected group of students at these universities undertook a four-month monitoring exercise at their locations which included orientation sessions, followed by monitoring and analysing different newspapers and local TV channels on a daily basis. They also conducted focus group discussions with various segments of the society based on the monitoring and analysis. ‘Talking Back – II: from Passive to Proactive’ is based on the findings put forth by these students and the analysis done by Uks and it represents the crux of the year-long effort. The report aims to encourage media men by building connections and bridging the gap between the different opinions, views and thoughts.
The guests present at the launch of this report included media, NGO representatives and civil society members who lauded Uks’ efforts on the subject.
The gathering started with a presentation of the project given by the Uks team. Uks Director Tasneem Ahmar, The News Senior Correspondent Amir Mateen, Head of Media Studies Department at International Islamic University Islamabad Dr Zafar and Ammara Fatima gave their feedback and shared their views on the content that is being aired and written in electronic and print media, how the scenario has changed in Pakistan and what sort of effect it is having on the human mind.
