Media: Curse or Blessing? CSS Solved Answer

Exam question: CSS 2025, Q8: Is media a curse or blessing? Critically evaluate its role in shaping public opinion and influencing political events in Pakistan in the 21st century.

Syllabus topic: Topic XV of the CSS Pakistan Affairs syllabus.

Short answer

Outline for quick revision

Introduction
Media as a Blessing: Restoring democracy and the judiciary; Accountability of the powerful; Public awareness and participation; Disaster response and social causes; Defending the national narrative
Media as a Curse: Sensationalism and ratings; Polarisation and propaganda; Disinformation and fake news; Media and violence
Media and Political Events: Critical Evaluation: A key political actor; Pressure on media freedom; Who controls the media?; Media and perceptions in crises
Way Forward
Conclusion

Reference colours:
Quotation / documentPersonality / historySyllabus bookCurrent referenceOfficial report / policy

1. Introduction

Media, newspapers, television, radio and now digital and social media, is often called the “fourth pillar of the state”, because it informs citizens, holds power to account and gives voice to the public. In Pakistan, the 21st century transformed the media from a state-controlled broadcaster to dozens of private news channels and, more recently, a vast social-media space used by tens of millions.

The question asks whether media is a curse or a blessing. This answer argues that media is neither inherently a curse nor a blessing: it has been a blessing when it has strengthened accountability and democracy, and a curse when it has spread sensationalism, polarisation and disinformation. Its effect depends on regulation by law, professional ethics and media literacy, not on censorship.

Official report / policy: The PEMRA Ordinance 2002 ended the state’s monopoly over electronic media and allowed private TV channels and FM radio, creating an independent broadcast media for the first time; the PECA (Amendment) Act 2025 later extended state control over online content.

2. Media as a Blessing

Restoring democracy and the judiciary

Private TV channels gave continuous coverage to the lawyers’ movement (2007-09). When Musharraf imposed an emergency in November 2007, he took many channels off air, showing how much he feared them. Media pressure helped restore the Chief Justice in 2009.

Accountability of the powerful

Investigative journalism and the international Panama Papers leaks (2016) led to inquiries and court cases against the most powerful politicians, and talk shows routinely question governments and institutions.

Public awareness and participation

News channels and social media have made millions of citizens politically aware, raised turnout among the young and given a voice to provinces, women and minorities that state media ignored.

Current reference: Pakistan’s median age is about 20.6 years; it has about 117 million internet users and 79.9 million social media user identities (DataReportal, Digital 2026, data to late 2025).

Disaster response and social causes

Media coverage of the 2005 earthquake and the floods of 2010, 2022 and 2025 mobilised public donations and international attention.

Defending the national narrative

In the May 2025 conflict, Pakistani media and citizens online countered false claims and presented Pakistan’s position to the world.

Current reference: During the May 2025 conflict, major Indian TV channels broadcast fabricated stories, such as the “destruction” of Karachi port and the “fall” of Islamabad, which were later debunked even by Indian fact-checkers (Reuters Institute, Oxford, 2025). The information war ran alongside the military one.

3. Media as a Curse

Sensationalism and ratings

The race for ratings encourages breaking news without verification, loud talk shows and coverage that inflames rather than informs, especially after terrorist attacks.

Polarisation and propaganda

Many channels and digital platforms have become partisan, reinforcing divisions; social media has produced hate campaigns, abuse and trolling against politicians, journalists and minorities.

Disinformation and fake news

False news spreads faster than corrections, and organised campaigns, domestic and foreign, use social media to manipulate opinion.

Current reference: The EU DisinfoLab investigation Indian Chronicles (December 2020) exposed a 15-year India-linked network of more than 750 fake media outlets in 116 countries and revived defunct NGOs, even using the identity of a professor who had died in 2006, to lobby the UN and EU against Pakistan.

Media and violence

Rumours on social media have triggered blasphemy-related mob violence, and live coverage has at times given militants the publicity they seek.

4. Media and Political Events: Critical Evaluation

A key political actor

Media has shaped major events: the lawyers’ movement, the 2014 dharna, the Panama case and the political crisis since 2022, during which social media became the main battleground of political parties.

Pressure on media freedom

Media has also been the target of the state: bans on channels and speeches, the blocking of X, the use of PEMRA and PECA, and attacks on journalists.

Current reference: The state blocked X (Twitter) on 17 February 2024, after it was used to highlight allegations of election rigging, and restored it only on 7 May 2025, during the conflict with India, about 15 months later. The PECA (Amendment) Act 2025 criminalised the spreading of “false” information online.

Current reference: In the RSF World Press Freedom Index 2026 (May 2026), Pakistan ranked 153rd of 180 countries, in the “difficult” category; journalist Arshad Sharif was shot dead by police in Kenya in October 2022 after leaving Pakistan, and his killing remains unresolved.

Who controls the media?

Media in Pakistan depends on government advertising and corporate owners, and journalists face pressure from both state and non-state actors. Self-censorship limits its watchdog role.

Media and perceptions in crises

In crises, media can shape how leaders and peoples perceive each other and can either reduce or inflame tension.

Syllabus book: P.R. Chari, Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema and Stephen P. Cohen, Perception, Politics and Security in South Asia: The Compound Crisis of 1990 (2003), show how, in a nuclear South Asia, misperception between India and Pakistan can turn a local crisis into a nuclear danger that draws in outside powers.

5. Way Forward

Pakistan needs independent, transparent regulation of broadcast and digital media under law, with due process and judicial oversight rather than blanket bans; professional codes of ethics enforced by the industry itself; protection for journalists and an end to impunity for attacks on them; media and digital literacy in schools to help citizens recognise fake news; fact-checking units in newsrooms; and public-service broadcasting that informs rather than propagandises.

Syllabus book: Stephen P. Cohen et al., The Future of Pakistan (2011), argue that Pakistan is most likely to “muddle through”, and identify demography, the economy, militancy and the civil-military balance as the variables that will decide its future.

Blessing or curse: it depends on the conditions

Blessing: accountability, awareness, voice, disaster response
Conditions: law not censorship, ethics, media literacy
Curse: sensationalism, polarisation, fake news, hate

6. Conclusion

In 21st-century Pakistan the media has been both a blessing and a curse. It helped restore the judiciary, exposed corruption, gave citizens a voice and defended the national narrative; it has also spread sensationalism, polarisation and disinformation, and has itself been suppressed. The media reflects the society and the state around it. With fair regulation, professional ethics and an informed public, it can be the fourth pillar that strengthens democracy; with censorship on one side and fake news on the other, it becomes a weapon rather than a watchdog.

Media: Curse or Blessing? CSS 2025 Solved Answer