New media: Catalyst for creating new opportunities

Bangladesh keeps up the global pace of prevalent ‘new media’

The use of new media tools in trade and investments has added a new dimension altogether. The new media, of course thanks to technology, has now been an everyday sidekick to business development strategies. The websites of business, commercial, financial, services and consultancy firms are updated on a regular basis, even down to their website graphics design.

The respective organisations are also disseminating their information among their audience through social media networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter. Many corporations are now slashing down their print media advertising budgets, and putting them instead on online news and other popular websites. Various products and promotional information are being delivered through mobile phone SMS (short text message), not to forget emails.

Bangladesh is not behind in any way – rather keeping up the global pace of expansion of the new media. Foreign exchange earning by Bangladeshis through outsourced jobs has gradually increased, thanks to relaxed rules for receipt of royalty. Technology savvy youths are the frontrunners in this field. Given the new media expansion in business and commerce, the number of Internet users is also on rise. This increase is not only limited to zilla-upazillas (district and sub-district) outside the capital city, but has also expanded to the union porishod level. Businessmen in the rural areas have started integrating the use of tablet phones and notebooks into their businesses.

Currently 30.4 million Bangladeshis use Internet, according to a recent survey by Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC). Earlier data showed there were 29.6 million users of the internet through mobile phones, 1.2 million through internet service provider (ISP) and PSTN (public switched telephone network) users, and 0.3 million through Wimax internet. It was later found that the number of cell phone internet users had increased by one million. However, BTRC has not released the latest statistics in this regard on a regular basis.

The world’s largest social media networking website, Facebook, is soon going to acquire Microsoft’s online advertising firm, Atlas Ads. Similarly, they are planning on strengthening the ad firm. Since it currently has 100 million users, Facebook will be able to generate advertisements from its own users after acquiring the firm, said Nate Elliot, a social media analyst. Many at Facebook Inc. think that this will enhance the promotion of Facebook’s reputation to an even greater extent. They can also be used to strengthen their side of the competition against Google.

By and large Atlas Ads consists of studying about various aspects of online advertising. Through this, numerous product manufacturers can easily advertise their goods. Atlas eases that process of advertising. Critics now ponder over how this is going to change Facebook for their betterment. In 2012 they had registered an advertising sales of $430 million, a 36% increase from 2011. An Atlas takeover will propel that percentage to something even higher.

Many, if not all, reputed commercial and industrial corporations in the country are willing to shift their focus of advertisement to the new media. Some organisations now offer digital billboards, news websites, etc, contributing to increase in online advertisement revenue day by day. However, the use of new media has also introduced harassment through hacking in some cases. Given the rise in online transactions, the hackers eye online and mobile banking as their next prey.

In separate statements, leading global financial firms Goldman Sachs and Citi Group have said hackers are now trying to block user entry into their accounts. American banks have claimed that these are done by miscreants or organised criminals to intentionally close down their websites. They have also informed the media that if these cyber crimes go on, the cost of keeping their networks more secured would also rise – eventually putting pressure on the investors.

But bearing that criticism as a burden, Bangladesh carries new media on its shoulder and is progressing towards the future, amidst all the obstacles. Objections are also being raised however that apart from giving us information, source, opinion, freedom of speech, etc, there has been misuse of the new media. The regularly-updated technology of the new media is now the most dynamic medium for the mass media. Today we are receiving the same information and news through online news, online news networks, internet radio/tv, blogs and social media sites.

Even social awareness is being built through the new media. They are being adapted by the mainstream television, newspapers and radio – all having online versions. They help in filling the void of becoming an electronic medium of those components. Experts think they have arisen because of the limitations of the traditional media outlets. In the new media, television programmes, movies, diaries and journals do not have to be preserved only in paper. For example, the Encyclopedia Britannica, the set of books that was kept as a symbol of tradition and aristocracy, will now be preserved only digitally – leading to a new sunrise for the new media.

The new media can be seen today as representational or internet journalism. The audience has the ability to participate in the presentation of news and information. This is why it has been identified as a very powerful medium. Magazines, internet forums, web blogs, social blogs, etc are all identifiable to the new media audience and readers.

The building of relations between information and technology gathered pace since 1960. During the 1988 American Presidential elections, the new media, in the form of citizen journalism, came to prominence apart from the traditional mass media. Jay Rosen, a Professor of Journalism at New York University, helped in initiating the process.

The internet and mobile phones are now the most popular mediums for the new media. Given the wide expansion of the internet in the West, the number of newspapers being printed have dwindled to a substantial amount, leading to an increase in internet users. Even in our country nowadays, there is an increasing number of online news readers, the majority of whom happens to be expatriate Bangladeshis. Information is no more limited to the ruling coterie, the corporates, the executives or the policy-makers. Various groups, well-intentioned coterie, social analysts, root-level organisers – all are now the bearers of information, and their causes are propelled by the new media. It is also very democratic in nature.

The United News Bangladesh, a news agency, had begun its online operations as one of the forerunners of new media in Bangladesh in terms of use of new technology. A short-lived venture, Bangladeshinfo.com began its journey in 2000. But it is the advent of bdnews24.com at 2004, which really started to get the ball rolling.

Various promotions go on in blogs, from opinion formation to supporting movements. Somewhereinblog.com, amar blog, shocholayton, and other blog sites have led that wave. The web forum titled “Projonmo Forum & Muktomona Forum’ has led to unanimous position taking. Even the ongoing Shahbag movement was launched by new media users.

Cyberspace has allowed man to put forward his/her thoughts. But such media has been restricted in countries where there is no effective democratic rule. So this deduces that not everyone in the world can express his/her thoughts freely. Arundhati Roy, Noam Chomsky and other non-conformists have been using the new media to keep their verbal onslaught on the oppressors intact. But the mainstream media is still not broadcasting them to the public.

This has granted more credibility to the new media. The use of cyberspace is relatively low in the Subcontinent, but as the new media starts to pick up the pace, perhaps opinion formation for us may change for better. But we are still using it mostly as a medium of income generation.

It has been printed in the newspapers that bloggers and internet activists misappropriated money raised for humanitarian purposes. Side by side such criticism, we must bear in mind the social, economic, cultural and international context that has led to the rise of the new media.

The cyberspace is playing a key role in the expansion of the new media, but it must be utilised in the right direction. Similarly, the users’ rights must be defended. The ever-changing global landscape, social consciousness, forming relationships beyond boundaries, an introspective and objective look at the world – all must be enforced rightly. Only the optimum utilisation can bolster our products, services and our reputation, and can really add a new dimension.