Assessment of the Media Sector in Bangladesh

"There is no such practice of carrying out investigative reporting projects in the Bangladesh context. We cannot afford to engage our human resources in investigative projects for days and months."

This report presents findings and recommendations from an assessment of the media sector in Bangladesh, with the objective to provide the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Bangladesh with a comprehensive, overarching picture of the media sector and to contribute to future programmatic designs and strategies. The assessment examined four primary research areas: the legal framework and political will, market trends, professional capacity, and media literacy. It also explored perceptions of women in the newsroom, as well as media outlet management and financial viability.  

The USAID Office of Democracy, Human Rights and Governance (DRG) in Bangladesh commissioned ME&A, Inc. (ME&A) to conduct the assessment. The research used a mixed-methods approach that included a document review, key informant interviews (KIIs) with media sector stakeholders, moderated focus group discussions (FGDs), a media audience consumption survey, semi-structured assessments of media outlet management and financial viability, and a content analysis of domestically produced news content.

The findings are presented across four main sections:

Legal Framework and Political Will

Under this research area, researchers sought to answer the following questions: What is the current legal and regulatory environment that governs the work of: electronic, print, and social media; independent journalists; and media associations? And what are the barriers preventing journalists and media outlets from freely disseminating independent news? The results showed, for example, that there was agreement across international rights organisations that laws currently on the books and proposed legislation allow the government to limit opportunities for creating professional news content by actively harassing outlets and independent journalists. This situation, in turn, has led to news outlets and reporters censoring their own content and news-gathering operations.

Market Trends

Under this research area, the assessment sought to answer the following questions: What are the current media market trends in supply and demand including, but not limited to, print, broadcast, and digital media, both state- and privately owned, and independent media outlets? What segments of society are these different media outlets targeting? What are the leading media outlets in terms of audience consumption (viewership, listenership, readership), based on best available data? The assessment found TV to be the leading media option for Bangladeshi audiences and the primary source of news and information across the country. At the same time, survey respondents recognise a growing preference for digital platforms as a destination for information content, with consumption of print media and radio failing to compete effectively with TV and digital outlets. Somoy TV is the primary media channel watched across all age groups, while Gazi TV with its sports programming holds significant viewership amongst younger audiences. As audiences age, consumption of the state-owned Bangladesh Television increases. Survey data indicated significant internet usage across all respondent groups, highlighted by over 42% of males reporting the use of the internet and social media for more than four hours each day. Women and older audience groups do not report the same level of daily digital use, but most demographic groups reported spending one hour or more online each day.

Professional Capacity

In this research category, the following questions were asked: What is the level of professionalism in journalism for the quality of media products? And what are the weaknesses and areas for improvement at both the institutional and individual media professional levels? When examining the professional capacity of media outlets, the researchers sought to gauge levels of trust in various information sources, as this is seen to provide an initial indicator of how audiences view the quality of news and information content. The results, for example, showed that there are divergent levels of trust across different demographic groups included in the survey. While men consider digital sources most reliable, females predominantly find TV as the source they turn to for credible news about current events. In addition, FGD participants conveyed substantial criticisms of TV news coverage and the credibility of information available from domestic outlets. An analysis of content according to the criteria (objectivity, accuracy, clarity; language; balance, content and format; and gender sensitivity) showed that across the news report sample set, overall scores were poor for all seven criteria, without a single criterion reaching an average aggregate score. With regard to gender sensitivity, women were either under-represented or omitted altogether, as either sources of information or as a demographic group affected by the issue covered in reports.

Media Literacy

Here, the research explored the following: What is the overall citizens' media literacy in Bangladesh, what is their digital media literacy, and what are the gaps in the public's media literacy? The assessment found, for example, that gaps in media literacy exist across audiences, both for gender groups and age cohorts. Even for Bangladeshi audiences that do attempt to verify information, nearly 4 in 10 simply consider the presence of "likes" and "shares" of individual posts as competent measures of information integrity.

In addition, research into the perceptions of women in newsrooms showed that informants interviewed throughout the assessment identified a struggle for women taking both leadership roles and functional positions in Bangladeshi news organisations, across all media channels. Executives from media outlets, leaders of media development organisations, and other media sector stakeholder groups all recognised the lack of female representation in domestic media organisations. Results of the research around the management and financial viability of media outlets showed that most media outlets lacked fundamental media business planning systems - including the active development of mission statements, strategic plans, annual budgets, and revenue generation or sales and marketing plans.

The report concludes with a list of recommendations in the form of strategic principles for designing media development interventions that both focus assistance resources and allow for the greatest likelihood of positive and more sustained impact. Some are specific to USAID implementation, but others are more widely applicable. They include, for example:

Target Systems and Outlets - Future development activities could be intentionally designed to introduce and improve systems within media outlets - systems that can be replicated and accepted as standard practice. These activities could include: newsroom management, newscast formatting, and scheduling; news and current affairs segment production; news gathering and report production; news production research; cross-platform content formatting (across legacy and digital media platforms); audience research analysis; and revenue generation/diversification strategy.

Package Assistance for Creation of Content (Newscasts/Current Affairs Programs) - A common source of frustration with the workshop model of training assistance is that even with skills transferred to individuals, resources do not exist within a media outlet to take advantage of newly acquired skills. An alternative approach is to intentionally design assistance around programme content production that increases the likelihood that improved content in the form of TV newscasts, digital video/audio current affairs series, and current affairs (magazine format) series will be disseminated to audiences.

Produce Alternative Program Formats - Providing production support for the creation of alternative content formats is often an innovative approach to addressing important societal issues apart from core news programming. Alternative formats, including scripted drama and news satire, can take advantage of gaps in domestic programming formats and create new opportunities for audiences to engage on critical topics.

Incorporate Research as a Foundation for Media Development Activities - Professional media audience research should be a core component of future USAID media development activities. Use of international media industry-standard quantitative and qualitative audience consumption research is fundamental to media outlet sustainability and success - and should inform decisions regarding prioritisation of audiences, selection of media outlet beneficiaries, identification of potential content production formats, and prioritisation of media channels (TV, radio) and digital platforms through which outlets can engage Bangladeshi audiences.

Window of Opportunity: A Dedicated, Women-Focused Platform - With limited representation of women in editorial management and news production, there is a demographic disconnect between the producers of news and current affairs content on the one hand, and a major audience seeking to consume information content, on the other. One development response could be to establish a dedicated platform for female-focused news and current affairs programming. This process would involve, as a first step, using audience research data to determine if and where existing female audiences exist in order to identify an untapped gap in female demand for news and information.