Framing War on Terror: Analyzing the Editorials of Mainstream English Newspapers of Pakistan

In the aftermath of September 11, Osama Bin Laden has been declared the mastermind of the attacks and al-Qaida and the Taliban has been considered strong outside enemies. In the dusk of 9/11 Global War against Terrorism has been launched by the United States and its allies to counter terrorism in any region and to eradicate extremism from all over the world. Mediated treatment of this un-ended war gives rise to questions that how media prioritize some issues to serve the policy objectives and how media frame events on specific dimensions (Altheide 2007). Pakistan due to its geo-strategic position has attained the status of a front-line state and Pakistani media go hand in hand with mainstream media in War against Terrorism. This study aims to investigate how the Pakistani media frame War on Terror in its editorials toeing foreign policy objectives and international relations of Pakistan with the United States (Abbas 2003).