The Role Of Portrayal In Media

Portrayal
Portrayal is defined as “the act of showing or describing someone or something especially in a painting, book, etc. or “the way in which an actor plays a character”. (www.merriam-webster.com)
Synonyms of word portrayal are representation, description, likeness, imitation etc. (www.thesarus.com)
Portrayal in Media
The term portrayal in media is defined as “The choices that are made when it comes to portraying something or someone in a mass media text. It 's impossible to portray every aspect of an individual in a photograph, or even in a feature film, so certain features of their personality and appearance get highlighted, and are often enhanced, when it comes to constructing the representation that the audience will see”. (www.mediaknowall.com)

After reporting portrayal Aseem write comments of different people which came due to a debate sparked by these episodes on South Asian Journalist Association e-mail list, one such comment by Sreenath Sreenivasin, an associate professor at Columbia University Graduate College was that “Whatever you feel of how each country is portrayed in this imaginary story, I was just excited to see India and Pakistan in primetime entertainment(they even pronounced “Pakistan” the right way).Much better than seeing yet another Eastern European crisis on American television.(Aseem,

Pak-US relations have been tortured one most of the time, even at the peak of the relations; there was still underlying irritations and distrust for one another. Pakistan connected in America’s global effort to contain the USSR in the starting days of cold war. Pakistan secretly persuaded its nuclear program the early 80’s when U.S. and Pakistan worked in close association to assist Afghan mujahedeen in their fight against Soviet Union’s occupation of Afghanistan. When cold war ended Pakistan keep on going with development of its nuclear program and Pak-U.S. relation fell into a terrible decade long tail-spin. Late 70’s have been the lowest point of relations, in 1979, student protestors attacked U.S. embassy and ruling general of Pakistan Zia-Ul-Haq did not attempt to do a rescue attempt rather decided to let the protest burn itself, two Americans died due to this attack on embassy by protestors. Pakistani’s and Americans have their own versions of history about important events in the Pak-U.S. relations, but the fact is that like America used Pakistan for its agenda, Pakistan also used America for its advantage. America’s power pillars like White House, State