scholarly journals Digital Media and Political Communication in Bangladesh

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Md. Sayeed Al-Zaman

A healthy and democratic political community is built on effective and meaningful communication among diverse political groups and individuals. Political engagement in earlier days was confined to a limited number of people, which often impeded the rational criticism and effective- ness of public policies. In Bangladesh, many people remain outside the boundaries of policymaking. To a cer- tain degree, traditional media failed to bridge the gap be- tween public and political authority. Digital media has re- cently entered into public life and offers various groups a chance to engage in political communication. Even com- munication through digital media has started to deter- mine the fortune of political events in Bangladesh like elsewhere in the world. Therefore, digital media, as a key player in political communication, has to be studied care- fully. In this article, it has been discussed why and how digital media has earned power regarding political com- munication. This study also seeks the state of democracy and political pluralism in contemporary Bangladesh. Identifying three key players of Bangladesh politics: polit- ical leaders, political activists, and grassroots citizens, this article further elucidates the nature of their chemistry in the digital age.

Author(s):  
Mokhtar Elareshi ◽  
Mohammed Habes ◽  
Sana Ali ◽  
Abdulkrim Ziani

The rise of SNS facilitated politicians with new opportunities to communicate directly with voters. Especially during election campaigns. Twitter provides female politicians with a space to exercise their political tasks beyond traditional media, especially in some Arab countries. Based on the framing theory, this study aims to identify how the female politicians in Bahrain utilised Twitter to present themselves for Parliamentary election campaigns in 2018. The researchers scrutinised the phenomenon using a thematic analysis of n = 263 tweets posted by two Bahraini female candidates. Results revealed that although politicians largely preferred Twitter in election campaigns to reinforce support and mobilisation for political engagement, two selected candidates lacked interaction with their supporters. Thus, the researchers concluded that the Bahraini female politicians have a long way to represent themselves in digital media politics as men widely benefit from personalisation more than females.


2021 ◽  
pp. 026666692098340
Author(s):  
Kevin Onyenankeya

The future of journalism is being shaped by the convergence of technology and societal shifts. For indigenous language press in Africa battling to stay afloat amidst stiff competition from traditional media, the pervasive and rapidly encroaching digital transformation holds both opportunities and potential threats. Using a qualitative approach, this paper examined the implication of the shift to digital media for the future of the indigenous language newspaper in Africa and identifies opportunities for its sustainability within the framework of the theories of technological determinism and alternative media. The analysis indicates poor funding, shrinking patronage, and competition from traditional and social media as the major factors facing indigenous newspapers. It emerged that for indigenous language newspapers to thrive in the rapidly changing and technology-driven world they need to not only adapt to the digital revolution but also explore a business model that combines a futuristic outlook with a practical approach.


Author(s):  
ROBERTO F. CARLOS

Extensive research on political participation suggests that parental resources strongly predict participation. Other research indicates that salient political events can push individuals to participate. I offer a novel explanation of how mundane household experiences translate to political engagement, even in settings where low participation levels are typically found, such as immigrant communities. I hypothesize that experiences requiring children of Latinx immigrants to take on “adult” responsibilities provide an environment where children learn the skills needed to overcome the costs associated with participation. I test this hypothesis using three datasets: a survey of Latinx students, a representative survey of young adults, and a 10-year longitudinal study. The analyses demonstrate that Latinx children of immigrants taking on adult responsibilities exhibit higher levels of political activity compared with those who do not. These findings provide new insights into how the cycle of generational political inequality is overcome in unexpected ways and places.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 205630512098445
Author(s):  
Nora Kirkizh ◽  
Olessia Koltsova

Availability of alternative information through social media, in particular, and digital media, in general, is often said to induce social discontent, especially in states where traditional media are under government control. But does this relation really exist, and is it generalizable? This article explores the relationship between self-reported online news consumption and protest participation across 48 nations in 2010–2014. Based on multilevel regression models and simulations, the analysis provides evidence that those respondents who reported that they had attended a protest at least once read news online daily or weekly. The study also shows that the magnitude of the effect varies depending on the political context: surprisingly, despite supposedly unlimited control of offline and online media, autocratic countries demonstrated higher effects of online news than transitional regimes, where the Internet media are relatively uninhibited.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta N. Lukacovic

This study analyzes securitized discourses and counter narratives that surround the COVID-19 pandemic. Controversial cases of security related political communication, salient media enunciations, and social media reframing are explored through the theoretical lenses of securitization and cascading activation of framing in the contexts of Slovakia, Russia, and the United States. The first research question explores whether and how the frame element of moral evaluation factors into the conversations on the securitization of the pandemic. The analysis tracks the framing process through elite, media, and public levels of communication. The second research question focused on fairly controversial actors— “rogue actors” —such as individuals linked to far-leaning political factions or militias. The proliferation of digital media provides various actors with opportunities to join publicly visible conversations. The analysis demonstrates that the widely differing national contexts offer different trends and degrees in securitization of the pandemic during spring and summer of 2020. The studied rogue actors usually have something to say about the pandemic, and frequently make some reframing attempts based on idiosyncratic evaluations of how normatively appropriate is their government's “war” on COVID-19. In Slovakia, the rogue elite actors at first failed to have an impact but eventually managed to partially contest the dominant frame. Powerful Russian media influencers enjoy some conspiracy theories but prudently avoid direct challenges to the government's frame, and so far only marginal rogue actors openly advance dissenting frames. The polarized political and media environment in the US has shown to create a particularly fertile ground for rogue grassroots movements that utilize online platforms and social media, at times going as far as encouragement of violent acts to oppose the government and its pandemic response policy.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis Lee ◽  
Joseph Man Chan

This book analyzes how collective memory regarding the 1989 Beijing student movement and the Tiananmen crackdown was produced, contested, sustained, and transformed in Hong Kong between 1989 and 2019. Drawing on data gathered through multiple sources such as news reports, digital media content, vigil onsite surveys, population surveys, and in-depth interviews with activists, rally participants, and other stakeholders, it identifies six key processes in the dynamics of social remembering: memory formation, memory mobilization, memory institutionalization, intergenerational transfer, memory repair, and memory balkanization. Memories of Tiananmen demonstrates how a socially dominant collective memory, even one the state finds politically irritable, can be generated and maintained through constant negotiation and efforts by a wide range of actors. While the book mainly focuses on the interplay between political changes and Tiananmen commemoration in the historical period within which the society enjoyed a significant degree of civil liberties, it also discusses how the trajectory of the collective memory may take a drastic turn as Hong Kong's autonomy is abridged. The book promises to be a key reference for anyone interested in collective memory studies, social movement research, political communication, and China and Hong Kong studies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Riedl ◽  
Carsten Schwemmer ◽  
Sandra Ziewiecki ◽  
Lisa M. Ross

Despite an increasing information overflow in the era of digital communication, influencers manage to draw the attention of their followers with an authentic and casual appearance. Reaching large audiences on social media, they can be considered as digital opinion leaders. In the past, they predominantly appeared as experts for topics like fashion, sports, or gaming and used their status to cooperate with brands for marketing purposes. However, since recently influencers also turn towards more meaningful and political content. In this article, we share our perspective on the rise of political influencers using examples of sustainability and related topics covered on Instagram. By applying a qualitative observational approach, we illustrate how influencers make political communication look easy, while at the same time seamlessly integrating product promotions in their social media feeds. In this context, we discuss positive aspects of political influencers like contributions to education and political engagement, but also negative aspects such as the potential amplification of radical political ideology or conspiracy theories. We conclude by highlighting political influencers as an important research topic for conceptual and empirical studies in the future.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 70
Author(s):  
Ayşe Aslı Sezgin

“Social network sites” first began to be used as new tools of political communication during the 2008 Presidential Election in the United States, and their importance became even more apparent during the Arab Spring. In the course of this, the social network sites became a new and widely discussed channel of communication. In addition to its ability to bring together people from different parts of the world by removing any time and space barriers, creates a virtual network that allows individuals with shared social values to take action in an organized manner. Furthermore, this novel, versatile and multi-faceted tool of political communication has also provided a new mean for observing various aspects of social reactions to political events. Instead of voters expressing their political views through their votes from one election to the other, we nowadays have voters who actively take part in political processes by instantly demonstrating their reactions and by directly communicating their criticisms online.


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