Speakers at a seminar on Thursday said Bangladesh’s traditional media was going through a rapid digital transformation and stressed the need on building up capability to cope with the situation.
Digitalisation of media in Bangladesh was taking place in a much faster pace and the mainstream media has to play a vital role in the transformation process, they told an Indo-Bangla conference on “Digital Media: Threats and Prospects” organised by Commonwealth Journalist Association (CJA), Bangladesh to mark the World Press Freedom Day 2017 at the National Press Club in the morning.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Mohammad Shahriar Alam was the chief guest at the conference attended by CJA members from Bangladesh and India.
Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) president Mostafa Jabbar presented the key-note paper at the conference attended, among others, by CJA Global President Mohendra Ved, CJA President Emeritus Hasan Shahriar, Bangladesh Chapter CJA President Saleh Chowdhury, Secretary General Shyamal Dutta, National Press Club President Mohammad Shafiqur Rahman, CJA members from India Kinshuk Nag and Joyonto Roy Chowdhury, Prothom Alo’s Joint Editor Abdul Quyum Mukul and Zahid Newaz Khan of Channel i.
Speaking on the occasion, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Mohammad Shahriar Alam said the digital transformation of media was a new era in Bangladesh.
He said though print media is going to have a few more years for analysis, but the young generation is tending to rely on the digital media.
“Print media is losing ground in a faster pace,” he said urging the mainstream media to come forward in building up a responsible digital media in the country.
Mohendra Ved said the digitalisation has made easier in access to information, but tricky in using at the same time.
Kinshuk Nath said the digital age has made newspapers redundant, but warned that wrong information pervade in digital media. People use digital media to propagate news while the traditional media is now a sunset industry, he added.
Zahid Newaz Khan said social media was greatly influencing the mainstream media in Bangladesh and it was time the teachers in journalism should take notice to teach their students. He also emphasised building news literacy among children so that they are not confused non-news items, publicised through social media, with news.
Referring to the Indiab perspective of digitalisation, the New Delhi Bureau Chief of The Telegraph and Secretary General of CJA India Joyonto Roy Chowdhury said there was a big explosion of smart phone use in India and the social media will be playing a vital role in the next Indian general elections.
Warning against the authenticity of some news in some of the social media, he also said that the social media will have a tremendous impact on policy making in some of the western countries like the US.
Presenting his key-note paper, Mostafa Jabbar stressed on building up a knowledge-based society to reap benefits of digitalisation. The sooner we shake hands with digital media, the better the country will benefit, he said.
