New media technologies have brought massive changes in the whole arena of public communication pa... more New media technologies have brought massive changes in the whole arena of public communication patterns including journalistic works in recent years. One of the major changes is the realignment of relations between news media and their audiences. Once a passive receiver, people in general and audiences in particular are increasingly performing the dual role of consumers and producers of information in the websites of established news media, social networking sites and personal blogs. This paper investigates 'postings' (articles) related to climate change published in a Bangladeshi community blog named 'somewhereinblog' during the COP15 in December 2009. The sample website is the pioneer of Bangla blogging and ranked 10th most popular sites among all websites visited from Bangladesh. Based on content analysis method, the study at first attempts to draw a structural model of online communication by the bloggers. We have found that bloggers form a virtual community [often extends to real life] through a process of interaction, engagement, participation and affinity that eventually led us to argue that an alternative public sphere is emerging in Bangladesh. Secondly, the findings show that bloggers portrayed the risks of global climate change from a local perspective (localizing a global issue) that they argued needs urgent 'actions' by the developed world. However, such 'actions' to mitigate risks of climate change are not consensual, but a matter of 'conflict'. Much of the conflict was involved with regard to economic consequences of mitigation actions (e.g., reducing CO2 emissions) that the bloggers say are rooted in the problems of “capitalism”.
New media technologies have brought massive changes in the whole arena of public communication pa... more New media technologies have brought massive changes in the whole arena of public communication patterns including journalistic works in recent years. One of the major changes is the realignment of relations between news media and their audiences. Once a passive receiver, people in general and audiences in particular are increasingly performing the dual role of consumers and producers of information in the websites of established news media, social networking sites and personal blogs. This paper investigates 'postings' (articles) related to climate change published in a Bangladeshi community blog named 'somewhereinblog' during the COP15 in December 2009. The sample website is the pioneer of Bangla blogging and ranked 10th most popular sites among all websites visited from Bangladesh. Based on content analysis method, the study at first attempts to draw a structural model of online communication by the bloggers. We have found that bloggers form a virtual community [often extends to real life] through a process of interaction, engagement, participation and affinity that eventually led us to argue that an alternative public sphere is emerging in Bangladesh. Secondly, the findings show that bloggers portrayed the risks of global climate change from a local perspective (localizing a global issue) that they argued needs urgent 'actions' by the developed world. However, such 'actions' to mitigate risks of climate change are not consensual, but a matter of 'conflict'. Much of the conflict was involved with regard to economic consequences of mitigation actions (e.g., reducing CO2 emissions) that the bloggers say are rooted in the problems of “capitalism”.
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Papers by Shameem Mahmud