Liking the sound of their own voices: A case of TV anchors and their shows
Hassan Shehzad
International Islamic University, Islamabad
Dr Muhammad Zaman
Quaid-i-Azam University
Shane Zahra
International Islamic University Islamabad
Abstract
The aim of this research paper was to tap the role of anchorpersons of talk shows in promotion of media agenda and shaping political reality through measuring correspondence between time consumed by the anchorpersons and panel of experts. For the purpose, systematic random sampling technique has been used to select prime time talk shows of Geo News for one year. On the basis of wide coverage, three issues memo gate, law and order and corruption were selected to gauge the relationship between the variables. The results show a significant correlation between slant for the issues and time consumed by the anchors has been observed on all the three issues. The results showed that more the time grabbed by anchorpersons, more the programs remained in unfavorable state towards government. The results also revealed that 71% of total talk shows’ time was grabbed by the anchorpersons while panel of experts allotted 29% percent time in the issues. Anchorpersons remained unfavorable and biased in its deliberations towards government to a great extent by snatching the maximum time of the programs for molding the public opinion in a certain direction.
