Our Messy Media

Our Messy Media

- Afsan Chowdhury

As the Dhaka University crisis - an interesting subplot that developed within the fold of the quota reform protests - escalated, it became obvious that the media space was an integral element of the situation. What the activists, police, Chhatra league cadres, general students or even the VC did or didn’t do was being projected on and through media. In a way the role of mass media, both professional or social media had literally taken the centre stage. Public opinion was being formed at a rate not seen before through it. No political party or parties could compete with influence or clout with social media which became the virtual Opposition. Meanwhile mainstream paid media batted mostly for the establishment including the Government as was expected and media world was itself split. Social media has now become a power equation in the media world and will be treated as such. The government is already busy tracking down the digital activists.

The nature of owned media

Most mainstream media outlets are recent products. Print media is respectable but barring very few are not very influential. TV which is where the power games are being played. Two kinds of TV products define media now, a. News. 2. Talk show. While one is relatively informative, the other is relatively subjective and judgmental. Between these two, dominant public opinion formation dynamics is dependent.