Assessing the Role of Media in Fostering Active Citizenship in the Potohar Plateau, Pakistan

Abstract

The study involves the analysis of media contributions to active citizenship in the Potohar plateau region within the Pakistani state, as connected with interactions among civic education and media literacy. The study employed a quantitative design where a questionnaire that was structured questionnaire was used to collect data on a sample size of 400 respondents in different districts in the Rawalpindi Division. The descriptive analysis indicated that the respondents showed high agreement about how the media adds value to civic awareness levels, especially in reporting on civic matters at the local level and boosting awareness programs. The result of a chi-square test was that the gender variable was not significantly related to the media usage preferences and, accordingly, male respondents and female respondents did not differ in their media consumption patterns. This was indicated by correlation studies using Spearman correlation analysis that showed a positive and high correlation between civic education and media literacy (rs =.699, p <.01), implying that this means that more civic knowledge is attributed to better media competence. The findings show relevance to the fact that it is necessary to include media literacy training as part of the civic education processes that can help the community to become more competent and actively involved in the social life in the region.