蜜桃传媒

When I began planning for my honors thesis, the freedom to carve my path was both exhilarating and daunting. I needed to find a topic encompassing my broad interests while remaining specific, approachable, and unexplored. My journey to uncover an original area of research led me to a familiar place: the television screens in my household. 

Growing up in a Pakistani immigrant family, Pakistani soap operas (“dramas”) were a constant presence in my home, and from a young age, I was drawn to them. For me, Pakistani dramas bridged a media chasm. They brought characters to life that reflected an unrepresented piece of my reality. Dressed in traditional shalwar kameez and speaking fluent Urdu, these characters painted a clear picture of the world left behind. Their overarching plots鈥攆illed to the brim with toxic heroes, scheming mothers-in-law, and weeping damsels in distress鈥攔anged from deeply emotional to plain ridiculous. Nonetheless, without these stories, I don’t think I would have been able to maintain the strong connection to my culture that I have today.

Long before my thesis was even a concept, Pakistani content was more than just a background check for me. I would analyze storylines, no matter how stereotypical they were, share memes in family WhatsApp groups, and even follow online celebrity discourse. This connection fueled my passion and enthusiasm for the topic, making my research not just a scholarly pursuit but a deeply personal journey. 

Because of their run-of-the-mill, dramatic nature, I often dismissed my interest in Pakistani dramas as a “guilty pleasure.” But why be so dismissive of the content that dominates the TV screens of the fifth-most populated country in the world? 

In Pakistan’s case, the government-engineered introduction of television on a national scale became a critical step in molding a monoculture of several different ethnic groups. The government’s role in shaping the content and reach of television, particularly during the 1980s when it became a means for resistance against a military dictatorship, is a crucial aspect of understanding the societal and cultural influences on the media. Television evolved into a mirror for political unrest, concurrently reflecting conservative and liberal values during a decade of political animosity and turbulence. Finally, the government privatized the nationalized medium to gain international legitimacy, a critical developmental step in nation-building. 

As this intricate yet continually evolving history illustrates, pop culture is intricately woven into a society’s fabric, influencing its politics, economy, and social dynamics. The existing research gaps present a rewarding, fruitful thesis opportunity, and I hope more scholars will recognize the importance of diverse cultural contexts.

In these titles from 蜜桃传媒, you’ll rediscover the sometimes-overlooked influence of mass media through an indisputably global lens. 

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Kanita Tariq is an Editorial Intern at 蜜桃传媒.

Our Student Voices series provides a space for 蜜桃传媒 interns to reflect on their intellectual interests.