International Media Representation of Protests and Internet Shutdowns in Pakistan-Administered Kashmir: A Mixed-Method Content Analysis of Al Jazeera Articles and Youtube Coverage

Abstract

This study examines how Al Jazeera represented protests, internet shutdowns, and electoral conflict in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. It combines 12 unique Al Jazeera article pages supplied as local HTML with 14 unique Al Jazeera YouTube links. Articles were coded for topics, sources, human-rights indicators, tone, and frames based on (Entman, 2007) four functions. YouTube metadata and researcher-supplied transcripts were available for 11 videos; three unique Shorts remained unavailable, and visual variables were not inferred from text. In the articles, protest and security coverage were universal, and internet shutdowns appeared in 11 of 12 stories. Democracy was the dominant article frame in six stories, while human rights was dominant in three transcript-coded videos. Government and security officials appeared in all articles, while citizens appeared in 10 of 11 transcript-coded videos. The findings connect electoral legitimacy to coercion, communication restrictions, and material welfare across the supplied sample. Cross-format comparison remains limited by the three unavailable Shorts and the absence of verified visual coding. The study offers a bounded account of the supplied Al Jazeera sample, not a generalization to international media as a whole.