The country witnessed a stronger economic growth during the last few years. The economic growth trickled down on the media industry as well where many industrialists invested in the sector. Advertisements from large businesses and corporate giants continued to pour in and strengthened the sector with higher revenues. Media workers, especially reporters, are seeing better pays and incentives lately as the industry now is willing to share some of its increased revenues.

There are around ten Bangla and eight English newspapers with a large circulation while six private satellite TV channels that are catering to the information and entertainment hungry people.

The recent development in information technology has paved the way for online journalism and added a new charm to the profession. Online journalism is getting more popular these days as people are getting more politics and current events conscious and they want news updates any time of the day.

Even though there have been a few examples of legal and financial debacles in both print and electronic media, the industry is growing stronger with hard work of energetic young journalists.

Journalists especially those working in TV stations are no longer afraid of losing their jobs in case a TV station goes out of business since the scenario is changed with a surge in the number of TV stations.

Only a few years back, most of the young journalists graduating from Dhaka University (DU) were hesitant to join the media industry. Whereas, more of them are now willing to settle down in this profession.

Zahid Newaz Khan, chief reporter of the daily Bhorer Kagoj, said the mass uprising in the 90s worked as a catalyst in introducing democracy as well as freedom of press in the country.

"When the press became free from the clutch of autocracy, many young people started to take journalism as their careers. The media flourished at that time and Ekushey TV [a private satellite TV channel] started to operate. It [Ekushey TV] was a milestone in journalism and they created a new ground," he said.

"In the past, people used to think that the work of a journalist was similar to that of a poet or a writer. ... Reporters were also quite casual in appearance. But now they wear impressive and professional attire. ... Journalism is truly a career now," Zahid added.

"A few years ago, people who had failed in their careers resorted to journalism. But now we are getting many quality individuals who are coming [to the media] by choice. Newspapers have also changed in terms of quality, display, content and looks with the introduction of colour photographs and computer composing, he said.

Furthermore, publication of supplements has created more jobs for those who are not interested to work with hard news, added Zahid.

Dr Sheikh Abdus Salam, chairman of Mass Communication and Journalism department at DU, said the media's emergence in the job market and its higher wages are two of the major reasons behind this new trend of young journalists joining the media.

"We get requests from media houses who want to hire our students. Previously, they used to provide hands-on training to them, but now they [media houses] have expanded and want skilled recruits whom they won't need to train," said Dr Salam.

Media is a challenging field and many youngsters like to take up the challenge of discovering their own abilities to write a story that requires finishing the story after collecting the facts within a specific timeline.

"Another reason is having an exposure. If someone joins a government or a private firm, his or her name and signature would only be visible on official documents of that particular organisation. On the contrary, a journalist in the print media has a better opportunity of exposure to the readers," said Dr Salam.

The electronic media -- radio and TV -- takes the exposure of a journalist even one step further by airing a journalist's voice or video to a larger audience and thus making this profession more attractive to the job seekers. Recognition and popularity among the audience are added attractions for the journalists in this media.

However, many prefer print media to the electronic one because the latter mainly covers surface reporting in this country while the print media does more in-depth reports. Nevertheless, preference of working at TV stations is becoming increasingly popular.

Shah Alamgir, head of news at Ekushey TV, said even though we are experiencing a tide in the field of journalism, we are yet to have a solid infrastructure.

"We do not have proper guidelines in this sector. Many newspapers do not even have any recruitment policy. They do not have any proper salary structure or a wage board either.

It happens because the owners are yet to achieve professionalism. For this reason, journalism has long ways to go before being considered an industry [to build careers] in this country," said Alamgir.

About journalists working for media houses where alleged black money holders are involved, he said, "They are working for those houses because it is their job. But, there are also some people [in this industry] who are driven byethics. It is one's personal matter to join that particular media house."

"We have to admit that in many sectors including the media, we see the influence of black money. But we have given the opportunity to whiten black money at the state level. By doing so, we have encouraged those who hold black money. I cannot say that all newspapers and TV channel owners are honest. They might have ulterior motives," said Alamgir.

Munni Saha, chief reporter at private satellite channel ATN Bangla, said the nuances of journalism are being redefined as TV stations and dailies started giving away cars to their reporters. "Two Bangla and English dailies under the same group took a big step by giving away cars to their reporters. Later on, other media houses started to follow their example. That media group has created new grounds in professionalism by providing this facility to encourage those who are doing well. This has added an extra prestige to the job."