Social Media and Pakistani Journalists: WhatsApp Usage for News and Ethical Performance

With the fast expansion and acceptance of the Social Media in Pakistan, it is observed that the traditional journalism has entered in a new avenue because social media not only facilitating networking platform for the communities but also it has also been becoming a source of news for the traditional media journalists. As previous studies discussed that social media including Twitter and Facebook become the important tool to disseminate the news. Previous researches are the evidence of the usage of social media as a news source however they also pointed out the questions of the credibility of the information provided by these social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and WhatsApp therefore the objective of this study is to find out how social media especially WhatsApp is being used as source of information for the journalists working in the traditional media and to what extent it is influencing the ethical performance of the journalists in Pakistan. This will be a qualitative study in which interview technique is employed and theoretical framework has been used based on the diffusion of innovation theory. Population of the study is all the news TV channels in Pakistan. Sample of the study will be ten field reporters and news room personnel from one private and one public main stream news TV channels of Pakistan. The results show that the Journalists, newsroom personnel and reporters use WhatsApp because of its extra ordinary features to enhance their reporting magnitude. Results also show that journalists and reporters ignore ethical rules and regulations during the reporting and in field even they are aware of rules and regulations of journalism. Keywords: Online media, journalists, news, diffusion of innovation, credibility, ethical performance, WhatsApp DOI: 10.7176/NMMC/88-02 Publication date: February 29th 202

A Path to Empowerment: Usage of Facebook by Pakistani Women Entrepreneurs.

Facebook has become popular tool amongst women entrepreneurs in Pakistan and is a good source to earn their livelihood, while staying at home. This study was aimed to enlighten the role of potential women entrepreneurship, who are successfully running their businesses on Facebook. According to the World Bank report (2019) 48.5 percent population in Pakistan is women. Due to the unavoidable reasons majority of them are only allowed to work at home therefore the easy access of Facebook has become a reasonable platform to earn their livelihood. However, their success stories are not being highlighted as they deserve. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 female entrepreneurs actively involved in web-based activities during a three-month time frame of this study by using Snowball sampling Technique. The questionnaire was adapted and inspired from Ajjan et al.'s (2014) Conceptual model. The findings showed that Facebook has an overall positive impact on the lives of women entrepreneurs in Pakistan. Due to the user-friendly nature, customized options and monetary incentives, Facebook is transforming from just social networking site to business platform for women in Pakistan.  Due to the unique, innovative and novel characteristics of Facebook, more and more women are getting motivated to run their businesses through Facebook. It is expected that this could further imitate strategies directed to improve entrepreneurial movements among women of emerging economies and conclusively increasing female leadership around the globe

Media Reliance and Information Seeking Habits of Pakistani Millennial

The mushroomed growth of private news TV channels and speedydiffusion of social media in Pakistan has provided many options forthe Pakistani youth to get information from different media sources.This study explores primary information sources of Pakistani youth,their information seeking habits, media reliance and believability onthe medium. The data collected through survey method suggeststhat the primary source of the majority of Pakistani youth is socialmedia as they consider it to be more credible than the mainstreammedia. They primarily use social media to seek politicalinformation. The findings of this study suggest the policy makers,advertisers, media strategists, political parties and media contentproducers to be vigilant for media consultation and consumptionpatterns among youth

Social Media, National Security and Perception of Pakistani Millennial

The penetration of social media mainly Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram in Pakistan is very high. At the same time several organizations including political organizations, religious pressure groups, separatists, terrorists and nonstate actors are using social media to promote their ideologies and propagation in favor to achieve their vested interests which can be very detrimental to national security of Pakistan. The young generation (millennials) are captivated by the powerful effects of social media on their daily lives. The study aims to find out the relationship between the users of social media and their perception of the national security of Pakistan. The findings of the study show that national security is an important issue, and the users are aware of its challenges; consequently, they are aware of the harmful use of social media. The results also showed that the youth considered that rumors on social media can create panic among the masses. The majority of the respondents stressed the need for the online vigilance of social media and recommends that concrete steps should be taken for public awareness about this issue. &nbsp

The feeling of ‘Being There’ in 360o videos increase news credibility

Virtual reality news videos are paving its place in the new journalism. Particularly, in the flood of fake news items the potential use of VR news has been increased as this technology provides more sense of presence than the traditional content. There are few studies that empirically supports that sense of presence has direct effects on news credibility therefore the aim of this study is to explore the relationship between sense of presence and news credibility. For this experimental method was applied in which 360o video was selected from “The New York Times”. 154 male and female students of the media department were voluntarily recruited. 2D-video and 360o version of the video were shown to them. Their responses were collected on the pre-structured questionnaires. The results validate the previous findings of the studies that there is a positive and significant relationship between sense of presence and news credibility. This study has theoretical implications as well it could be helpful for the technology developers and policy makers.