The Bias Of Bangladesh's Media Towards Yellow Journalism

Abstract:

The underlying objective of my research paper “Is Bangladesh’s media more biased towards yellow journalism?” seeks to find out how yellow journalism and fabricated news have an impact on the general people of Bangladesh. I undertook this research to shade light on yellow journalism and its adverse effects. Media of Bangladesh is almost like an ‘alternative watchdog’ on corruption. But recently, news bodies are becoming dishonest and as a result there is more publication of fake news circulating in the media. It is without any doubt that the government of Bangladesh is moving towards a more authoritarian rule, and the news bodies of Bangladesh is censoring crucial information which the government doesn’t want us to see. The study revealed that there is very low freedom of expression in the media of Bangladesh and it is more biased towards yellow journalism. Folks I surveyed agreed that promoting efficient and pro-active mass media in Bangladesh will help highlight and overcome the corruption. I also found out that most people believe Bangladesh’s paper and electronic media is more active in the fight against corruption in Bangladesh than of any other anti-corruption bodies. The study thoroughly unfolds the idea that yellow journalism persists in the Bangladesh’s media and it should be totally eradicated before it’s too late.

Introduction:

Yellow journalism in its simplest idea is the exaggeration and appalling of news that uses catchy headlines in order to increase the publication or sale of the specific news. This scandalmonger news first started off as more sensational, dramatic, comedy stories with the use of cartoons, more like comics. But how this petty and satire news became one of the main reasons of shaking the world up to its feet? It all started in 1890s when America entered the Spanish-American war. The New York World and New York Journal the famous newspapers back then, started to sensationalize and exaggerate the news and articles about the war. Even nowadays, many people still consider and claims that yellow journalism had a big hand in contributing to the starting of Spanish-American war.

The focus of my research will be how the media of Bangladesh and yellow journalism in it is effecting the local people. Bangladesh is a country with relentless change, of course not with its government at least. As the government is moving to a one party state, the freedom of the press, the publications and freedom of expression is decreasing. And, as these things are decreasing, yellow journalism, fake news and fake publications are increasing. I would like to know how these things are effecting the people and how are they making differences. I hope to find answers to such questions through my research work.

Review of literature:

Yellow journalism is a very critical and debatable topic nowadays. The differences between fake news and real news has been a topic of interest in the research world for many years. Journalism is something very few people pay heed to. It is often overlooked and may be deemed unimportant. And overlooking journalism can not only have an impact on the society but can impact the world. Similarly, in Ahmad’s blog (2002) he referred yellow journalism as the eye catching and sensational news that uses catchy headlines with the target to increase publication of that particular newspaper, magazine or article. In Ahmad’s blog he clarifies that yellow journalism and fake news have linkages to the starting of Spanish-American war. William Pulitzer’s newspaper The New York World and William Rudolph Herst’s New York Journal first started to sensationalize, dramatize and put the use of comedy stories, cartoons, et cetera into their newspapers. After publications of exaggerations and fabrications of the terrible conditions in Cuba in those newspapers, led to the Spanish-American war. It is important to consider this because it says how dangerous and threatening yellow journalism or fake news can be. In Ahmad’s blog he showed some examples of yellow journalism, which are how Samsung once paid their 1.2 billion dollars in settlement to Apple in nickels, story of World War 1 photo which shows an enemy spy being shot by the firing squad whereas, the photographer of that photo was posing as a spy. In the context of Bangladesh, Ahmad suggested that there were certain fake publications about how Sajeeb Wazed Joy, the son of prime minister Sheikh Hasina died in a plane crash, law enforcers massacring hundreds of Hefazat men in the Motijheel’s Shapla Chattar area when they were demonstrating against bloggers and refused to retreat.

Khan (2018) also suggested that yellow journalism and the fake news is spreading across Bangladesh like a wildfire. In his recent publication in Dhaka Tribune, one of the legitimate and leading news site of Bangladesh, he told that a fake clickbait headline was used by a reputed Bangla-language online news portal that said “law enforcers prevent a dangerous terrorist attack attempt.” The actual incident was a student got beaten up by security guards at Bashundhara Residential Area. None of the details were true which was posted by the online news portal. It changed the entire scenario by calling it a terrorist attack. The report by the online news portal automatically incited panic among the people of Bangladesh, as they are still emotionally recovering from the deep wounds left by the Holey Artisan attack almost 3 years ago. Khan found out that there are certain laws and measures against these malpractices but most are inadequate.

According to Shah Alamgir, chief of Press Institute of Bangladesh (Bdnews24, 2016), yellow journalism is on the rise. He said this while speaking at a meeting in Bangladesh Sangbadik Forum, a platform of local correspondents. Alamgir mentioned that TV channels appoint district and Upazila reporters and journalists who pays the channels to get licenses and identification cards and are told to use that to make their income. He specified that TV channels don’t take any part in training the correspondents after appointment.

Bangladesh Press Council has declared fake publication by daily Kaler Kantho reports about Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman being involved in the August 21, 2004 grenade attack (The Daily Star ,2011). After a lengthy hearing, lawyers on the both sides declared Kaler Kontho resorted to yellow journalism by fabricating and publishing the fake news. These type of fake news are often published and broadcasted by the owners or publishers of certain newspapers to degrade the reputation of their competition. They often resort to negative competition against their rivals by publishing fake news which serves their interests and goes against the ethics of journalism.

Information minister Abul Kamal Azad has informed the country’s parliament that government is doing everything necessary to enact laws that will help curb yellow journalism (Zee News, 2010). He discussed how land grabbers and state wealth looters are becoming editors of newspapers to use journalist community to safeguard their wealth. Newspapers, televisions and radio channels are making fortune by publishing fake and misleading news to tarnish image of ministers, lawmakers, and the government. Information minister also said that an individual must have 15 years of journalism experience to become an editor of a newspaper and the ministry is moving to investigate and cancel the licenses of those editors who have no such experience in journalism.

Hypothesis:

Bangladesh’s media have a huge impact on its society. As Bangladesh is in the list of developing country now, it is stepping towards a more digital world. Medias, being the watchdogs of the society is taking over. From my research, I expect to find that whether people are happy with the current situation that Bangladesh is facing, its media and journalism. I think that Bangladesh is turning into a one-party state and there is an increase in corruption, which is not being broadcasted or reported. As a result, I think yellow journalism has stepped up its game as there is less authenticity in the media now.

Research Methodology:

For my primary research questions, I have conducted a survey questionnaire among friends and family members and the students of the North South University whose ages are between 18 to 26. A survey questionnaire containing an assortment of questions related to the research theme was given to them. This survey has been conducted to find out what impact yellow journalism have on the general public of Bangladesh, and what they have to say about the media of Bangladesh and its yellow journalism. I also took some certain suggestions and opinions into consideration regarding Bangladesh’s media and its yellow journalism. The survey was carried out on 30 folks chosen randomly. The goal is to gather enough data to solve my questions and to prove my hypothesis.

For my secondary research, I have taken information from various magazines and related articles about Bangladesh’s media and its adverse effects. I also collected information from the internet by using standard search engines like Google and Google scholar.

Data Presentation and Analysis:

The survey has been conducted among friends, family members and students from North South University, who falls in the age group 18 to 26. By conducting the folks, I have collected my survey to know whether my hypothesis can be supported or not and draw a conclusion from it. Below I have discussed all the surveys in various graphical forms and analyzed them.

The first question I asked was pretty straightforward. Upon getting the answers, I noticed that 14 % of the people watch and read news regularly almost on a daily basis. 17% of the people said they don’t watch or read news at all, while the remaining 69% said that they sometimes watch or read in their leisure time. The data is being represented by a pie chart. The results were as expected. The data collected shows most people sometimes watch and read news. The 17% who denied watching or reading news claimed that they never had any interest in the first place.

In the bar graph above, the x-axis represents the news channels and y-axis represents the responses. It shows how many people think that which news channels are legitimate. Around 18 people out of 30 seems to think that Daily Star posts legitimate news. 7 people trusts Dhaka Tribune. 4 people thinks that Prothom Alo is legit and the remaining 1 person voted for Kaler Kantho. As expected, majority of the people agreed that Daily Star posts legitimate news all over Bangladesh. As per my secondary research, the graph above agrees with it.

Results show approximately 4 people believe that there is freedom of expression in the media of Bangladesh. 7 people thinks that there is sometimes freedom of expression and sometimes not. 12 people believe that freedom of expression in media is limited, and the rest 6 people claims that there is no freedom of expression in the media of Bangladesh. The data collected clearly shows that most of the people thinks that there is limited or very low amount of freedom of expression in the media of Bangladesh. This can be related to increasingly authoritarian government cracking down on the freedom of speech and censoring certain news and broadcasts.

The above doughnut graph represents that out of 30, 16 people agreed that Bangladesh’s media is more biased towards yellow journalism. 11 people were confused and voted for maybe and 3 people voted no. information from the above graph shows that most people agreed Bangladesh’s media supports or at least are forced to support yellow journalism. This can be the case, as journalists often censor certain publications and sometimes hide the real news behind an incident. This makes room for fake news. For example, in the case of Bangladesh road-safety protests, there were many fake news circulating in the media.

In the bar graph above, the x-axis represents the number of responses and y-axis represents the number of total respondents. It shows how many people thinks that promoting efficient and pro-active mass media in Bangladesh will help highlight and overcome the corruption. Around 44.8% voted yes, 34.5% voted maybe and the rest 20.7% voted no. The majority of the people thinks that promoting efficient and pro-active mass media in Bangladesh will help highlight and overcome corruption. Medias in Bangladesh needs to get a grip on and expose the corrupted officials and representatives that runs the country. For example, in the case of Bangladesh’s national general election, the medias were not very effective at exposing the authorities and votes that were rigged.

The above bar graph represents what the respondents think about Bangladesh’s paper and electronic media, and its contribution in being active in the fight against corruption in Bangladesh than of other anti-corruption bodies. 37% agreed that it is more active, 33.3% voted for maybe and the rest 29.6% voted no. Actually, Bangladesh’s media is becoming more active day by day in comparison to the last decade. A recent news and publication by a private television channel led to the suspension of the Director of Anti-Corruption Commission on the charges of leaking information, breaching service discipline and taking bribes. This is one of the very few examples of the media being active in the fight against corruption.

Question 7: The government claims that it is ‘media friendly,’ do you think otherwise?

The above graph represents that out of 30 people, 22 doesn’t believe that the government is ‘media friendly’ and only 8 disagree. The majority of the people believe that the government is not media friendly and doesn’t let local newspapers and television channels to reveal the dark side of the reality.

The next question I asked is to give the respondents opinion regarding the above question. There were some good opinions posted by the respondents. First of all, there are opinions which indicated that the government certainly does have control over the media and censors’ information that would harm the government’s reputation. Such incidents happened in the recent past and many newspapers and TV channels have been threatened to shut down. Moreover, in many cases serious incidents keep happening but there is no or very low media coverage on that incident, for example: the student movement last year. Attacks on journalists during the student’s protest and during the general election contradicts the government’s claim.

The above graph represents Bangladesh’s media and its critical role in being one of the main watchdogs of the nation on corruption. Around 51.7% agreed that Bangladesh’s media is one of the main watchdogs of the nation on corruption, whereas 48.3% denies. Majority thinks that certain newspapers and TV channels are in fact doing great as being one of the watchdogs of the nation on corruption.

The last question I asked is to give the respondents opinion regarding the above question. It was a very debatable question. Most folks agreed that Bangladesh’s media is one of the main watchdogs of the nation on corruption. Most people believe media plays a vital role in any given state. There is almost no justice for the corruption in Bangladesh, but what little justice we get is partly because of the media coverage which makes people demand justice. The media in any country plays an important role in being the watchdog of the nation for corruption. Contrasting ideas indicated that if Bangladesh’s media covered all the news about certain national events, such as election, corruption would have reduced. There is barely any news about corruption and we saw that in the case of Shahidul Alam, a photojournalist, teacher and social activist. They reported that he was treated nicely but as soon as Shahidul came out, he said the exact opposite.

Summary of research findings:

The data I collected matched my hypothesis. According to the surveys, yellow journalism persists in Bangladesh no matter what the overcoming measures are. It is quite shocking how Bangladesh’s media still have low freedom of expression even today. From my research I found out that certain newspapers and television channels are earning more clout by selling fabricated and fake news.

From the above analysis and graphs, we can see that most of the people watch or read news sometimes, in their leisure times mostly. We can also conclude that folks prefer Daily Star over other newspapers as they think of it as a legitimate news body. Although, we might see many news channels private or public operating, there is a low freedom of expression. News channels and medias are stuck in a circle drawn by the government and cannot move or report freely. Bangladesh’ media is indeed biased towards yellow journalism, which most people agrees to. Majority of the people believe that promoting efficient and pro-active mass media in Bangladesh can help highlight and overcome corruption, as long as the government doesn’t intervene. It is very crucial for Bangladesh’s paper and electronic media to post authentic news as it is more active in the fight against corruption in Bangladesh than of any other anti-corruption bodies. From my research, I also found out that most people do not believe that the government is friendly towards the media.

Conclusion:

The data I collected matched my hypothesis strongly, yellow journalism is like a plague that is spreading across media. It has affected the people of Bangladesh in various ways altering and changing their day to day activities. Political support and help of the government leaders is now needed the most to eradicate the widespread corruption in the media and news channels. General people of Bangladesh spend a large chunk of their time watching television and reading newspapers. Therefore, it is important that the viewers receive true information by watching and reading the news. Corruption has engulfed the media like any other corrupted bodies or institutions of the country. Many bloggers, journalists and editors live in fear and even felt the wrath of the government raining upon them just because they don’t believe in posting fake news. The government claims that it is “media friendly”, what kind of friend is this?