Role of newspapers in health policy making in Punjab

ABSTRACT

This paper looks at the role of newspapers in health policy making in Punjab, the largest province of Pakistan in terms of population, with nearly 56% of the country's entire population. For the inclusive progress of socio-economic facet of the general public, government should give top priority to the investment in the health sector. Health is the second biggest public sector when it comes to physical infrastructure and human capital in Punjab. Health sector of Punjab is faced with numerous anomalies and the government has been undertaking reforms with intervals. Announcement of health policy is an important initiation for government's plan for the advancement of health sector, in this regard how the media and in case of this study, newspapers, impact health policy making. Newspapers provide a channel which is used by the policy makers to make promises and deliver intentions. Public's Feedback is an essential part of this process and is under investigation in this study. Newspapers can set the direction for public's welfare by covering a specific matter and overlooking the other. With regard to this function of the newspapers this research endeavors to discover the role newspapers in health policy making by adopting the technique of content analysis of four sampled newspapers for the period of six months