The New Journalism: In order to adapt to the necessity of the new era, we have to constantly change

In the classic sense, newspaper or the media is considered as vehicle of time. US author Mark Twain compared it to the every day’s sun. However, the media is not just a reflection of time; rather it creates a pathway for change and Bangladesh is its glaring example. The newspapers of this country used to become the comrade of courage and protest to transform the autonomy movement in the sixties to the independence movement. The new trends of journalism that began after the nineties are continuously playing a pivotal role as charioteer of the aspirations of the common people in all the democratic, secular, people-oriented movements in this country. A new term 'social responsibility' has been added to the new journalism.

The newspaper is changing daily in the twenty-first century. According to Mark Twain, the newspaper is being published daily just like the everyday sun rise, but its circumference, relevance, expansion are no longer limited. Now the newspaper has to create new ideas every day and has to present those in new ways, in new format. I'm not just talking about the online edition of the newspaper; I am neither talking about the three-dimensional role that newspaper has taken in combining text, photography and videography. It seems to me that the newspaper is now undergoing a change. The shape of newspaper is more or less the same as before, but its language and style is changing daily. The 'textbook theory' of news, editorial, feature that has dominated newspapers for decades is now almost obsolete. The overwhelming presence of social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram is also shaking and shaping the foundation of the traditional media.

If this phenomenon of change had been pushed to the shoulder of technological excellence, no one would be as reliever as me. I have grown up working in the media from the student life; I have now settled down along the Buriganga river from the basin of the Sunai, Kushiyara, Surmarivers. Is this media my well-known broadsheet or my emerald of my mind? I ask myself as saying: Is the change in the newspaper a mere CTP conversion from letter press? Is the evolution of the media a mere smartphone transformation from teleprinter? Rather, we are noticing that the new devices of information and communication technology are being 'customized' keeping the media in mind. It is a supplementary entity in the form of complementary.

It will be a little bit relief if the continuous change in the media would be the continuation of the new trend of ideology and state system that has been created around the world. We have seen that democracy came through the path of individualism; socialism came in response to the news of capitalism in a democracy and the socialist system has also faded away in the face of globalization. The media has become an integral part of local government elections in remote areas of Bangladesh as well. In the eighties or nineties, the media supported political ideology. Now it itself is making a new narrative of politics and the political parties are following it. Again, at the time of social media, we have to struggle to distinguish between real news and fake news.

This is a new time, new situation. Our media has never faced such situation before. How is this possible to adapt to it if we do not dream newly in a new day?It is a culture that one has to cheer the victory up seeing a new flying flag. In the new day of media, will we make chants of victory paying heed to that culture? We are in favor of invoking the new with the new promise. In order to adapt to the necessity of the new era, we have to constantly change, we have to be accompany of the change. We have to talk about the people; we have to talk about the country. We need to talk about the way to go forward with the spirit of secularism and democracy.

Mustafiz Shafi

 Acting Editor, The Daily Samakal