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The New Wild West
P & R Vol. 2 Issue 9
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The New Wild West

Publication Year : 2021
Author: Arifa Noor

It’s now universally acknowledged in casual conversations that fewer people are watching news channels. Each time I am forced to tell someone new I meet what I do for a living, they confess (sometimes nonchalantly and sometimes self-consciously) their lack of interest in news channels. Anecdotally, this appears to be a sea change from, say, 2007, when everyone was glued to the television screens, as Pakistan went through one of its most tumultuous years. If the conversation continues for a bit, many even go so far as to explain they don’t read newspaper either. News is now delivered to them from their smartphones — it’s where they find out about breaking news, where they read analyses and even see the viral clips from talk shows or parliament which are the talk of the town.