The features of online news websites in Bangladesh

Abstract

The Internet has opened borderless opportunities in the field of journalism and mass communication, especially significant on how journalistic stories will be created and distributed across the multiple platforms. Since 2006 Bangladeshi mainstream news organizations have been transforming and reshaping their strategy towards being a digital-only news outlet. News organizations are now using different features of mobile devices and social media to tell stories and engage with their target audiences. We consider digital-only platforms as a new media, social media and convergence media platforms. Almost each traditional media outlet observed has the analogue or another version on the web. Social media platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, weblogs, Tik Tok have provided the opportunity for the traditional journalists to share news quickly, get feedback from the audience and have two-way communication with the reader. Over the years they have created thousands of new jobs for aspiring journalists. In this article, we analyze the basic features of online news media that exists in contemporary Bangladesh and provide an account of the development trends. We outline the new genres, techniques and use as a sample two most famous online news platforms: The Daily Star and bdnews24. This study is based on both primary and secondary sources of qualitative data to understand the new genres of online news media, challenges and opportunities to work in the ever-changing media landscape.