Effects of Political Polarization of Media on Contents Credibility and Consumers in Pakistan

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between political polarization of Pakistani TV news media and their contents' credibility among consumers. For this quantitative survey study, the data was collected from the youth of Lahore, mainly media students of six universities i.e. three each public and private sector through cluster sampling and employing the instrument of a purpose-built questionnaire comprising 20 items. Marshal McLuhan's (1964) work "Medium is the Message" provided theoretical basis of the study. That data was analysed through SPSS while tests of Cronbach alpha and beta test applied. The study results revealed that TV news channels political polarization affected the youth consumers significantly negatively (β=-0.449) while contents' credibility also affected negatively due to political polarization of channels (β=-0.180). This study recommends media channels, PEMRA and policy makers to ensure non-partisan political coverage to increase their contents credibility and viewership