Interactivity and Online Newspapers of Bangladesh

SHAMEEM MAHMUDDept. of Mass Communication and JournalismUniversity of DhakaBangladeshE-mail: s.mahmud@bracnet.net

Purpose

The main aim of the paper is to study how the onlinenewspapers of Bangladesh are using different interactivetools of the Internet.

Interactive Communication

Sender and receiver alternatively share the role ofcommunicator, with full and immediate feedbackParticipants take an active role to fully benefit from thecommunicationChallenges journalists’ traditional roles as the solegatekeeper of newsUsers share information with journalists as well as otherusers, may be anonymousMulti-directional communication, not one way

Interactive Tools

E-mail contacts with the news media (editor and journalists) Online discussion forums Live chat rooms Blogging Polls and surveys Archive and search options Links to related articles Rating the story Send the story to friends/others

Bangladeshi Online Newspapers

This paper is based on a content analysis of 15Bangladeshi online newspapers (mostly online editions ofdaily newspapers). Language of 11 newspapers is Bangla, 3 in English andone is bi-lingual (Bangla and English)More than half of the users of the Bangladeshi onlinenewspapers are from outside the country (expatriateBangladeshis).

Major Findings

All the newspapers provide at least one e-mail address tocontact the newsroom Seven newspapers provide a list of e-mail addresses oftheir different sections (i.e. newsroom, sports, editorial,culture, advertisement, circulation etc.) at least 10 newspapers provide e-mail addresses of theireditors. None of the newspapers provide e-mail address of thearticle’s author for giving feedback

Continued…

Only one newspaper (Daily Amardesh) has a link to a chatroom.Quick polls are a popular tools, and seven newspaperswere found use the tool. [topics mostly on politics andeconomy] Results of the polls are published in print edition of thenewspapers next day Only two newspapers (The Daily Star and BDNews24.com)have small-scale online discussion forumsUsers have a very limited scope to add information to anewspaper website.

More

Six newspapers update online editions on a round the clockbasis, while others only mirror the print edition. Almost all newspapers offer content free of charges, it doesnot need registration. Only the daily Prothom Alo, the mostpopular Bangla daily needs registraiton fees. None of the Bangla newspapers offer search option of itsarchive

Nutshell…

In can be concluded that users of Bangladeshi online newspapers,specially the Bangla newspapers, have a very limited scope to addinformation to the site.

Other Bangladeshi websites - Interactive

www.somewhereinblog.net is first Bangla blog engine,popular among the students and journalists also. It hasbecome a public forum to discuss social and political issuesas well posting poems and short stories in Bangla. One of the blogger of the site has already published abook, collection of postings, while another volume is comingsoon. <drishtipat.org> is initiated by young Bangladeshiexpatriates. Its language is English and promotes humanrights issues in Bangladesh.

Continued…

Drishtipat is an initiative by elite class Bangladeshidiasporas in North America, it has branches in UK andAustralia. Other online portals offer chat rooms, discussion forums,download of Bangla music (MP3), and links to importantBangladeshi sites and newspapers. In these websites, users have the scope to use differentinteractive tools to add information in the sites.

Problems of Bangladeshi online newspapers

Problems of localization of language (i.e. there is no Banglasearch engine, it is almost impossible to give feedback inBanglaLack of adequate manpower to maintain the online edition,as well as lack of training and funds

Suggestions

Well-planned and combined efforts by government andprivate sector to localize online technologies in Bangla Provide easy feedback options, like e-mail to the journalistsor discussion forums. Introduction of editor’s blog (i.e. BBC Online and Asian Ageof India)

Further Study

Large-scale study to analyse the situation As well as to identify relations between diasporiccommunication and online journalism Focus can also be given on citizen journalism, media andpolitics (the recent case is Myanmar, situation of Bangladeshcan also be analysed considering its present political systemwhen a quasi-military regime has imposed censorship onmainstream media)

Thank you

Questions please…