Cyber Communication & Journalism (Lec-03) Online newspapers: The Bangladesh perspective Online newspaper does not necessarily mean ne...
Cyber Communication & Journalism (Lec-03)
Online newspapers: The Bangladesh perspective
Online newspaper does not necessarily mean negative journalism. There are some good online newspapers in Bangladesh which have gained the confidence of the readers.
As far as we know the first newspaper of the world was ‘London Gazette’, a British newspaper published in 1666. After that the newspaper industry has spread over the world with the evolution of civilization.
The curious people were completely dependent on newspapers before the invention of radio by Italian scientist Gugliemo Markony in 1895. But newspaper still has its importance even after the invention of radio. Because, radio is only for listening, not for reading.
But many people guessed that newspaper will have to face strong challenge after the invention of television in 1926 by British scientist John Logi Beyard. But this didn’t happen really. Printed newspapers dominated throughout the whole 20th century.
A revolution happened throughout the whole world in computer or information technology at the last part of 20th century. In Bangladesh, a computer was not affordable for middle-class family once upon a time. But now it is so cheap that at least a Desktop computer is available in almost every urban middle-class family. Many have Laptop, Notebook, tab etc.
Widespread use of computer in print media had begun many years ago. Moreover, the national and even regional newspapers added online edition with print edition due to hasty expansion of internet. The number of readers on these online editions is increasing gradually. Online newspapers have emerged at one stage due to the demand of time.
Online isn’t very old as a news media. ‘The News Report’ published as an online newspaper in 1974 from State University of Illinoi, USA. Different newspapers started to publish online editions after that. But ‘The Southport Reporter’ which started publication in the United Kingdom in 2000, considered as the first genuine online newspaper. After that worldwide influential British daily newspaper ‘The Guardian’, ‘The New York Times’ of the United States and a good number of newspapers of Western world transformed into online by closing print version.
In Bangladesh, the journey of online newspaper started in 2005 through www.bdnews24.com. But they formally started their activities on 22nd October, 2006. After that we have seen the advent of www.banglanews24.com, www.risingbd.com and many other online newspapers. I’ve already mentioned the online versions of printed newspapers.
Moreover, some television channels have online versions. The attitude of readers is changing gradually. Many of them don’t want to wait until tomorrow for today’s news. They are clicking at online newspapers every now and then. Net access is increasing gradually. News is easily readable on mobile phone as well.
The international news agencies are facing tough challenges due to the intense attraction of readers to the online newspapers. These are creating new category of readers.
On the other hand, another group of readers is satisfied with old medium printed newspapers. They are viewers of TV channels as well. Many experts think that advantage of technology, less capital and easy obtainability isn’t the major reason behind the transformation of the news media from print to online. Establishing an online news media within comparatively quicker time is considered as the foremost reason. But building up a complete and sturdy online media isn’t less expensive than printed newspaper and TV channel.
But the market experts are not interested about the logic of expending more or less money. They only consider if online earn more money than printed newspaper or not. But the real analysts say that online news media can earn a small amount of money than a conventional daily newspaper.
They also say that it still could not reach the level of becoming financially very profitable. But the publication of online didn’t obstruct. It is increasing day by day.
Now I’d like to focus on the online newspapers in Bangladesh. It has been seen after observation that most of the readers of these online are young and usually just under 25 and just over 25 years old. The online newspapers publish some news to attract those readers which have very less news value. They give emphasis on that type of news many times.
But they often avoid important news or publish these lightly. The news about important national and international issues is often overshadowed by the news about sex, scandal, crime and entertainment. Sometimes news becomes attractive photo and headline-based. Many readers feel cheated after reading news attracted by showy headline. Dissimilarity between headline and news story is found very often. Another negative thing is giving priority to velocity than accuracy.
Many online authorities feel proud for publishing news just after getting it. They forget that the authentication of news is very important. It isn’t a sign of responsible journalism. They should inform anything to the readers after sending reporter on the spot or getting information from more than one reliable source.
It has been also seen by observing Bangladeshi online newspapers that some online publish news based on rumor which proved not authentic at a time. Perverted or partly true information is also published. Publishing news without authentication of information is contradictory with the ethics of journalism. We have even seen ‘two killed in a road accident’ just a few minutes after publishing ‘four killed in a road accident’.
There is no scope of becoming alive after death. But these two people become alive because of some unentitled online newspapers which are practicing negative journalism. To err is human and a journalist isn’t out of error. But killing people alive and making dead people alive is an unpardonable mistake.
The mentioned wrong news perhaps will not be harmful for a common reader. But think about the relatives of these two people. They may rush to hospital or police station after reading the death news. Will they wait for divergent news by keeping eyes on online?
A very bad trend of many online newspapers is stealing or copying news. Online newspapers have grown like mushroom. Less-educated and half-educated people are operating these news portals. As a result, the most anticipated incidents are happening.
The ineligible people are doing their job by stealing news from other website. Even they don’t mention the main source of stolen news or report. These people are doing journalism for various purposes. Some of them are earning illegal money by using the name of journalism.
Owners of some online newspapers are resorting to sycophancy of different individuals and organizations for taking different facilities. Some of them are even working as a medium for hushing up crimes and scandals. Some business organizations are using online newspapers as a slope for covering their malpractice.
Operating an online newspaper is possible by using 2/3 computers and some workers for copying and pasting. So anybody can become owner or editor of a news portal.
This kind of negative journalism is creating a very bad impression about news, journalists and journalism among the common people gradually. They are losing their respect to this profession. Many people look with a suspicious eye after knowing someone as journalist of online newspaper.
An overall scenario has been depicted about the perspective of online journalism, its necessity in the present era of information technology and the whole scenario of the online newspapers of Bangladesh after the discussion above. Many become pessimistic about the last one. Actually everything depends on how you are using technology. Unfortunately, the negative use of technology has complicated the situation.
Many online newspapers have taken the advantage of absence of proper policy about this news media. The Information Ministry has made registration process of online newspapers mandatory to stop negative journalism. A circular was issued about this on 9th November’15.
It is learnt from the Depart¬ment of Information that the officials of a special department of Police will visit the office of online newspapers and submit a report to the Information Ministry before giving them registration. There is a popular English proverb ‘better late than never’. I appreciate the late wake up of the high authority.
Anybody can’t publish online newspaper if the registration is mandatory. This can reduce the malpractice of negative journalism and the lost respect of real journalism will be regained.
Moreover, online newspaper does not always mean negative journalism. There are some good online newspapers in Bangladesh which have gained the confidence of the readers by publishing neutral and quality news. Now-a-days many readers start the day by keeping their eyes on these online and finish the day by seeing their latest news. This is a positive sign. Best wishes for genuine online journalism and newspapers. I expect that they will continue their efforts.
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