As in other countries, journalism in Bangladesh, too, has experienced three phases. The first was initiated by the politicians, with the media being used as the voice of political parties or for serving political agendas though, for Bangladesh, it was serving the agendas of people also as the country was fighting for rights against West Pakistan central government in 1960s. With time, questions were raised against biased and political journalism and there was advocacy for objective and ethical journalism. Worldwide, behind the introduction of objective journalism, there was a contribution of journalism schools. Today is the age of corporate-owned journalism, a contemporary reality that is both global and local. There are differences in the objective and style of these three kinds of journalism.
Bangladesh as a nation turns 40 in 2011. In this article I will review the trends and developments of journalism in Bangladesh in the last four decades. I will also try to forecast here the trends of the news industry in the coming decade after which Bangladesh will be a 50-year-old nation.
The Ittefaq and Sangbad, two Bangla dailies established in the Pakistan era, are the last two representatives of the first phase of journalism (political journalism), though they can now be identified as doing journalism of the second phase (objective journalism). These two newspapers played historical roles in the different periods of the independence movement. Bangladesh Betar and Bangladesh Television were also involved in different historical moments of the nation. The existence of Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra was transient but it was a very unprecedented radical media during the Liberation War in 1971. Other than a few of these media, all print or broadcast outlets appeared in the last two decades. It is to be noted that these two decades are the age of globalisation based on the idea of a free market economy after the fall of communism. As a result, an influence of capitalist globalisation is felt in the media institutions. On the other hand, in the expanding capitalist activities driven by the globalisation process, media remained as part of that process. The existing media situation around the globe as well as in Bangladesh is both the cause and effect of globalisation.
The length of the second phase of (objective) journalism was short in Bangladesh, and this is the difference with the experiences of other countries. After independence, the necessity of political journalism came to an end, even though we saw it until the end of the 1980s. Ajker Kagoj was a prominent representative of objective journalism. The idea of objective journalism, as repeatedly taught in journalism schools, was reflected in Ajker Kagoj. The founding editor of the newspaper was a graduate from the journalism department at Dhaka University. Ajker Kagoj brought several changes in the journalism practices of the country. Besides objective and ethical journalism, the newspaper showed its inclination towards Bengali culture and decency in approach. The newspaper also provided neat printing quality with the help of the then modern desktop publishing and offset printing technology. A significant change was the participation of the intelligentsia and the readers in the daily. Other than staff editorial writers, intellectuals and even readers started writing in the middle page of the daily. All of them were tagged as columnists, and quickly a civil society started to take shape by writing in the middle page of Ajker Kagoj. Later, novelty in journalism was transferred into Bhorer Kagoj. But this short period of objective journalism disappeared after the advent of Prothom Alo in 1998.
Corporate journalism began with Prothom Alo (PA), with journalists who had come from Bhorer Kagoj. The ownership pattern of the daily compelled the same journalists to shift from objective towards corporate journalism. The leading English daily, The Daily Star (DS), established by SM Ali, was taken by Transcom Group, the owners of Prothom Alo which formed a media conglomeration. The PA-DS duo became influential dailies within a few years. Before them, Janakantha and Muktakantha appeared as corporate media outlets, but they could not influence the media industry. The journalism pattern set by PA-DS is followed by other media outlets of recent times. The question is, what is this pattern?
Before answering this question, it is necessary to describe the socio-economic scenario of Bangladesh in the last two decades. The globalisation process based on free market economy in the world and Bangladesh’s democracy after a prolonged autocratic regime came at the same time in 1990. Now the election-centric, immature democracy was in no way against a free market economy. Rather, the parliamentary democracy welcomed the free market economy with the imperialistic influence of countries like United States or alliances like NAFTA. In this global economic system, Bangladesh was at the receiving end. The peripheral capitalist countries of the Third World like Bangladesh have become the market of globalisation. However, other than the readymade garments industry based on cheap labour and the telecommunications sector based on foreign direct investment, in the 1990s, there arrived a class of traders who mainly imported products from foreign countries. These three sectors were parts of the emerging corporate class. A country of 150 million people meant a big potential market. From the traders’ point of view, there was a need to change people into consumers and a consumer culture became an essential prerequisite of the prevailing economic process.
This responsibility of creating a consumer culture fell on the media. Transcom is a group which import foreign products in Bangladesh and PA-DS are two corporate media owned by Transcom. In that process, the prime roles of media since the late 1990s included serving the interests of respective mother companies, upholding the interests of private or business sector as a whole, flooding the pages with advertisements, serving the news of market and corporate companies, informing readers about products in disguise of news -- and thus creating a habit of purchasing. Other than creating a market and introducing consumer culture, the leading corporate media identified the undisciplined activities of political parties as the main obstacle to the expansion of the business sector. In response, they tried to establish a civil society that would advocate for ‘democracy’, ‘good governance’ and a stable political environment; and the leadership of the society would be at the hands of businesspersons. For the same reason, some of the media outlets supported the military-backed interim government in 2007-08. The civil-corporate-media-military alliance has a unified vision of Bangladesh. By depoliticising all organisations, they want a hassle-free business environment. Developing and establishing the discourse of depoliticisation was one of the key responsibilities of the media.
The channel boom in the first decade of the millennium is another phenomenon in the industry. The pattern of today’s television programmes was set by Ekushey Television (ETV) – especially the news presentation, programme selection and graphical presentation style of ETV which are still followed by other channels. Currently, 12 to 13 channels are operating in the country, with more on the way. But all the channels including Channel I, ATN Bangla and NTV are operating within corporate journalism. These channels are totally dependent on advertisement market and as a part of corporate branding they have sold all of their news slots to advertisers. To get their stakes from the competitive advertisement market, they have made their news slot cheaper. The broadcast channels are submerged in the corporate journalism created by the print media. However, it is also true that in the last decade, the middle class has developed a habit of watching television news daily. The government-controlled news served by Bangladesh Television for decades prior to that kept the audience news-hungry. While the government has freed the print media, it still controls the broadcast media. Channels such as ETV, CSB and Channel One were shut down due to political considerations. Because of the covert threat of government censorship, channels still in operation lack boldness in their reporting.
In the first decade of the millennium, the FM channel arrived as a new phenomenon. Four FM channels based on pop music are now on the air. The target audience of these channels are young people and teens who have grown through the consumer culture or who are eager to access that culture. The channels with English-influenced Bengali accents serve hourly news, traffic updates and stock updates. These channels also include talk shows and interviews along with music. These stations survive on the corporate culture created by other media before them.
Against this trend of corporatisation, community radio is going to be started. This radio will work for the development of the local community. But the ownership and license of community radio are only given to non-governmental organisations (NGOs), thus raising questions of whether they can transcend the existing development discourse.
The introduction of Right to Information Act (RTI) at the end of the first decade of the millennium, initiated by NGOs and supported by leading newspapers, is also an important incident in the existing media environment. In India, RTI was a demand of the people, but in Bangladesh it was pushed by NGOs whose agenda is fixed by foreign donors. Still, community radio and the RTI Act are two important developments in the media scenario.
At this moment, the media situation in Bangladesh is quite different from other countries. Where in other countries newspapers are gradually closing down because of the growth of cyberspace, in Bangladesh, new newspapers are coming into operation. The economy of Bangladesh is expanding and the usage of Internet is less than in developed countries. Arrival of new newspapers complies with the prevailing socio-economic situation in Bangladesh. As a result, not only television channels or FM radio, the print media is also expanding here. It should be noted that, until today, the print media is the most influential media in Bangladesh.
The age of Bangladesh as a nation will be half a century in the next decade. There came a great change in the media sector in the last one and a half decades, making it difficult to forecast what changes will come in the next decade. However, the change in the next decade will not be very radical. A few more television channels will go on air. But the existing advertisement market cannot support, say, 20 channels. So either some channels will not start at all or others will close down. Some more FM radio stations and newspapers might be started, but this media expansion may stop after market saturation.
The mainstream traditional media will face a new challenge in the form of cyberspace. More people will be connected with the web and they will be active netizens. In the last five years, some Bangla blog communities have been formed with a membership of some 200,000. Around a million people are connected on social networking media Facebook. These few hundreds of thousands of people will create an impact by non-professional but citizen journalism. This cyber community may make the mainstream journalists insecure in the coming decade. The traditional media will also try to make their presence felt on the web but their symbiotic relations with other powers will result in a lack of spontaneity characteristic of citizen journalists. A friction between professional and non-professional journalism on the web may well be the media conflict of the next decade.
Bangladesh as a nation turns 40 in 2011. In this article I will review the trends and developments of journalism in Bangladesh in the last four decades. I will also try to forecast here the trends of the news industry in the coming decade after which Bangladesh will be a 50-year-old nation.
The Ittefaq and Sangbad, two Bangla dailies established in the Pakistan era, are the last two representatives of the first phase of journalism (political journalism), though they can now be identified as doing journalism of the second phase (objective journalism). These two newspapers played historical roles in the different periods of the independence movement. Bangladesh Betar and Bangladesh Television were also involved in different historical moments of the nation. The existence of Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra was transient but it was a very unprecedented radical media during the Liberation War in 1971. Other than a few of these media, all print or broadcast outlets appeared in the last two decades. It is to be noted that these two decades are the age of globalisation based on the idea of a free market economy after the fall of communism. As a result, an influence of capitalist globalisation is felt in the media institutions. On the other hand, in the expanding capitalist activities driven by the globalisation process, media remained as part of that process. The existing media situation around the globe as well as in Bangladesh is both the cause and effect of globalisation.
The length of the second phase of (objective) journalism was short in Bangladesh, and this is the difference with the experiences of other countries. After independence, the necessity of political journalism came to an end, even though we saw it until the end of the 1980s. Ajker Kagoj was a prominent representative of objective journalism. The idea of objective journalism, as repeatedly taught in journalism schools, was reflected in Ajker Kagoj. The founding editor of the newspaper was a graduate from the journalism department at Dhaka University. Ajker Kagoj brought several changes in the journalism practices of the country. Besides objective and ethical journalism, the newspaper showed its inclination towards Bengali culture and decency in approach. The newspaper also provided neat printing quality with the help of the then modern desktop publishing and offset printing technology. A significant change was the participation of the intelligentsia and the readers in the daily. Other than staff editorial writers, intellectuals and even readers started writing in the middle page of the daily. All of them were tagged as columnists, and quickly a civil society started to take shape by writing in the middle page of Ajker Kagoj. Later, novelty in journalism was transferred into Bhorer Kagoj. But this short period of objective journalism disappeared after the advent of Prothom Alo in 1998.
Corporate journalism began with Prothom Alo (PA), with journalists who had come from Bhorer Kagoj. The ownership pattern of the daily compelled the same journalists to shift from objective towards corporate journalism. The leading English daily, The Daily Star (DS), established by SM Ali, was taken by Transcom Group, the owners of Prothom Alo which formed a media conglomeration. The PA-DS duo became influential dailies within a few years. Before them, Janakantha and Muktakantha appeared as corporate media outlets, but they could not influence the media industry. The journalism pattern set by PA-DS is followed by other media outlets of recent times. The question is, what is this pattern?
Before answering this question, it is necessary to describe the socio-economic scenario of Bangladesh in the last two decades. The globalisation process based on free market economy in the world and Bangladesh’s democracy after a prolonged autocratic regime came at the same time in 1990. Now the election-centric, immature democracy was in no way against a free market economy. Rather, the parliamentary democracy welcomed the free market economy with the imperialistic influence of countries like United States or alliances like NAFTA. In this global economic system, Bangladesh was at the receiving end. The peripheral capitalist countries of the Third World like Bangladesh have become the market of globalisation. However, other than the readymade garments industry based on cheap labour and the telecommunications sector based on foreign direct investment, in the 1990s, there arrived a class of traders who mainly imported products from foreign countries. These three sectors were parts of the emerging corporate class. A country of 150 million people meant a big potential market. From the traders’ point of view, there was a need to change people into consumers and a consumer culture became an essential prerequisite of the prevailing economic process.
This responsibility of creating a consumer culture fell on the media. Transcom is a group which import foreign products in Bangladesh and PA-DS are two corporate media owned by Transcom. In that process, the prime roles of media since the late 1990s included serving the interests of respective mother companies, upholding the interests of private or business sector as a whole, flooding the pages with advertisements, serving the news of market and corporate companies, informing readers about products in disguise of news -- and thus creating a habit of purchasing. Other than creating a market and introducing consumer culture, the leading corporate media identified the undisciplined activities of political parties as the main obstacle to the expansion of the business sector. In response, they tried to establish a civil society that would advocate for ‘democracy’, ‘good governance’ and a stable political environment; and the leadership of the society would be at the hands of businesspersons. For the same reason, some of the media outlets supported the military-backed interim government in 2007-08. The civil-corporate-media-military alliance has a unified vision of Bangladesh. By depoliticising all organisations, they want a hassle-free business environment. Developing and establishing the discourse of depoliticisation was one of the key responsibilities of the media.
The channel boom in the first decade of the millennium is another phenomenon in the industry. The pattern of today’s television programmes was set by Ekushey Television (ETV) – especially the news presentation, programme selection and graphical presentation style of ETV which are still followed by other channels. Currently, 12 to 13 channels are operating in the country, with more on the way. But all the channels including Channel I, ATN Bangla and NTV are operating within corporate journalism. These channels are totally dependent on advertisement market and as a part of corporate branding they have sold all of their news slots to advertisers. To get their stakes from the competitive advertisement market, they have made their news slot cheaper. The broadcast channels are submerged in the corporate journalism created by the print media. However, it is also true that in the last decade, the middle class has developed a habit of watching television news daily. The government-controlled news served by Bangladesh Television for decades prior to that kept the audience news-hungry. While the government has freed the print media, it still controls the broadcast media. Channels such as ETV, CSB and Channel One were shut down due to political considerations. Because of the covert threat of government censorship, channels still in operation lack boldness in their reporting.
In the first decade of the millennium, the FM channel arrived as a new phenomenon. Four FM channels based on pop music are now on the air. The target audience of these channels are young people and teens who have grown through the consumer culture or who are eager to access that culture. The channels with English-influenced Bengali accents serve hourly news, traffic updates and stock updates. These channels also include talk shows and interviews along with music. These stations survive on the corporate culture created by other media before them.
Against this trend of corporatisation, community radio is going to be started. This radio will work for the development of the local community. But the ownership and license of community radio are only given to non-governmental organisations (NGOs), thus raising questions of whether they can transcend the existing development discourse.
The introduction of Right to Information Act (RTI) at the end of the first decade of the millennium, initiated by NGOs and supported by leading newspapers, is also an important incident in the existing media environment. In India, RTI was a demand of the people, but in Bangladesh it was pushed by NGOs whose agenda is fixed by foreign donors. Still, community radio and the RTI Act are two important developments in the media scenario.
At this moment, the media situation in Bangladesh is quite different from other countries. Where in other countries newspapers are gradually closing down because of the growth of cyberspace, in Bangladesh, new newspapers are coming into operation. The economy of Bangladesh is expanding and the usage of Internet is less than in developed countries. Arrival of new newspapers complies with the prevailing socio-economic situation in Bangladesh. As a result, not only television channels or FM radio, the print media is also expanding here. It should be noted that, until today, the print media is the most influential media in Bangladesh.
The age of Bangladesh as a nation will be half a century in the next decade. There came a great change in the media sector in the last one and a half decades, making it difficult to forecast what changes will come in the next decade. However, the change in the next decade will not be very radical. A few more television channels will go on air. But the existing advertisement market cannot support, say, 20 channels. So either some channels will not start at all or others will close down. Some more FM radio stations and newspapers might be started, but this media expansion may stop after market saturation.
The mainstream traditional media will face a new challenge in the form of cyberspace. More people will be connected with the web and they will be active netizens. In the last five years, some Bangla blog communities have been formed with a membership of some 200,000. Around a million people are connected on social networking media Facebook. These few hundreds of thousands of people will create an impact by non-professional but citizen journalism. This cyber community may make the mainstream journalists insecure in the coming decade. The traditional media will also try to make their presence felt on the web but their symbiotic relations with other powers will result in a lack of spontaneity characteristic of citizen journalists. A friction between professional and non-professional journalism on the web may well be the media conflict of the next decade.
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