We present an exclusive interview with Dr. Rabia Noor, recipient of the Media Studies Grant 2025. Her project, “Revisiting Archival Narratives: The Influence of Women News Anchors on Gender Discourse in the Genesis of Pakistani Television”, investigates the portrayal and impact of women news anchors in early Pakistani television, focusing on the formative years of the Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV). It aims to explore how women anchors shaped public perceptions of gender roles and beauty standards during a pivotal period in Pakistan’s media history.
In this interview, they discuss her motivations for pursuing this topic, the challenges of working with archival material, the broader impact of her findings, and more.
Revisiting Archival Narratives: The Influence of Women News Anchors on Gender Discourse in the Genesis of Pakistani Television
What motivated you to choose this topic for your research?
My motivation to explore this topic stemmed from a desire to understand how women’s representation in Pakistani broadcast media has evolved over time, particularly through the lens of national television. Television has long been a powerful cultural institution that both reflects and shapes societal values. By focusing on the portrayal of women anchors on Pakistan Television (PTV), I wanted to uncover how gender norms, modesty codes, and professional expectations were historically constructed and negotiated in the public sphere. The archival material from PTV’s early decades offered a unique opportunity to trace these transformations and to question assumptions about “modernity” and women’s visibility in media.
What challenges have you faced in accessing or working with archival material?
Accessing and working with archival material presented several challenges. Firstly, the availability of well-preserved footage from the 1970s to 1990s was limited, with many recordings either lost, poorly catalogued, or damaged. The lack of digitized archives made retrieval time-consuming and required navigating institutional restrictions. Furthermore, contextual gaps, such as missing production notes, metadata, or broadcast records, made it difficult to establish complete historical narratives. Interpreting visual material also demanded caution; it required balancing textual readings of dress and conduct with the socio-political context of each era to avoid anachronistic conclusions.
What do you see as the role of archives in furthering your field of research?
Archives play a critical role in media and cultural research by providing tangible evidence of how gender, identity, and ideology are historically constructed and communicated. They allow researchers to move beyond abstract theorization to engage directly with the visual and textual traces of the past. In my research, archival footage served as both a historical record and a cultural artifact, revealing not only what was shown but also what was censored, regulated, or silenced. By studying such material, archives become tools for reinterpreting the narratives of women’s participation in media and for understanding how visual culture shapes collective memory.
What impact do you hope your research will have on understanding the value of archives for present-day societies?
I hope this research underscores the importance of archives as living resources that inform contemporary understandings of gender, representation, and cultural evolution. By revisiting historical media practices, we gain insight into how deeply entrenched cultural and religious frameworks have influenced the portrayal of women in public life. This reflection can foster critical dialogue about ongoing challenges in gender representation today. The study also highlights the urgent need for systematic preservation and digitization of media archives in Pakistan, ensuring that future researchers can access these cultural records to continue examining the evolving relationship between media, gender, and society.
What key insights would you like the FIAT/IFTA community to take away from your research?
I want the FIAT/IFTA community to recognize how archives can serve as critical instruments for examining not only technological or aesthetic developments but also social ideologies embedded within media history. The research reveals that women’s presence on early Pakistani television did not necessarily symbolize progress or liberation; rather, it reflected a tightly controlled form of visibility shaped by societal norms. This insight encourages archival professionals and researchers to approach visual material with a socio-cultural lens, acknowledging how power, gender, and cultural politics influence what is preserved, presented, and remembered. Ultimately, archives are not just repositories of media but mirrors of collective consciousness, deserving both protection and critical engagement.
