| Summary/Abstract |
The mediatisation of politics has been a dominant theory in the field of political
communication for some time, proposing that the mass media in democratic
societies tend to dominate the political process. This research intends to explore
the media-politics nexus as part of the protest campaign in 2014 in Pakistan,
also known as the long march. Specifically, it analyses dynamics of the political
rhetoric of protesting leaders and dimensions of the two selected TV talk shows.
Using textual analysis as research methodology, this article concludes that by
transforming the political theatre into a media theatre, the talk shows effectively
mediatised the long march. TV news became part of the political process, rather
than covering it objectively, either by supporting or opposing the long march.
The two top political leaders of the long march voluntarily adopted media logic
as a rhetorical strategy to offer a readymade product for media coverage.
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