Portrayal of Women in Pakistan Television Dramas: A Quantitative Content Analyses and Comparison of ARY and HUM TV Dramas

1. Dr. Parvaiz Akhter  2. Dr. Zaheer Khan  3. Dr. Muhammad Ismail

Abstract

The research examines the nature of coverage given to females in Pakistani television dramas and compares different channels from a framing perspective. Especially to evaluate the framing responsibilities of television channels in Pakistan by examining the content of TV drama from an Islamic perspective, as framing females in Television Dramas is very common in today’s media. This content analysis uncovers the portrayal of females in the ARY Digital and Hum TV dramas. A simple random sampling technique has been used for the data collection. For analyzing content, two entertainment TV channels are selected. A criterion for selecting channels is according to the ranking of entertainment channels in October 2019, which shows ARY Digital and HUM TV at the top of the ranking. From the findings of this study, we can see the nature of coverage given to females. In most of the scenes, females are shown as helpless people. There were 38 scenes on both channels that showed females as an Absolute helpless, and 20 scenes showed females as normal Helpless. Overall, females are framed as helpless people who cannot do anything for themselves; even if she is right, they cannot prove themselves right. Sometimes, she sacrifices for her family and sometimes to save his marriage life.