Education

Understanding Patterns in Bangladeshi Media

Promiti Prova Chowdhury

Presenting ideas and observations. Photo : ULAB

A Faculty-Student Research Conference on the theme of “Patterns in Bangladeshi Media” was arranged by the Media Studies and Journalism (MSJ) Department of University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) on April 24, 2011 at its seminar room located at campus B. The MSJ Department of ULAB presented its Spring Semester 2011 Media Exhibits broadly on the theme of “Patterns of Bangladesh” from April 24 to 27, 2011 which brought together the works of students from various courses. The conference took place on the inaugurating day which was dedicated to the “Research Paper Presentations” of the students from the course MSJ 406: Research Methodology, followed by two presentations from the faculties.

Associate Professor Anis Pervez, the instructor of the course, moderated the session. In his inaugurating speech he mentioned that research means focused and objective observation, then logically interpreting the observation. The core principle is to reduce biasness as much as possible. In this term the students have observed different patterns of the Bangladeshi media. Four groups, consisting three members each came up with their presentations in Power Point.

The first group, consisting of Tamanna Faiz, Kazi Rabeya Basri and Mirza Naved Jitu came up with the topic “Content Pattern of Business Pages in Bangladeshi Dailies”. They chose four most circulated newspapers of the country and came up with the findings that in an agro based economy there is next to nothing news on agricultural production and development. Moreover the contents mostly are influential content of business organisations, like, declarations, advertisements and notices.

The next team came up with another interesting topic, “Patterns of Telecom Television Commercials (TVCs) in Bangladesh.” Consisted of Sadia Doha, Sabera Hossain sara and Trisha Falguni, the group followed the quantitative approach and chose 21 TVCs of four leading telecom brands of the country during the months of January to April 2011. In their findings they showed that the most seen pattern in Telecom TVCs is the presentation of plain folks rather than celebrity endorsement. Then there comes celebrating special days and occasions, (Victory Day, Independence Day, Mother Language Day) common touch (emotional influence/persuasion) and music (jingle) approach. They recommend further research on this arena as it has created a mass appeal and a new trend in advertising.

The third team brought in another form of Mass Media, that is, radio. Ahtesham Imam, Towfiq-e-Alahi and Kaniz Fatema Lubna presented their topic on “Pattern of News in FM Radio Stations of Bangladesh”. They talked about the change in radio listeners in the last six years and how that has influenced the presentation of news in radio. Last but not the least, the fourth team, by Ishita Sharmin Rayhan, Farahnaz Huq and Muslima Jahan Setu, had also chosen 'Radio' -- narrowing down to “Patterns of Presenting Traffic Updates in Radio Stations”. By doing content analysis their objective was to identify common patterns of Traffic Update Programmes. Their sample was all the Traffic Update Programmes broadcasted from 8 am to 10 am in two of the private FM stations and the Bangladesh Betaar. They listened to the programmes for one week and came up with some interesting findings which include, the main source of collecting information of these stations is Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), the language is more informal in the FM stations, the message provided in these programmes are mostly awareness related, the schedule is almost the same in all the stations.

As it was a “Faculty-Student Research Conference”, two distinguished faculties of ULAB MSJ, Assistant Professor Hillol Sobhan and Assistant Professor M. Asiuzzaman presented their thesis that they did during their Masters. While presenting his work on “Exploring the War and Peace Journalism Tendencies in The Coverage of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) Mutiny in 2009 by Three Bangladeshi English Language Dailies,” Hillol Sobhan said, “In research everything has to be justified. You will have to know the answer of 'Why should I write a thesis?' Any research should bring about something new. Your own voice should be reflected in it. You can talk about relevant theories but your research should be an autonomous text.” Then M. Asiuzzaman presented his work which was on “The Fall of an Islamist Party: The Policies of Jamaat-e-Islami and the 2008 Bangladesh Election,” and he also convened the students to be more careful in defining the research question and using methods. The concluding remark was given by Head of the Department of MSJ, Dr. Jude Genilo where he announced the marks of the groups and discussed their ways of improvements.

Behavioural Change Patterns in Bangladesh

Salman Rob

Faculty members also presented their ideas. Photo : ULAB

University of Liberal Arts of Bangladesh (ULAB) presented the “Behavioral Change Patterns in Bangladesh” on 25 April. It was amazing to see so many students from the department of Media Studies and Journalism (MSJ) gathering under one roof and trying to do something. The event was held at ULAB, campus B. There were groups working at every corner of the building either with banners or projects and more. Professor Imran Rahman of ULAB started off the event with his speech where he mentioned how happy he is being a part of the whole event and was grateful to the teachers and students who worked so hard to pull this off. Special Guest Dr. Afroza mainly focused on women empowerment, the rights of women in Bangladesh and their perceptions. She also spoke about the evolution of women's development through welfare approach, economic self-reliance approach, efficiency approach and equality approach.

Students also spoke about behavioural change, women rights and thanked the teachers for supporting them throughout this event. There were also two presentations held by two groups of students regarding behavioural change. Both the groups did an extra-ordinary job with their presentations that had plans and facts on what can be done and what has already been done. They mentioned problems like how lack of education, outdated thoughts and the lack of confidence in a person create behavioural change. They showed clips of how our environment is very unfavourable to women and spoke about how everyone needed a 'wake up call' in this country. They also showed a documentary on women's rights and how they believe women can make a difference in the country and anywhere around the world and make bridge gaps.

Besides, all students encouraged the idea of re-cycling through project works and photographs. They called it the 'Earth Power'. It was, undoubtedly, an eventful day at ULAB. A very well organised seminar held by the students specially Imtiaz Chowdhury, Razibul Hossain, Anis Pervez, Hillol Sobhan and Ms. Marium Akhter, Senior Lecturer and Coordinator, Media Studies and Journalism Department of ULAB.