The Level of Autonomy of Journalists in Their Jobs: A Case Study of Rawalpindi and Islamabad Journalists

Journalists play a tremendous role in shaping general public opinion. Despite the significant role of journalists in a society, very few studies in journalism and journalists have been conducted so far specially in the context of Pakistan. In fact, there is no credible scientific research available on journalists of Pakistan discussing the various roles they play. This study is conducted to examine the level of autonomy a Pakistani journalist enjoys at his/her respective beat and designation. The population of the study is the journalists working in Rawalpindi and Islamabad region. The study is exploratory in nature using quantitative survey method. Self-designed questionnaire is used to calculate the responses related to demographic details and job autonomy. All these queries are analyzed with data collection using convenient sampling technique. The data collected as a result of this study will benefit not only the journalists’ community but would give key information to government and general public about this community. As a result of this study government could devise policies to benefit and to get benefit from the journalists. The general public would however get significant and interesting information about the people they consider as their spokesmen.