Impact of New Media on Dynamics of Pakistan Politics

Abstract

Information technology has tremendously facilitated the communication phenomenon and mass media have emerged as pervasive and encompassing tools of politics. New media has initiated the process of democratization of information and has empowered the audience to be producers and consumers of information at the same time. Peters (2009, p.18) describes new media ‘as emerging communication and information technologies undergoing a historical process of contestation, negotiation and institutionalization.’ The Arab spring uprising initiated by the new media has grabbed the attention of scholars and researchers worldwide. Literature review suggests a positive relationship between usage of new media and political mobilization in the developed world. However, there is a need to conduct studies about the diffusion patterns, usage and impact of new media in the developing countries.
This study aims to explore the usage patterns of new media by political parties of Pakistan and its impact on the dynamics of Pakistan politics. The study partially focuses to explain the political content usage patterns of the University students on the basis of rural and urban population by selecting equal students from hostels and day scholars. The study suggests a quick adoption of facebook by rural respondents residing in hostels. The data indicates that facebook is the most popular social networking site among youth for the dispersion of political information as compared to other tools of new media including twitter, my space, blogs, and email etc. The respondents indicate the use of cell phones for political mobilization by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). The study establishes a positive correlation between political mobilization and new media usage among educated youth. Keeping in view the overall literacy rate, internet penetration, recurrent load-shedding, and other peculiar socio-economic factors, the study suggests that the impact of new media in the political domain is limited as compared to the general perceptions.

Full text

Journal of Political Studies, Vol. 20, Issue - 1, 2013, 113:130
Impact of New Media on Dynamics of Pakistan Politics
Abida Eijaz♣
Abstract
Information technology has tremendously facilitated the
communication phenomenon and mass media have emerged as
pervasive and encompassing tools of politics. New media has
initiated the process of democratization of information and has
empowered the audience to be producers and consumers of
information at the same time. Peters (2009, p.18) describes new
media ‘as emerging communication and information
technologies undergoing a historical process of contestation,
negotiation and institutionalization.’ The Arab spring uprising
initiated by the new media has grabbed the attention of scholars
and researchers worldwide. Literature review suggests a
positive relationship between usage of new media and political
mobilization in the developed world. However, there is a need to
conduct studies about the diffusion patterns, usage and impact
of new media in the developing countries.
This study aims to explore the usage patterns of new media by
political parties of Pakistan and its impact on the dynamics of
Pakistan politics. The study partially focuses to explain the
political content usage patterns of the University students on the
basis of rural and urban population by selecting equal students
from hostels and day scholars. The study suggests a quick
adoption of facebook by rural respondents residing in hostels.
The data indicates that facebook is the most popular social
networking site among youth for the dispersion of political
information as compared to other tools of new media including
twitter, my space, blogs, and email etc. The respondents
indicate the use of cell phones for political mobilization by
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). The study establishes a positive
correlation between political mobilization and new media usage
among educated youth. Keeping in view the overall literacy rate,
internet penetration, recurrent load-shedding, and other peculiar
socio-economic factors, the study suggests that the impact of
new media in the political domain is limited as compared to the
general perceptions.

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♣Author is Assistant Professor, Institute of Mass Communication, University of the
Punjab, Lahore – Pakistan.

AbidaEjaz
Keywords: New media; Democratization of information; Political
communication; Techno-culture; Media conglomeration.
Introduction:
“Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the
media by which men communicate than by the content of the
communication” (McLuhan, 1964; 1).
New media is used as a relative term and perceived differently by scholars
and common people. Some have identified by enlisting modern information
and communication technologies while others have tried to perceive the
newness of the ‘new media’. However, the term refers to changes in media
production, distribution and use. New media is defined as those forms that
combine the three Cs: computing and information technology;
communications networks; and content on digitized media (Miles et al., 1997;
Rice, 1999; & Barr, 2000). This three Cs approach is furthered by adding
another C for convergence by Flew (2002). He suggests that internet and
World Wide Web is the representative of the convergence of three Cs while
cable television and interactive television are related to the convergence of
communications networks and media content. CD Rom and DVD are the
result of the convergence of computing information technology and media
content while mobile telephony is the outcome of the convergence of
communication networks and computing information technology. Following
illustration of Flew (2002) explains his point regarding new media.
Mobile
Telephony
CableTV,
InteractiveTV
114 
Figure 1.1 The three Cs of convergent media
Internet
andWorld
CD‐ROM
DVD

Impact of New Media on Dynamics of Pakistan Politics
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Lister et al., (2009) use the term ‘new media’ to denote the rapid
developments that created a different kind of global phenomenon after 1980s.
They present a schema that breaks down the term ‘new media’ into some
manageable component. The schema refers to; new textual experiences; new
ways of representing the world; new relationships between subjects (users
and consumers) and media technologies; new experiences of the relationship
between embodiment, identity and community; new conceptions of the
biological body’s relationship to technological media; new patterns of
organization and production. The above mentioned components will
essentially be found in one of the followings; computer-mediated
communications; new ways of distributing and consuming; virtual realities; a
whole range of transformations and dislocations of established media (Lister,
Dovey, Giddings, Grant & Kelly, 2009, p. 12-13).
Literature Review:
Technologies are continuously altering behaviors of individuals and ultimately
affecting upon social structures and systems. With the invention of radio, the
concept of all powerful effects of media emerged and propelled by magic
bullet theory. Later on, television altered the consumption patterns and now
internet has changed the scene altogether. An online survey conducted by
Insight Express (2004) regarding media preferences reveal that internet is the
most preferred media as 40% respondents preferred internet on all other
media. Preferences for television, newspapers, radio and magazines are 39%,
8%, 4%, and 2% respectively. US people consider internet to be more
informative as compared to the television that is perceived as a main source
of entertainment and easiest to use.
Social networking has become a global phenomenon as after almost twenty
years of its progression; it is still rapidly engaging people by evolving new and
meaningful ways. There is an increased trend of using smart phone and tablet
to connect to social media as well as new sites are emerging and expanding
on line interactivity. According to Nielson’s social media report 2012, top ten
social networking sites used in the US include Facebook, Blogger, Twitter,
Wordpress, Linkedin, Pinterest, Google+, Tumbler, My Space, and Wikia. On
these sites 47% users are engaged in customer care services etc. The report
brings forth that almost half of the users engage with social media for
economic/business concerns taking care of the customers or as customers.
Every new technology in the field of communication has immediately
generated serious concerns because of the popularity and resonance effects.
Same happened in the case of radio, television and then internet. Graham
(1999) suggests that the effects of a truly transforming technology are twofold,
“the ability to serve recurrent needs better (qualitatively as well as

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quantitatively) and having a major impact upon the form of social and political
life” (p. 37). However, social media has the potential to invite too much
involvement of the citizens that can challenge the concept of
representativeness on behalf of the majority. (Castells & Sey, 2004).
Mansell (2004) explains how new media is becoming part of established
power relations and conforming to the political economy of old media. Political
economy of new media exhibits through the control of access, subscriptions,
software production and development, copyright content, audience
commodification in subtle ways, accumulating large traffics, walling off the
spaces, etc. These factors serve as controlling mechanism and facilitate
existing power relations. The result is increased inequality and widening gap
between haves and have nots.
New media is creating information societies but the kind of information
societies being established through it also needs to be explored. The question
of who is giving information for whom needs to be considered. Proliferation of
content along with a decline in media production and distribution costs is also
distinctive. Dyson argues that content in itself is not as valuable as the ability
to utilize content in ways that can capture users’ attention. Once users exhibit
interest, the content leads to the generation of new and engaging content
(Dyson, 1998, p. 177). On the one hand, new media is increasing informed
citizens and political participation; on the other hand, this electronic
democracy through new actors and new issues is deteriorating the quality of
political debate day by day. Internet is facilitating the process of dissemination
of political information but the question of gatekeeping, agenda-setting, and
framing continue with the new media.
University of Southern California and the University of California, Berkeley
carried out a research project to explore digital media usage patterns among
youth. The major findings indicate that youth is mainly using online media to
promote individual autonomy, friendship, particular interests and socialize by
continuously being online. “They can be “always on,” in constant contact with
their friends through private communications like instant messaging or mobile
phones, as well as in public ways through social network sites such as
MySpace and Facebook. With these “friendship-driven” practices, youth are
almost always associating with people they already know in their offline lives.
The majority of youth use new media to “hang out” and extend existing
friendships in these ways” (Ito, et al, 2008, p.1).
Aday et al., (2010) suggest that new media tools promote freedom, expedite
the process of democratization and empower activists to fight against despotic
regimes. Blogs, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube as new media forms have
played a major role in political conflicts particularly with reference to Middle
East politics. ‘Arab Spring’ has popularized the notion of social media affecting

Impact of New Media on Dynamics of Pakistan Politics
117 
politics. According to the World Internet Users and Population Stats, Egypt
falls in the top twenty countries with the highest number of internet users.
Social media, as a transforming technology, is affecting Middle East in two
ways. Communication needs are being satisfied in better ways; and social
media is creating an impact on social as well as political life of the common
people. Keeping in view the peculiar circumstances and demographic
characteristics of the Middle East, social media has empowered the audience.
However, it is not applicable on Pakistan as the circumstances and
demographic attributes are quite contrary. Pakistani media is enjoying height
of freedom and traditional media is already serving as a change agent.
Pakistani television channels are already co-opting content from cyberspace
and social media for example ‘flogging video’ of a girl in Swat, Pakistan
uploaded on YouTube on 26th March 2009 was soon covered by all television
news channels. After that many news items have been co-opted from
cyberspace by Pakistani traditional media.
Nugroho and Syarief (2012) in their study about new ‘media and political
process in contemporary Indonesia’ confirm the significant repercussions of
the usage of social media on socio-political dynamics of the country.
Facebook statistics show that Indonesia is the 4th largest Facebook nation in
the world in 2012, after the US, Brazil, and India in terms of absolute users. In
2012, Indonesia was having 19.5 million twitter accounts making it the 5th
largest Twitter user population of the world. Usage of social media is
strengthening the civil society and the increased participation will lead it to
serve “as civic guardian of the res publica” (Nugroho & Syarief, 2012, p. 100).
New media is speedily and successfully imparting information among the
online public sphere in Indonesia however, the challenge is to broaden this
sphere into civic political participation.
In Pakistan social media is getting popularity especially among youth.
According to Kugelman (2012) social media in Pakistan as a communication
tool is used in five ways; breaking stories ignored by traditional media;
mobilizing people for social and other campaigns; promoting and coordinating
humanitarian aspects of issues and problems; activist for social causes; and
accelerating communication between politicians and their publics. Since there
is a mushroom growth of television channels in Pakistan and electronic media
enjoy a great degree of freedom, audience usually gratify their informative
needs from these channels. Social media is mainly used to socialize therefore
the role depends upon its usage patterns.
It may be inferred that internet is creating an impact in the domain of politics
by introducing easy ways to coordinate an event, make donations, and get
information (Murray, 2005). In order to understand the phenomenon

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scientifically, there is a need to conduct systematic in-depth, rigorously
designed research in this domain.
Significance of New Media for Politics:
Politics and media both are influenced by the social environment and
influence upon the social environment. New media has caused wider kinds of
social, economic and cultural changes including; a shift from modernity to
postmodernity; intensifying processes of globalization; a replacement, in the
West, of an industrial age of manufacturing by a ‘postindustrial’ information
age; a decentring of established and centralized geopolitical orders (Lister et
al., 2009).
Information technology has tremendously facilitated the communication
phenomenon and mass media have emerged as pervasive and encompassing
tools of politics. Simba (2009) in his study about Obama’s political campaign
concluded that Obama successfully engaged new voters by using internet and
social media that fostered high support.
Politics Getting Global Through New Media:
New media has become an integral part of the prevailing ‘techno-culture.’ Now
the culture of technology is pervasive. According to Internet World Stats
(2012) it took sixteen years to gain one billion smart phone users in the world
from 1996 to 2012 however it is expected that the number will be double (2
billion) by 2015. The estimated internet users on June 2012 were
2,405,518,376 out of total world population i.e. 7,017,846,922.
Three developments have occurred with the interaction of new media and
politics; globalization of political communication; communication of global
politics; and politics of global communication.
Globalization of political communication:
In the age of new media, communication has become more interactive
particularly the tradition of computer mediated communication (Pavlik, 1996).
Because of the new media, the orientation of mass media is transformed for
serving one-to-many to many-to-many. As media has the potential to affect
upon the foreign policy, new media has expedited this process. The Gulf war
of 1991 was the flashpoint focusing political and military attention on the
power of global television. Soon after the Kurdish issue was flashed on the
television screen, ‘US’ intervened to create ‘Safe Heaven’ for the Kurds. As
pointed out by Varis (1984, p. 152) that while new communication technology
may provide additional means of dissemination of information, it may also lead
to widen the gap between those who have access to information and those
who do not have it. Information management has become a large-scale

Impact of New Media on Dynamics of Pakistan Politics
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industry which seems at times to threaten some of the basic rights of a
democratic society.
It is assumed that new media has initiated the process of democratization of
information and has empowered the audience to be producers and consumers
of information at the same time. The element of interactivity is empowering
audience to initiate, mould and bend new political issues and concerns. Due to
technological sophistications of new media, embedded journalists can easily
do framing and agenda-setting.
“In a post 9/11 global environment where democratic rights of all kinds are
sacrificed to the ‘war on terror’ and the intimate weave of communications
technologies into the fabric of everyday life offers unprecedented opportunities
for consumer and political surveillance” (Lister et al., 2009, p. 167).
Communication of global politics:
It is not only the communication technologies affecting upon communication
systems but also the human behavior evolving out of that system. The advent
of instantaneous global technology has given the news media far greater
influence in international relations than ever before. Observers of international
affairs call it the ‘CNN curve’. It suggests that when CNN floods the airwaves
with news for foreign crisis, it evokes an emotional outcry from the public to
‘do something’. Therefore Gans says, "The new media environment, however,
is constantly in a chaotic flow, whereby journalists and institutions must
negotiate different accounts and meanings.”
An online web site ‘Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting’ (FAIR), co-edited by
Normon Solomon puts it well: "When the mass media in some foreign
countries serve as megaphones for the rhetoric of their government, the result
is ludicrous propaganda. When the mass media in our country serve as
megaphones for the rhetoric of the U.S. government, the result is responsible
journalism."
Politics of global communication:
Politics of global communication can be explained in the light of Herbert
Schiller’s contention. He says that transnational corporations always try to get
hold of rich offshore markets and cheap offshore labor for the maximization of
profit that also expedites the process of media globalization in a particular
direction. Schiller (1979) maintains that U.S. military-communication
conglomerates have maintained a commercial, political, and military
superiority. New media facilitates them to continue this legacy. Media
organizations are now multi-national and global and with the new

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technological development, global journalism practices have been significantly
changed both in information production and in information consumption.
Conglomeration trends in the media scene are at increase. New media is also
susceptible to these trends. As noted by Ott and Mack (2010, p. 42), “the gate
keeping (filtering), agenda setting (focusing), and framing (structuring) function
of the major media conglomerates consistently undermine democratic
principles and ideals.” The following table illustrates how big five media
conglomerates are also dominating new media.
Horizontal integration of the large media corporations for traditional media and
new media
Print Media
Film and
Sound
Broadcast
Media
New Media
Time
Warner Warner
Books, DC
Comics,
People, Time,
Sports
Illustrated, In
Style
Warner
Brothers
Studio,
New Line
Cinema,
Atlantic
Records,
Elektra
CNN, HBO,
TBS, TNT,
Cinemax,
Cartoon
Network
AOL,
Netscape,
MapQuest,
Compu Serv
Disney Hyperion
Books,
Discover,
Jane, Family
PC
Walt
Disney
Pictures,
Buena
Vista,
Dimension
films,
Miramax,
Touchstone
ABC, A&E,
the History
Channel, E!
Entertainment,
ESPN,
Lifetime
Disney
Mobile,
ESPN.com,
ABC.com,
Go.com,
Movies.com
Viacom Simon &
Schuster Paramount
Pictures,
Dream
Works
Studios,
MTV Films,
Famous
Music
Comedy
Central, MTV,
VHI, BET,
Nickelodeon,
Spike TV,
CMT, TV
Land, CBS
IFILM, Atom
Entertainment,
Shockwave,
Xfire,
Rate My
Professors.com
Harmonix

Impact of New Media on Dynamics of Pakistan Politics
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Bertelsmann Random
House,
Doubleday,
Bantam,
Fodor’s
Travel Guides
BMG
Music,
Columbia,
Arista,
Epic, RCA,
Jive
Records
RTL
Television
(Germany),
M6 (France,
Five (UK)
Arvato Mobile
(Europe’s leading
mobile provider)
News
Corpn HarperCollins,
Zondervan,
TV Guide,
New York
Post, The
Times (UK)
Blue Sky
Studios,
Fox
Searchlight,
20th
Century
Fox,
MySpace
Records
FOX, My
Network TV,
FX Networks,
BSkyB (UK)
DirectTV,
MySpace,
Photobucket,
Grab.com
(Ott & Mack 2010, p. 31)
In the perspective of technological sophistications, interactivity, increased
control of audience, new media seems to be a discontinuation of the old
media. However, the above table shows how new media is a continuation of
the existing hierarchy of power structures and relations. The top ten online
world wide web ‘properties’ in the UK are owned by a small number of major
media conglomerates, communication and telecommunication suppliers,
online retailers and software providers (Couvering, 2003).
New Media, Democracy and Politics:
Democracy claims to be a government of the majority working as their
representatives. Media as an institution serves as a means of communication
between the people and their representatives to develop and maintain the
relationship of trust. However, with the improved means of communications
this relationship has worsened. Nye et al., (1997) argues that in 1964, 75% of
US citizens showed confidence in their government for representing them well
most of the time but there is a significant decline in this confidence in 1997as
only 25% of US citizens showed trust in their government for representing
them well. Similar trend for Europe is referred by Idid and Wok (2012, p. 5).
They quote the findings of Eurobarometer survey of spring 2011 conducted
across the European Union for increased distrust in their governments and
media. “63% placed distrust on their governments and 60% distrusted their
parliaments. In some other countries, (Portugal and the UK), there was
significant cynicism towards their own political institutions. Again in the
Eurobarometer 2011, 53% said they tend not to trust the press and another
45% said they had no trust in television.”

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New Media Usage in Pakistan:
Political Parties
According to Internet World Stats (2012) the statistics of internet usage,
penetration percentage and population of Pakistan up till December 2011,
there are 29,128,970 users of internet with 15.5% penetration of the total
population that is 187,342,721. In the digital access index ranking (DAI)
Pakistan falls in the category of low access countries with 0.24 index score.
Impact of internet is ‘incremental, contextual, and amplifying’ for political
processes in Pakistan.
A website of free social media monitoring ‘www.checkfacebook.com’ facilitates
researchers with latest statistics about social media usage patterns all over
the world. The Facebook statistics of 2013 about Pakistan show that
Facebook penetration in Pakistan is 4.37% compared to the country's
population and 27.66% in relation to number of Internet users. The total
number of facebook users in Pakistan is reaching 8055680. There are 70%
male users and 30% female users in Pakistan. The largest age group is
currently 18-24 with total of 4009780 users, followed by the users in the age
of 25-34.
In Pakistan the use of social media by political parties to interact and engage
people and especially youth has increased tremendously. Political parties like
PTI, PPP, PML-N, and others are operating their own networks on face book,
tweeter, linked and social networking sites to communicate, and mobilize
people to participate in political process. The following tables show people’s
engagement with Pakistan’s political parties through social media up to 15th
March 15, 2013.
Political Parties and Face Book Traffic:
Political Parties of Pakistan Face Book Likes Face Book
Talk1ing about this
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) 16,435 1,967
Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) 151,340 22,446
Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) 2,792 56
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) 39,159 2,246
Mutahidda Qaumi Movement
(MQM) 28,751 901
Jamat-e-Islami (JI) 3,405 982
Jamiat Ulma-e-Islam (JUI) 984 73

Impact of New Media on Dynamics of Pakistan Politics
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Twitter statistics of the top Pakistan’s politicians accounts from
http://www.socialbakers.com for the year 2013 show that among the
politicians profiles, Imran Khan has the most ‘followers’ on twitter. Currently,
the top growing profile and twitter gainer is Imran.
Political Parties and Twitter Traffic:
Political Party Tweets Following Twitter
Followers
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) 10485 4641 78904
Pakistan Muslim League (PML-
N) 3441 60 7,442
Pakistan Muslim League (PML-
Q) 0 105 45
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) 5660 139 3009
Mutahidda Qaumi Movement
(MQM) 3296 46 6806
Jamat-e-Islami (JI) 255 22 266
Jamiat Ulma-e-Islam (JUI) 0 0 2
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf, has been extensively using social media, writing
blogs, tweeting and use of face book to upload activities on the social media.
The footage of PTI rally is followed by over 30,000 viewers from across the
globe.
New Media Usage in Pakistan:
Social media usage in Pakistan as described by Kugelman (2012) is applied in
the domain of politics as follows:
Breaking stories ignored by traditional media:
Social media can break news stories ignored by the traditional media and sets
agenda for other media. New media has introduced the concept of cyber
sphere which is blurring and blending the demarcations of global and local.
People can upload, share, produce, circulate, and reflect on political content
from anywhere at any time. Attention seeking methods lead to the generation
of new and engaging content that appear on other new media. For example
news story on Malala Yousafzai successfully captured the attention of social
media users and led to the generation of other related content on various
media including Blogs, You Tube, Facebook, TV channels etc.

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Mobilizing people for social and other campaigns:
People are using new media for launching campaigns, motivating and
mobilizing people to take desired action. Restoration of judiciary in 2009 is a
conspicuous example of this mobilization. NICL, Steel Mills, Hajj Scam are a
few examples that faced criticism and pressures from social media.
Promoting and coordinating humanitarian aspects of issues and
problems:
“The YouTube videos of soldiers engaging with the local population, playing
football with children and saving a kidnapped Iraqi is an effort to humanize an
inhuman war” (Karatzogianni, 2009, p. 4). During the catastrophes like
earthquake of 2005 and floods of 2010, new media helped people to promote
and coordinate humanitarian aspects.
Activist for social causes:
New media technologies are enabling people to overcome the limits of space
and time, ideology and identity. People can participate in political issues
through new media that results in the expansion and coordination of political
activities in a borderless world. Petitions and advocacy campaigns have been
initiated by users of social media for different causes. Blasphemy issue, Dr.
Aafia Siddiqi case etc. have been promoted through petitions and advocacy
campaigns on social media.
Accelerating communication between politicians and their publics:
Regarding political disagreements, Zaller (1999) compare the old dynamics of
politics with the new ones. He writes, “In the old days, political disagreements
were settled in backroom deals among party big shots… But in the new
environment, disagreements are fought out in the mass media and settled in
the court of public opinion. The weapons of combat are press conferences,
photo opportunities, news releases, leaks to the press, and ‘spin.’ When the
stakes are especially high, TV and radio advertisements may be used.
Politicians still make backroom deals, but only after their relative strength has
been established in the public game of media politics.” New media has
expedited this process and provided maximum opportunities to people to
participate in this game.
To evaluate the usage patterns of students from rural and urban backgrounds
regarding political content, a sample of two hundred students from the Punjab
University is drawn. An independent T-test is applied on the data collected.
The following table shows that the urban students use social media more for
political content as compared to rural students.

Impact of New Media on Dynamics of Pakistan Politics
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Table 1: Group statistics for day scholars and hostellites studying at the
University of the Punjab
PU Student
s N Mean Std.
Deviation Std. Error
Mean
Urban 99 1.79 1.022 .103 Day Scholars
Hostellites
Rural 100 1.14 .591 .059
Students are also getting political information and updates on their mobiles.
The messages they generally receive are about their party membership,
enrollment in voters list, participation in rallies and march etc. For the question
of their participation in rallies, 70% responses are positive. 22.5% are writing
blogs that is 45 out of 200 students.
Table 2: Social media usage patterns for political content among
students
Visiting
political
blogs
Writing
political
blog
Commenting
on political
blog
Sharing
political
blog
Subscribe
political
news
Writing
comments
on political
group/ party
/politician’s
wall
Yes 101 45 118 139 78 102
No 99 155 82 61 122 98
The above table shows students usage patterns for political content. More
than 50% actively participate through social media by writing comments on
political group/party/politician’s wall. The data shows that social media is
facilitating students to actively participate in political domain.
Impact of New Media on Pakistan’s Politics
The very notion of democracy rests upon egalitarianism that flourishes
increased participation, and free and open exchange of ideas by diverse
publics. Old media evolved on the concept of communication flow form one-to-
many as compared to the new media based on the concept of many-to-many.
Aday et al., (2010) proposed to measure the impact of new media on five
levels; individual transformations; intergroup relations; collective action;

AbidaEjaz
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regime policies; and external attention. The impact of new media on the
dynamics of Pakistan politics is explored on the above mentioned five levels.
Individual transformations:
Social media has provided the opportunity of increased interactivity at all
levels with an ease. People are receiving messages on their mobiles by
political parties. PTI introduced the concept of getting its membership through
SMS. Election Commission of Pakistan is also using mobile to confirm entries
in voter list. Smart phone enables its user to connect to the world in myriad
ways and facilitates to be multi-tasking. People can watch news on television
and can connect to social media at the same time. Information seeking
patterns are more dynamic. Comments and reaction on political issues and
events surface and circulate simultaneously.
Intergroup relations
Pakistan is a heterogeneous country with horizontal and vertical cleavages.
New media has served as a platform where people from diverse backgrounds
and different ideologies can interact and reflect. Petitions and advocacy
campaigns have been initiated by users of social media for different causes.
New media has been accelerating communication between politicians and
their publics.
Collective action
People are using new media for launching campaigns, motivating and
mobilizing people to take desired action. Restoration of judiciary in 2009 is a
conspicuous example of this mobilization. Social media is facilitating the
process of accountability. The corruption of National Insurance Corporation
Limited (NICL), Steel Mill corruption case, rental power project corruption,
malfeasance of funds by ministry of religious affairs (Hajj scandal) in 2011 are
a few examples that show people’s vigilant participation through social media.
Blasphemy laws and related issues engaged many people to reflect and
participate. Petition for Aafia Siddiqui on social media was signed by more
than a million users.
Regime policies
New media has empowered audience to report political issues and event
which affect upon policy making processes. The agenda-setting theory of
media suggests how media agenda shifts into public agenda and then affects
upon policy agenda. With the new media, publics are more empowered and
have the potential to affect on mainstream media agenda and policy agenda.
Ashraf Chaudhryi wrote on facebook, “Can I burn Raiwind and Bilawal House

Impact of New Media on Dynamics of Pakistan Politics
127 
and then pay rupees 2 lacs to Nawaz and Zardari? Rulers have zero shame
quotients.” Social media sometimes breaks news stories and sets agenda for
other media.
External attention
New media has introduced the concept of cyber sphere that is different from
Habermas’s concept of ‘public sphere’ and ‘private sphere.’ Cyber sphere is
blurring and blending the demarcations of global and local; transforming local
into global and global into local. Due to channel and choice oriented
environment media clamor to seek audience attention. Whether it is ‘Lal
Masjid’ or ‘drone attacks,’ ‘Salala check post’ or ‘Malala issue’ new media may
invite the influence of global actors by the virtue of being ubiquitous.
Conclusion:
According to UNICEF statistics (2010), 36% of the Pakistani population is
urbanized and 60% is literate. There is a remarkable increase in load-
shedding. By the end of 2012 there was almost 10 hours of average load-
shedding on daily basis. Internet World Stats (2012) show that there is only
15.5% Pakistanis who have internet facility in the total population that is
187,342,721. Load-shedding serves as a constraint in the production and
consumption of new media. Since Pakistan has a large number of illiterate
people, they are unable to use social media directly. There exists many
divides other than digital divide in Pakistan. New media and particularly social
media have the potential to facilitate the political systems of egalitarian
societies.
Pakistan is a developing country deemed with horizontal and vertical
cleavages. Egalitarianism is mere an ideal. New media is making it possible
for diverse and remote publics of developed countries to share and reflect on
political issues but not for developing and poverty stricken countries. The
assumption of people’s empowerment due to new media is a myth without the
creation of an egalitarian society where everyone has equal opportunities and
an equitable distribution of resources. Those who are suffering from certain
deprivations and lagging behind cannot be producers and consumers of
information at the same time. In such circumstances new media adds to widen
the gap between information/knowledge haves and have-nots. However, with
an increased literacy rate, improved infrastructure, and equitable resources,
people can participate actively in the political process.

AbidaEjaz
128 
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