Aging & Society: Eighth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

This research analyses the representation of Pakistan’s social media starlet, Qandeel Baloch and the incident of her assassination in the editorials of four English language Pakistani newspapers, The News, Dawn, The Nation, and Express Tribune from June 20, 2016, to August 20, 2016. Baloch hailed from a remote rural area in Pakistan and belonged to a conservative family. She gained nation-wide popularity due to her blunt, risqué social media posts, and candid selfies with a famous religious cleric, Mufti Qavi. Weeks before her murder, media outlets disclosed her original name, exposed her personal details and put her life in danger. Constantly under media surveillance and scrutiny, Baloch’s honour killing sparked a debate on the role of media in creating a security risk for the social media starlet. This research also explores how newspapers framed the religious cleric, Mufti Qavi, after the murder of Baloch and use news frames to construct a comparative analysis of the editorials of four leading Pakistani newspapers.