Papers by Mohammad Sahid Ullah
International Handbook of Disaster Research, 2023
Journal of Global Communication
This study aims to identify the different news content of COVID-19 coverage in the major national... more This study aims to identify the different news content of COVID-19 coverage in the major national dailies of Bangladesh during the pre-lockdown to the end of the lockdown period. Along with quantifying the total COVID-19 coverage in newspapers, it has compared the prominence given to COVID-19 news coverage in different pages of the newspapers studied. By following content analysis, descriptive statistics has been used in this study for discussion and presentation. The study revealed that the news coverage started to grow with the announcement of the pandemic and declined gradually after the end of the lockdown in Bangladesh. The result also ascertains that COVID-19 related news was featured on different pages during the first five-months between January and May, and the percentage of news coverage of COVID-19 was at its highest level from 1 to 15 May. The study shows that COVID-19 related prevention, impacts, mitigation, preparedness, and world concern were the major themes in the newspapers. Many new terms like ‘quarantine’, ‘social distancing’, ‘lockdown’, etc., were presented frequently on different pages as news items. This study clearly states that a good number of photos and commercials have been published from March to May. Similarly, most of the editorials, commentaries and interviews were published on government preparedness and effects of coronavirus on an individual level. Finally, our study concludes that the interventions of the print media contribute highly in minimising the adverse effects of the COVID- 19 crisis and recommends that policy makers can make immediate decisions on the existing gaps of health care emergencies through the content analysis of published news on the pandemic.
Bangladesh generally faces cyclonic storms before and after monsoon periods in AprilMay and Novem... more Bangladesh generally faces cyclonic storms before and after monsoon periods in AprilMay and November-December. According to worldwide data, around 70-80 cyclonic storms are generated in the tropical zone, and 7 percent of these originate from the Bay of Bengal, hitting the Bangladeshi coast with devastating results. Around 7 million people live in the 710 km coastal areas, off shore islands, and chars in the Bay of Bengal. A total of 102 cyclones were recorded during the last 230 years in the country. Of them, 64 were recorded as severe claiming between fifty thousand to half a million lives.
South Asian educators train journalism students with borrowed curricula from the West. Profession... more South Asian educators train journalism students with borrowed curricula from the West. Professionals and recruitment authorities often critical to the curricula, as those are not to fit with the local context. Journalism/ media/ mass communication graduates are therefore being undervalued in the local media recruitment process. Along with the ignorance of the native industry requirements and the flaws of the west-centric curricula evident that the South Asian journalism institutions require a different approach to course contents – precisely mean the de-westernization or localization of curricula. This article focuses on the importance of western values in journalism education, failure of conventional west-oriented or readymade curricula, complexity between theory and practices, the necessity for a new approach to form a curricula model and the responsibility of journalism educators in South Asian universities.
Worldwide, people are living in a culture of fear. They see the horror of brutality through conve... more Worldwide, people are living in a culture of fear. They see the horror of brutality through conventional media or in virtual communication every day that create a mindset of fear. But, people should not bear this legacy further when all of us envision a good and peaceful society for ourselves as well as for the next generation. How communication will play a role in eradicating fear from mind, life and society is the key point of this article.
This article is concerned with a lack of an agreed framework for the curriculum of journalism edu... more This article is concerned with a lack of an agreed framework for the curriculum of journalism education in Bangladesh. Starting from the want of any agreement between educators and professionals, which has hindered its journalism education as a mature discipline in Western higher education, the article argues that a lack of agreed values and beliefs about the journalism profession itself still persists in Bangladesh. Examining the existing curricula, facilities and capacities at 14 different public and private universities of Bangladesh, this article focuses on the generic problems of framing a comprehensive curriculum and the challenges ahead in the corporatization of local media industry, privatization of knowledge institutions, and new media intervention by clarifying curricular differences. It also tries to help point the way forward following basic principles of journalism curricula in Bangladesh’s context. The result also comes out from 35 interviews with media management peop...
Digital Inequalities in the Global South, 2020
This chapter examines power dynamics in rural Bangladesh, scrutinizing how people accumulate, con... more This chapter examines power dynamics in rural Bangladesh, scrutinizing how people accumulate, conceptualize and perceive the use of and relationships between social, economic and political power and their impact on the access of digital resources across the country. The Union Digital Center (UDC), an Information and Communication Technology project implemented by local government units in Bangladesh, is positioned as a subject of inquiry. With 55 in-depth interviews from center users, non-users and center entrepreneurs of six UDCs from across Bangladesh, this study shows that influential elites still enjoy privileged access to rural resources while deriving additional benefits from the UDCs, whereas poorer groups have severe limitations to their access to digital services and are actually further deprived rather than empowered by community access to digital technology.
South Asia Research, 2017
In the wider context of growing digitalisation in South Asia, this article examines the impacts o... more In the wider context of growing digitalisation in South Asia, this article examines the impacts of a public–private–people partnership (4Ps) information and communication technology (ICT) initiative of the Bangladesh government, administered through local governmental offices, the Union Information Service Centre (UISC). Scrutinising the operation of six UISCs in rural communities across Bangladesh, the study researches the potential of ICTs to influence existing asymmetrical power relations and empower local people. Asking to what extent ICTs enable more people to actively participate in their communities and what the implications for empowerment are, it is found that top-down ICT intervention by itself cannot bring substantial change for people at the bottom of the social pyramid. Asymmetrical power relations continue to deprive marginalised groups from receiving the claimed benefits of ICT facilities. The study suggests the need for a more critical, practice-focused understanding...
Journal of Creative Communications, 2017
This article examines the relationship between information and communication technology (ICT) acc... more This article examines the relationship between information and communication technology (ICT) access and the empowerment of rural people through the Union Information and Service Centres (UISCs) established at the Union Council, the lowest administrative unit of the Bangladeshi government. Based on ethnographic research that explores both everyday peoples’ and beneficiary perspectives, this study reveals that given the conditions of poverty, the illiterate and relatively powerless majority of the rural poor failed to access and use the facilities provided through UISCs, which were inevitably controlled by the power elites in the service area. The study concludes that while access to and use of relevant information is a key component of empowerment, the way UISCs have been organized in a particular kind of socio-economic arrangement, the services delivered neither succeeded in providing equality of access nor has the information available through these centres been deemed relevant to...
Media Asia, 2016
This article explores the service delivery of Union Information and Service Centres (UISC), an In... more This article explores the service delivery of Union Information and Service Centres (UISC), an Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-based telecentre initiative of the Government of Bangladesh. Based on a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, the study aims to assess the contribution of UISC to improving government service delivery for, and empowering rural communities. The study argues that the claim "UISCs have emerged as the torchbearers of modernity, hope and opportunities to enhance one stop public service delivery to rural poor" is particularly ambitious and does not hold true for the marginalized poor the project aims to connect. While UISCs do bring benefits for specific power holders in rural areas-particularly the educated rural youth, entrepreneurs, and party activists-the rural poor are marginalized further as a result. Finally, it suggests that the introduction of ICT to poor nations alone is not enough, but that the underlying power structures in communities are influential factors for people's access, empowerment, and benefit.
Journalism and media sectors in South Asian countries have been experiencing significant developm... more Journalism and media sectors in South Asian countries have been experiencing significant developments since the 1990s with the emergence of a good number of newspapers and magazines, inception of news agencies and private radio and television channels equipped with modern technology. Journalism educators often try to keep pace with this fast moving media industry despite their numerous limitations. In fact, any change in the industry influences or affects the syllabus redesigning process. As the profession changes its nature in the face of new challenges from factors like corporatisation of the industry, globalisation and new media intervention along with the dispute between educators and professionals, journalism departments at universities are struggling to adapt to the changing scenario. These changes are also puzzling journalism educators in reaching any comprehensive agreement on what syllabi would best fit the potential needs of the emerging sectors. The challenges discussed i...
Mass Communicator: International Journal of Communication Studies, 2014
This paper explains the risk exposure of local correspondents in Bangladesh when covering cyclone... more This paper explains the risk exposure of local correspondents in Bangladesh when covering cyclones. The findings identify correspondents working in the cyclone-prone coastal regions operate in the best interests of the beneficiaries and local people, but put themselves at increased exposure to risks. Data derived from in-depth interviews of 23 correspondents reveal that media professionals stationed in the coastal region provide first-hand information to different lifeline agencies about evacuation and relief needs of the area immediately, before and during any cyclonic hit. This study recognizes that negligence and lack of sensitivity and understanding from the staff at the headquarters acts as a deterrent for the local correspondents from carrying out their jobs.
Journal of Global Communication, 2012
Media in Bangladesh usually cover women issues in an insensitive and conventional manner. There a... more Media in Bangladesh usually cover women issues in an insensitive and conventional manner. There are, however, situations where some women issues are over sensationalised in the media. The main reason behind this scenario is the want of female journalists in the Bangladesh media industry. While the families consider journalism as an insecure, hazardous and unsuitable career option for their girls, the industry management does also show a lack of interest in hiring women for their media houses. This is what happens in a male-dominated society. Despite this adverse situation, female students are increasingly showing interest in studying journalism and taking journalism as their profession. Competing with their male counterparts, many female students are obtaining degrees with excellent grades in journalism from the country's public and private universities. Considering the questionable portrayal of women in the media and the participation hazards for girls in journalism career, this paper examines why female students take journalism as their preferred subject of study in spite of drawbacks in the profession, and how they can overcome the stumbling blocks and change women's image among the people.
Journal of Global Communication, 2013
Mobilizing communication globally: for what and for whom? This question2 motivated this special i... more Mobilizing communication globally: for what and for whom? This question2 motivated this special issue of Nordicom Review, grounded in a concern over the future of communicationfor development as a ...
International Communication Gazette, 2013
ABSTRACT This article explains political activism among educated youths in Bangladesh and how inf... more ABSTRACT This article explains political activism among educated youths in Bangladesh and how information and communication technologies (ICTs) change their political attitudes and behaviors. The findings identify motivations and psychological factors that affect patterns of new media use in political participation. Data from 23 interviewees, alongside those of 69 focus group participants, reveal that Bangladeshi youths increasingly favor forward-looking agendas by rejecting traditional ideology-based party politics. They have a passion for shaping their opinions through social networking instead of processions, party meetings, and political violence. This study finds that youth engagement through virtual communication has no direct impact on political decision-making but may play a pivotal role in some policy-making processes in Bangladesh.
Asian Journal of Water, Environment and …, 2004
Page 1. Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution, Vol. 1, No. 1 & 2, pp. 55-64. Comm... more Page 1. Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution, Vol. 1, No. 1 & 2, pp. 55-64. Community Response to Broadcast Media for Cyclone Warning and Disaster Mitigation: A Perception Study of Coastal People with Special Reference to Meghna Estuary in Bangladesh ...
Journal of Global Communication, 2009
Page 1. www.IndianJournals.com Members Copy, Not for Commercial Sale Downloaded From IP - 66.249.... more Page 1. www.IndianJournals.com Members Copy, Not for Commercial Sale Downloaded From IP - 66.249.67.40 on dated 2-Sep-2010 Free Media, Democracy and Democratisation: Experiences from Developing Countries Mohammad ...
Journal of Global Communication, 2008
Page 1. www.IndianJournals.com Members Copy, Not for Commercial Sale Downloaded From IP - 66.249.... more Page 1. www.IndianJournals.com Members Copy, Not for Commercial Sale Downloaded From IP - 66.249.67.34 on dated 31-Aug-2010 SCHOLARLY TURN OF JOURNALISM EDUCATION:REDESIGNING CURRICULA AT UNIVERSITY LEVEL IN BANGLADESH ...
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Papers by Mohammad Sahid Ullah