Zainab Shahid2012-01-172012-01-172011https://escholar.umt.edu.pk/handle/123456789/433This study examines the role of Private TV talk shows in creating polit ical awareness, testing their effects on people's polit ical behaviour, attitude, beliefs and perceptions. In the present study data was collected by conducting a survey of 200 respondents in urban and rural areas. The study highlights the importance of Private TV talk shows for educating people polit ically. In other words the common beliefs and views of critics- that political talk shows are merely entertainment programs and people watch these shows just for having fun where they analyze who won and who lost ... were not supported by the empirical data. The study presents evidence demonstrating that private TV talk shows are creating more polit ical awareness than magazine and newspaper. A huge percentage of the respondents agreed to the effectiveness of talk shows in creating polit ical awareness, making public opinion towards different political issues, bringing people close to the political process, playing considerable role in conflict resolution and helping youngsters to support! affiliate with any polit ical party or leader. Interestingly this study rejects this notion-that media have more impact on urban areas as compare to rural ones by supporting the signif icance of two variables motivation to seek information and access to information of Knowledge Gap research because a great majority of respondents from urban and rural population use TV as their main source of polit ical information. On the other hand, a dimension of powerful media effects i.e., Priming is also supported by this study. Private TV talk shows are playing a signif icant role in bringing change and awareness in our society. Keywords: Talk shows, polit ical awareness, opinion formation, conflict resolution, media impact, knowledge gapenPolitical AwarenessMass MediaThesis