Introduction

Modern Information and Communication Technology has empowered the media to reach a larger audience more swiftly through multiple communication channels. This follows with an incredible power to influence political, religious and cultural views of masses. In a country like Pakistan where extremism, violence and terrorism prevail, media groups cannot be left unbound and free to promote social, religious or political intolerance and unrest in the society under the name of ‘freedom of speech’. They need to function within the parameters of social responsibility (Rizvi, 2012). The Media Responsibility and Independence Index (MRII) study conducted by The Institute of Business Management (IoBM), in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) also suggests that “concerned stakeholders” believe the media in Pakistan is relatively independent, but the degree of responsibility it demonstrates falls shorter of its claims (Ajmal, 2015). Therefore, it is essential to regulate and evaluate the performance of media with respect to social responsibility in order to make them accountable to the state and society. This can be ensured by following three steps: Firstly, a legal framework provided by the state should oblige the media to operate within acceptable limits. Secondly, each media body should be bound to have their own internal control mechanisms in place.Thirdly, a monitoring body should oversee the media and regularly assess and measure their social responsibility through a media specific CSR index (Rizvi, 2012). Therefore, it is the need of the time to develop a media specific CSR index which complies with the social requirements of Pakistan. The proposed study aims to fulfill this gap by developing such anindex after thorough and comprehensive research and test its viability.

Objective

• To provide insight about responsible media practices and corporate sustainability dynamics of Pakistan media industry.
• To develop a responsible media practices index to rank the Pakistani Media corporations with reference to their contribution for society.
• To provide insight about the difference of behavior of companies in media industry.
• Development of theoretically tested, practically viable responsible media practices index for media industry in Pakistan.
• To rate electronic and print media companies on the developed responsible media practices index every year.

Detail

Category: Start Up Research Grant Program

Representative: Dr. Nisbat Ali

Faculty/Department: Faculty of Management Sciences

Duration: 2018

Status: In Progress