There was a time in history of sub-continent when the people had to wait for six months to get the information about the United Kingdom (UK) and the rest of the world. As the newspapers used to reach through ships to the sub-continent but however the new techniques and new innovations in the field of journalism has given birth to the different forms of mass media different kinds of media and at the same time it has also left a lot of impacts on society.No doubt after the introduction of different forms of mass media channels the way of communication and dispatching of information has been greatly advanced. .

The information flow in our society has become so much fast that people now don’t need to wait for the newspapers. It is also worthy to mention that with the physical growth of the mass media its role in the society has also increased. Now it’s the foremost responsibility of media to guide the masses in positive direction and inform the people about the real ground situation. The good example in this context is the 2005 earth quake disaster where thousands of people lost their lives. The credit goes to the media who integrated the society and create sympathies in the hearts of billions of people.  

 Media has great impacts on the society, some of these impacts are positive while some are negative. The dark side of media in Pakistan is they just give coverage to the events but later on when these events become an issue then they don’t give the desired coverage to it and they don’t explain the background of such complex issues. The very best example of it is Lal Masjid issue, in which a lot of people lost their lives when Pakistan army was doing an operation against them. Although media gave bullet to bullet coverage to it but no media organization focused on to explain that how it was possible to bring such kind of heavy explosives and weapons to the mosque?

On the other hand the dramas produced by our television channels are the evident examples of it where every story starts with love and it also ends with same theme. The traditions which is showed in these serials does not match our norms and values.

As far as economic impact of media is considered now a day in Pakistan it has been developed in the form of strong industry. Majority of the young graduates have formed their place in it. They are earning handsome amount of salaries from it. On the other hand we can also claim that media may have guided the government to take some positives steps for the economic betterment of the people but over all in  Pakistan regional press has remained   very much weak as majority of the prominent newspapers and TV channels are working from the prominent cities so the issues and problems of these cities are always highlighted and the government also pays an equal attention to it but the problems of other cites are never explored and some times one issue given rise to another issue.So keeping all these hard realities we can say that media may have developed quantity wise in our county but to act in more professional way and to develop itself in quality wise it’s a big challenge but still media in Pakistan is in grooming stage and it is learning from their own mistakes and day by day it is showing responsibility and maturity in their programs.

NOTE: The writer is Amir Hamza Bangash.Lecturer at the department of Journalism and Mass Communication,Peshawar University.” thanks for your exclusive contribution sir”