Role of News Talk Shows in Creating Political Efficacy among
Youth
Rameez Ahmed
Institute of Social and Cultural Studies
University of the Punjab, Lahore-Pakistan
ABSTRACT
The main purpose of this paper is to find out the influence of News Talk Shows in creating political efficacy
among educated youth. The researcher wants to measure the level of political efficacy, that is, level of awareness
and level of political participation based on the fact that how much educated youth are influenced by News Talk
Shows regarding politics. News Talk Shows are helpful in changing the political structure, political system and
political development. Universe for the present study consists of Punjab University Students, Lahore. The
researcher has selected 120 samples in nineteen departments of Punjab University. The researcher uses the non
probability sampling technique with haphazard selection method. Questionnaire was used as a tool for data
collection.
For data analysis two chapters are provided; one analysis for quantitative data and second is for qualitative data
because the present study is comprised of both types of data (quantitative and qualitative). Simple frequency
tables are made of demographic information and other closed ended questions (quantitative data) whereas
percentage analysis is made for the open ended questions (qualitative data). Some of the important findings from
the respondents include demographic information, role of news talk shows and political efficacy. It was
concluded that there was strong influence of News Talk Shows on the individual’s political efficacy. The
political efficacy of the viewers of News Talk Shows were very high based on level of political awareness and
level of political participation among educated youth. It was found that those respondents who watch News Talk
Shows are having better socialization than those who do not watch.
Introduction
Today, every one of us is spending more of our leisure time watching TV, listening to the
radio or reading newspapers and magazines. The shows on the TV and the articles in the
newspapers influence our decision process, shaping our perceptions for the world. Besides the
positive fact that we are better informed and in touch with the latest news, we should be aware
that accepting this enormous flow of information and allowing it to make our mind can be
dangerous. The TVs infiltrate our lives, guiding us what are we supposed to wear, how we are
supposed to look and act.
“The role of television in Pakistan is extremely
important as illiteracy is a major obstacle to
information and awareness. Recent studies show that TV
is watch by almost 50 million people. An increasing
number of women, urban and rural, now have access to
television. Due to the limited scope of the print media to
the audio-visual media becomes the most influential
agent in the country (UNDP: 1996). ”
Mass media always had been an important means of communication. Over a period of time it
has passed through various changes and has gradually acquired a new significance and
importance in the present times. Earlier it used to be small in size and in the strict control of
the authoritarian governments to “Control Public Mind”.
Pakistan too has its share, along with the government channels; there are several private
channels available on cable TV network. Channel like (GEO, ARY, AAJ, Indus Vision,
Duniya, TV One, DM Digital, Al-Noor, and QTV Digital etc.) are busy round the clock on
regional and national level showing great variety of programs of Entertainment, Information,
Religious, Discussions and Talk Shows etc.
The role of media is gaining importance every day. It is fast transforming itself and in turn
becoming an agent of transforming the world. Now Media is helping democracies and
promoting globalization.
“By adopting a global outlook, we become more
aware of our connections to people in other societies.
The global perceptive opens our eyes to the fact that
our increasing ties with the rest of the world means
that our actions have consequences for other and the
world’s problems have consequences force us(Giddens
2001:51).”
The institution of politics is one of the institutions which work for the welfare of people and
concerned with government and other related issues of government, elections, vote and etc. In
most of the world’s countries, national power of politics and authority are allocated to various
individuals and groups through politics, usually by means of compromises between
conflicting interests. Through politics, governments are elected or appointed, or in some
cases, created by armed forces. Governments have the power to make, interpret, and enforce
the rules and decisions that determine how to run the countries.
In the present era, it has been seen that Mass Media has put spirit and encouraged people in
electing government according to their own choice. In this way, people can change the
wrongful decision of government officials. So Mass Media is the source of influencing people
to participate in politics and this is the only source of creating awareness in citizens that how
to improve and run our political system.
People are mainly affected by the news and news talk shows that are on air on different news
channel of Pakistan around the clock. Every news talk show, may it be Capital talk or live
with Talat or any other, it starts with a topic and ends with a conclusion which is normally
drawn by the anchor himself. People may or may not agree with the conclusion drawn by the
anchor. Opinionated news has always been a hard pill to swallow in any society. People who
do not agree with the opinion will call that anchor to be biased. Then comes the policy of
channels, which is originally never exposed, on the face of it every channel claims to have the
policy of non discriminatory, unbiased anti racialism and non prejudice but widely held
believe remains that different channel support different political parties and social groups.
Efficacy
Efficacy is the capacity to produce a desired size of an effect under ideal or optimal
conditions. It is these conditions that distinguish efficacy from the related concept of
effectiveness, which relates to change under real life conditions.
Political Efficacy
Political efficacy is an attitude and a phenomenon of socio-political context. It is the term that
describes people’s feelings of government, it examines whether or not people feel they are
being taken seriously or not. But some people have strong sense of political efficacy while
others do not. This is mostly derivative of people’s experiences.
“Political efficacy is the extent to which an individual
feels that his or her participation in politics will be
effected (Axford and Browning, 2007).”
According to the research by Axford and Browning, it is commonly measured and used an as
indicator for the boarder health of civil society. Feelings of efficacy are highly correlated with
participation in social and political life. Public opinion studies have conventionally treated
political efficacy as two dimensional concepts involving internal and external efficacy or in
other words political efficacy has two types:
Internal Efficacy
Internal efficacy is the perception that one has the requisite skills and resources to influence
the Political system.
External Efficacy
External efficacy is the perception that government institutions and elites are responsive to
one’s attempt to exert political influence. Internal efficacy has only a limited relationship with
the depended variables, though high levels of internal efficacy are found to be a condition for
collective and external efficacy to exert stronger impact on political attitude and behavior.
According to a research “Engaging the Electorate (Initiatives to promote voter turnout from
around the world)” by Andrew Eills, an important indicator of political efficacy is voter
participation.
“A sense of efficacy is developed when an individual
feels well-informed enough about politics to believe that
they can influence the makeup or activities decision
making bodies, if an election appears to be meaningless
or irrelevant, or an individual feels powerless or
ineffectual in his or her interactions with the political
system, the sense of political efficacy declines and
abstention from this can lead to political apathy and
alienation (Ellis, 2006).”
When we talk about political institution, political efficacy is an important aspect. Political
efficacy refers generally to citizens’ beliefs in their ability to influence the political system.
An individual’s sense of political efficacy is important because it is associated with political
participation, the acquisition of political information and discussion of the political issues.
The present study is focused to measure the level of political efficacy among educated youth.
Literature Review
The aim of this chapter is to review the empirical and theoretical literature related to the
present study. A view of this chapter is to interpret the present study within the framework of
the previously conducted studies. For the present study, researcher found a wide range of
literature in different books, newspapers, articles and previous researches. Although the
reviewed literature highlights different aspects related with the Television News Shows in
creating Political Efficacy among Punjab University Students.
The rapid increase in viewing satellite T.V programs during the last decade is an example of
the cultural change that has taken place in the media of mass communication and has
produced a cultural pattern of behavior and in prescribed ways of doing things. Although its
effect vary according to the socio-economic conditions from country to country, but no one
can deny the process of rapidly changing orientation that it has operated after having been
installed in a society.Various researches have been conducted to delineate the role of this
news programs on people thought it is extremely difficult to identify its exact effects on
audience behavior.
A research was done by Samiullah (1982) on impact of T.V series Nishan-e- Haider on
students. From this research he concluded that most cadets watched this T.V series. Secondly
he found that these types of programs were shown to inspire the youth to inject a new spirit of
patriotism. Young cadets wanted to watch such more programs on T.V which really promoted
their moral.
The study was conducted by Fazeen, Mugees and Sana (2007) to explore the level of political
efficacy based on the level of awareness regarding politics and level of political participation.
The researchers have taken total hundred respondents were selected from different Colleges
and Universities by using simple random sampling technique and questionnaire as a tool was
used for data collection. They concluded that there was a strong influence of the family’s
political background and parent’s education on the individuals for the level of political
efficacy.
The study conducted by Zahra (1989) of Department of Sociology, Punjab University,
Lahore, on “impact of T.V programmes related to women in creating awareness among
women about their rights” and an attempt has been made to measure the level of exposure and
awareness to T.V programmes about their rights. The researcher wants to see the impact of
reinforcement provided by T.V programmes regarding women’s rights.
The study conducted by Kabir (1965) of journalism Department, Punjab University, Lahore,
on the opinion of social science students of the Punjab University about T.V programs in
Pakistan. The purpose of this study was to discover the opinion of the social science students
of the university about the T.V programs, including the impact of these programs on the
people’s standard of living and their attitude and behavior towards this media. The researcher
after a careful study of all data and its interpretation conducted that systematic T.V brings a
change in traditional values and social norms and in introducing and reinforcing certain new
trends in the lives of the lives of the social science students.
Roper (1975) as quoted by Mark (1982) in his research concluded that people usually got
most of the news about what is going on in the world from T.V when Roper’s organization
asked a national cross-section about this in 1974, 65 percent replied T.V and only 47 percent
said newspapers.
Laila (1967) conducted a research on the “exposure to mass media as a factor in changing
attitude of Ismaili women towards Family Planning”. The hypothesis of the study was derived
from the Lerner’s theory of “modernization”. The hypothesis was “the more a person is
exposed to mass media, the more one has favorable attitude towards family planning”. The
universe consisted of all the married women of Ismaili community residing in Lahore. A
sample of 50 was drawn through random sampling. Interview schedule was used as a tool of
data collection. The main hypothesis was upheld as the co-efficient of correlation came out to
be +.216 which was significant at .05 level of significance. So the mass media was positively
related to the favorable attitude towards family planning.
The study conducted by Daheem, Misbah and Atif (2007), research of “impact of political
communication through electronic media on party loyalty”. For the conduction of the present
research, the researchers chose Pakistan People’s Party that the division or categorization
amongst this party has been seen to a much lower extent as compared to other contemporary
political parties. Researchers also observed that the element of loyalty exists much more in
PPP as compared with other parties of its own level.
Aleena, Mahurhk and Rana (2006) conducted the research “Level of interest in T.V programs
channels and its impact on personal aspiration of youth”. For the conducted research, the
greater the level of interest in TV programs, the greater will be the impact on personal
aspiration of the students. Further, to find out the relationship, if any, between the level of
interest in TV programs and its impact on personal aspiration.
In 1982 Mr. Mark R. Levy from University of Marland gave a book review in American
Journal of Sociology. The book was “Television and Human Behavior” by George Comstock.
Mark R. Levy (1978) wrote that understanding of effects of T.V on human behavior is one of
the most difficult but also one of the most important problems facing the social science
community today. While many scholars and commentators have views about the “Tubes”
impact comparatively few have been able to demonstrate its effects in a scientifically
acceptable fashion. In the chapter titled “Living with T.V” the authors presented a quick but
through discussion of the place of T.V in the daily life of the audience what else people do
when they watch T.V in total leisure time and the way it displaces, other activities. Also
consider in another chapter, are T.V as a learning experience T.V as an agent of socialization
and T.V’s pro-social impact. In short “T.V and human behavior” represents in a nature
summing up of our knowledge about mass communication.
Journal named as “Efficacy and Participation” by John C. Pierce wrote about the relationship
of efficacy with participation and socialization. He wrote that the sense of efficacy is a major
stimulus to political participation. Certainly much of the relationship between efficacy and
participation stems from the socialization process, in which both are taught as the democratic
ideals. He defined political efficacy in his own words “A sense of political efficacy is a
feeling that a person can influence political outcomes through his participation, in a large
frame, it is one of the sources of citizen support for the maintenance of a political system.” He
analyzed that political efficacy around three major topics:
1) Examination of an individual’s sense of political efficacy is important because
efficacy is associated with political participation, the acquisitions of political
information and the discussion of the political issues.
2) A sense of political efficacy is the part of the individual, general psychological
orientation to his environment and cannot be separated from other elements of that
orientation.
3) The social characteristics of the individual and the “Social Milieu” within which
operates seem to affect his sense of political efficacy. Those individuals with higher
social and economic status view themselves as more effective in political matters.
Research Design
The main purpose of this research is to find out relationship between role of News Talk
Shows and political efficacy. Following are the objectives of the research:
•
•
To find out the influence of news talk shows in creating political efficacy among
Punjab University Students
To measure the level of political efficacy based on political information, political
awareness, and political participation among educated youth
The research methods in the present study are both quantitative and qualitative, because the
questionnaire comprised of close ended questions and open ended questions. The universe of
the present research is Punjab University Students. The research selected the 120 respondents
from this university aged between 18-25 years.
Finding of the Study
The researcher has given a comprehensive overview of the sample characteristics and
interpretation of them, the distribution of the responses of the educated youth about news talk
shows and political efficacy. Table 1 shown below elicits that how many respondents believe
news talk shows as source of awareness about political affairs. 58 percent, majority of the
respondents believe that they get awareness about political affairs through news talk shows,
19 percent of the respondents reported their agreement to the fact that news talk shows are
improving political awareness. 10 percent remained neutral and only 8 percent of the
respondents strongly disagreed with the notion that talk shows are improving political. This
analysis indicates that majority of the respondents consider that news talk shows are
improving knowledge and awareness about political affairs.
Table 1: Importance of News Talk Shows is improving awareness about Political Affairs in
Respondents
Opinion
Frequency
Percent
Cumulative
Percent
Strongly Disagree
10
8.3
8.3
Disagree
6
5.0
13.3
Neutral
12
10.0
23.3
Agree
69
57.5
80.8
Strongly Agree
23
19.2
100.0
Total
120
100.0
About the importance of News Talk Shows and whether these can be helpful in changing the
political structure, figure 1 is presented below. This figure indicates that majority of the
respondents, 41 percent of the respondents agree that news talk shows are playing the role in
changing Political Structure (Political structure consists of Election Procedures, Rules and
Regulations related to politics and institutions like National & Provincial Assemblies and
Senate). Other 24 percent of the respondents disagreed that news talk shows are playing role
in Political Structure because they believe that there is no role of news talk shows with respect
of changing the political structure.
Figure 1 Respondents’ view about the importance of News Talk Shows can be Helpful in changing the Political Structure:
Table 2 represents the information about those who believe that they have ability to select
government of their own choice. Majority, 41 percent of the respondents reported that their
view is neutral whereas 28 percent of the respondents disagreed about ability to select
government of one’s own choice and only 16 percent agreed with the fact that they have the
ability to select government of their own choice. This indicates that majority of the
respondents do not believe that they can select a government of their choice.
Table 3: Respondents who believe on their ability to select government of their own choice
Categories
Frequency
Percent
Cumulative
Percent
Missing
4
3.3
3.3
Strongly Disagree
13
10.8
11.2
Disagree
34
28.3
40.5
Neutral
49
40.8
82.8
Agree
19
15.8
99.1
Strongly Agree
1
.8
100.0
120
100.0
Total
Figure 2 indicates the information about the respondent’s awareness about their political
rights that how many of them have awareness for their political rights. It indicates that only
15 percent of respondents are those who have awareness about their political rights and
majority 64 percent of is not aware about their political rights. This analysis shows that
majority of has no awareness about political rights and they do not know that “Right to Vote”
is a political rights.
Figure 2: Respondents awareness about their Political Rights
About the views of the respondents about the present situation of the country that how they
feel for this situation of the country, figure 3 is presented below. 49 percent of the respondents
feel sad about present situation of the country, 40 percent not feel satisfied, 8 percent of the
respondents feel satisfactory and 2 percent feel good and one respondent out of 120 had no
answer about present situation of the country. This analysis indicates that majority of the
respondents are disappointed with the present situation of the government.
Figure 3: Opinion of the respondents on the present situation of the country
Figure 4 highlights opinion of respondents that how they perceive whether the government is
playing its role effectively or not. There is only 2 percent of the respondents reported that
government is playing effective role, 2 percent strongly agreed, 53 percent strongly disagreed,
10 percent of the respondents remained neutral and one of the respondents did not answer
because current situation of Pakistan is very bad.
Figure 4: Respondents’ view on whether the present government is playing its role effectively
Conclusion
The present study was exploratory study in which main objectives were to access whether
news talk shows are enhancing the level of political efficacy among educated youth, political
participation, awareness level of youth for politics and their views and opinions about politics
and other political bodies. Concluded points of the present study are as follow:
1. Respondents who watch news talk shows have great level of political knowledge,
knowledge about different organs of government and structure of Pakistan’s political
system than those respondents who do not watch.
2. Analysis showed that news talk shows are increasing the political awareness and
political socialization of the viewers.
3. Most of the respondents have political awareness about news talk shows but yet they
do not participate in politics except few of them.
4. Some respondents have no awareness about their political rights; they do not know
their rights and how they can use them. There is a very low percentage of youth who
have awareness about their political rights.
5. Gender difference is very important because female participation is very low in
voting, election campaign and student politics than the participation of males and
those individuals who are involved in political activities are males.
6. Female students are less interested in politics as compared to male students.
7. There is very low participation of youth in political activities, because most of the
youth is not interest in politics and have low political efficacy, the reason for this is
that educated youth have no trust and faith in political bodies and they do not trust the
political system as well.
8. There is a very low voter turnout by youth because majority of the youth have no trust
in voting process and politicians and that is why most of the youth do not like to cast
a vote, they consider it as a useless activity because in their opinion voting process
and elections are not transparent.
9. Most of the respondents have apathetic behavior towards politics and political system
of Pakistan; there are many reasons for this behavior such as; lack of democracy,
illegitimate use of authority, corruption, by politicians and also unnecessary influence
of army in political system of Pakistan.
10. Majority of the respondents consider that the present government is not playing its
role effectively.
11. Educated youth can bring the rapid change in the political culture and system of
Pakistan because they have more knowledge, ideas and better suggestions to control
the present political situation.
12. Respondents reported that news talk shows are a source of spreading the confusion
and frustration among people because due to news talk shows viewers are losing their
ability to think and analyze the things, they are getting influenced and believing
whatever news talk shows are representing.
Recommendations
1. News talk shows are portrait the true and neutral picture of situation and also highlight
the issues which are the need of time instead of creating myths and disturbance.
2. The anchors of the news talk shows should present a clear and unbiased on political
issues.
3. Anchors should be transparent and organize show and avoid to negative criticism and
also don’t need to repeat the issues again & again.
4. News talk shows are providing platform to exchange your views about politics and
they also show the facts behind a political issue under discussion.
5. News talk shows should expose more common and current problems and their
possible solutions towards high-posted people.
6. News talk shows should draw result from the discussions and take practical measures
to eradicate the problems found in our political system.
7. Instead of concluding the news talk shows as an entertaining battle between two
political leaders without reaching to any meaningful results.
8. News talk shows should increase the political awareness of youth structure and
authorities.
9. Government should make it sure that the elections and voting process are fair and free,
this can increase the political participation of youth.
10. Change is needed in the current voting procedure, political system and in the process
of implementation of policies. In our country lots of policies are made but they are not
implementation.
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