Toward a Pakistani Media Strategy

We all bemoan the fact that the Western public associates with Pakistan words like terrorism, fundamentalism, violence, nuclear proliferation, and assassination, and that those nouns tend to be qualified in Western discourse with the adjective “Islamic�. We all wish it were otherwise. But when it comes to changing it, we seem paralyzed and helpless, if not bitter, apathetic and resigned.

It doesn’t have to be this way, and the Pakistani community itself has the power to change it. This is a crucial historical moment, because the demonization of Pakistanis and Muslims will affect not only the current generation but generations to come. And the damage will be to all of us and to our shared human future.

As any athlete or military officer knows, the best defense is a good offense. Being disgusted with the way things are is not a sufficient response, and the Pakistani community needs to take the lead in changing its own image, by crafting and launching a coherent, purposeful media strategy aimed at a global audience. The community has the talent, money and other resources to do this. Complaining to each other on Geo and ARY does not constitute a media strategy.

Here’s what we’ve done, as a patriotic Pakistani and a non-Pakistani friend of Pakistan: Ethan Casey published a sympathetic travel book about Pakistan, with the subtitle “A Human Journey in a Dangerous Time,� and conceived, launched and for a year co-hosted a podcast series subtitled “A Weekly Audio Dialogue Between Pakistan and the West�. Fawad Butt is developing a community bank for Pakistanis in the United States.

Together, we travel around North America speaking to both mainstream and Pakistani audiences, always emphasizing Pakistan’s human dimension, stressing our common humanity and hopes for a viable future together. We are making a documentary film in the same spirit as Ethan’s book and will be traveling to Pakistan in September-October specifically for the purpose of shooting footage that will show Americans and others human stories from Pakistan, with all the politics, violence and rhetoric relegated for once to the background.

Creating and distributing media is a lot easier and less expensive than it used to be. Chowk.com is a good example of this. Disseminating a community’s story, on the community’s own terms, is not primarily a question of money but rather of desire and focus and vision. Pakistan plays a key role on the global stage, but its people are routinely defined by parachuting journalists pretending to have context from the rooftop of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad. Pakistan’s story needs to be told by Pakistanis themselves and by people who know and love them, from the ground and from within the community.

To achieve this, the community must:

• Decide on and unite behind a common message. Jewish, Indian and Cuban communities in the United States have been enormously successful at this, and there is a lot to learn from their examples.

• Leverage digital media in all its forms. YouTube videos, podcasts and online publications can be created and disseminated quickly and cost-effectively.

• Recognize and support existing media efforts. Entrepreneurial initiatives sprinkled across the globe are dying on the vine for lack of community support. Much can be achieved if the community focuses some of its philanthropic activity on such efforts.

For more than thirty years, leadership and initiative among Pakistanis in the United States have been exercised by the first generation of immigrants – Version 1.0 of the Pakistani American community. That generation built important institutions. Version 2.0 – affluent and talented professionals now in their thirties and forties, and eager and able to meet the community’s challenges – brings a different perspective to the table than its parents did. As Version 2.0 accepts the mantle of community leadership, it should keep a mindful eye on Version 2.5: the extremely bright, ambitious and energetic generation now in their twenties, who need guidance and moral and material support from their elders.

These young people, and Version 3.0 now growing up, are largely U.S.-born or even thoroughly international, and have a great deal to contribute not only to the Pakistani community but to the world. They should be encouraged to be proud and confident in their “both/and� status – both Pakistani and American, both Muslim and Western – and to explore and develop all aspects and resources of their rich background. They should both travel to Pakistan, and contribute to America (or Canada, or Australia, or the UK).

Professional diversity is crucial to any community’s development. The younger generations of affluent, educated, cosmopolitan Pakistanis are among the community’s greatest assets at this important moment. Rather than making all our children become doctors and engineers, worthy as those professions may be, we must encourage some members of our younger generations to embrace the media as a vehicle for their aspirations. If all we as a community accumulate is wealth, we will have squandered a historic opportunity to claim the positive attention and moral authority that are our due.