COVID-19 AND EDUCATION OF MASS COMMUNICATION: A CHANGE, CHARGED WITH EXCLUSION AND DISPARITY

Abstract

The sudden closure of educational institutions in 2020 brought multiple learning and financial challenges for female students in Pakistan. In our experience, not only formal and informal learning realms of female students have been affected in the post-pandemic educational landscape, but a distinct gender and digital divide (GDD) is also noticeable between technology equipped and deprived students. Considering the theoretical perspectives of the digital divide, this paper will essentially explicate the chasms existing within female students of Mass Communication in Pakistan. Given Pakistan‘s conservative and patriarchal culture, it is very important to study how female students of Mass Communication, from both urban and rural areas, responded to the change after COVID-19. Through in-depth interviews of 20 female students, we argue that the pandemic has aggravated the already existing GDD in the Pakistani educational landscape. Especially the first-order GDD in education can be seen frequently in the country‘s rural locations. Moreover, economic limitations and socio-cultural norms also play an essential role in exacerbating second-order GDD in Mass Communication education. Thus, in this sense, the virus has brought a change that is charged with exclusion and disparity. Moreover, we argue that the digital divide is a gendered concept for a periphery country like Pakistan.