Dhaka 6 February 2025:
People have confidence in the media, but they see interference from political, government and influential people as a major obstacle in publishing objective news.
People are more dependent on online media than traditional media. The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics conducted this survey on ‘use of mass media’ for the Media Reform Commission formed by the interim government.
This picture emerged in a survey conducted to find out the attitudes of readers, viewers and listeners in the context of public anger over the role of the media in the July Movement. It was found that people are reading online versions on mobile phones more than printed newspapers.
People still trust television to find information in national disasters or crises. However, radio is at the bottom as a medium for gathering information. The survey expressed hope that the media should be independent, impartial, free from government and political influence. However, most respondents believe that Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar should be under the control of the government.
In the national public opinion survey on media, 73 percent of the participants said they do not read printed newspapers. As a reason, 46 percent of the participants said that they do not feel the need to read newspapers.
In the case of television, this rate is more than 53 percent. However, 65 percent of the people who participated in the survey said they watch television. 94 percent said they do not listen to the radio. 54 percent of them said they do not feel the need to listen to the radio. About 35 percent of the participants mentioned the unavailability of radio sets.
This year, responses were collected from 45,000 households in 64 districts of the country from January 1 to 7 from members over the age of 10. This reflected the spread of media, changes in people’s news consumption habits, people’s trust in the media, freedom of the media, etc.
Overall, 88 percent of the respondents said they use mobile phones for media. In this case, the rate of computer use is 7 percent.
Among social media, 31 percent of the respondents trust Facebook for news.
Next is YouTube, 16.5 percent. Forty-two percent of respondents believe that teachers are the most trustworthy source of knowledge, rather than traditional media.
