Investigating the Framing of the Tweets of Three Leading Political Parties of Pakistan

Abstract

Online media let politicians speak with their crowd straightforwardly, especially during political proceedings. This study examined the media frames Pakistani politicians used while covering a Twitter political campaign in the Kashmir election. The study contained content analysis. This study mainly examined the three political parties, Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), and Pakistan People's Party (PPP), and political representatives Imran Khan, Bilawal Zardari, and Mariam Nawaz’s political tweets. Tweets were collected from 25th June to 25th July 2021 and revealed eight frames (Word choice, Metaphors, Exemplars, Descriptions, Arguments, Visual Images, Depict, and Catchphrases) with different percentages in the relevant tweets. Results further indicated that Politicians use the hashtag in their official tweets. PPP used more metaphors than PMLN and PTI. PPP used more Catchphrases than PMLN and PTI. PTI used more word choices than PMLN and PPP. PMLN comparatively used more frames than PTI and PPP. PTI used more visual images than PMLN and PPP. Maryam Nawaz used more metaphors in comparison to Imran Khan and Bilawal Zardari. Imran Khan used more word choices than Maryam Nawaz and Bilawal Zardari. Maryam Nawaz used more Visual Images while tweeting than Bilawal Zardari and Imran Khan. Additionally, there were similarities between political leaders’ tweets and their official party page tweets. The frames that political representative’s emphasis is different from their party tweets’ frame strategy. Thus, this study concluded that the research findings specify that the choosing Twitter was a significant framing tool for campaigning and was resourcefully used to disseminate campaign apprises, endorse political accomplishments, and staying connected with the potential followers.