摘要
This research intends to study the relationship between faith, media exposure, and national identity construction of youth in Pakistan. The purpose is to ascertain the level of influence of foreign and local media consumption on national identity formation in terms of collective self-esteem and self-image of youth with high and low level of religiosity. A survey has been conducted from students （n = 321） between the age group of 16-19 living in Lahore. The results of this study revealed that respondents with high religiosity did not prefer to consume foreign media （r = -0.435＊＊ p 〈 0.01） whereas they did not show much preference to consume Pakistani media, either （r = 0.138＊, p 〈 0.05）. The level of religiosity and positive national identity had a strong and significant positive correlation （r = 0.619＊＊, p 〈 0.01）. This study also found that those respondents who preferred to consume foreign media texts demonstrated lower self-esteem and negative self-image as Pakistanis as compared to those who did not prefer foreign media consumption （r = -0.427＊＊, p 〈 0.01）. The researcher assumed that being Pakistani, a respondent would prefer to consume more national media texts over foreign and would have more positive national identity. However, results did not support this premise （r = 0.159＊＊, p 〈 0.01） due to the fact that the respondents did not show preference to consume Pakistani media at first hand. The study also connects theoretical understanding of faith and identity in Pakistani perspective along with an additional factor of media consumption. Thus, it strengthens the argument that strong faith positively contributes towards consolidating an individual＇s identity construction process. However, the results demonstrate that media tend to play a limited role in the process of identity construction compared to family and peers among Pakistani youth.
