Social media trends in Bangladesh: Great or over expectations?

Social media is an overwhelming reality in Bangladesh's information world. It reaches about half the population and though there are socio-economic and gender divides, the people who matter and whose voices are heard and listened to are on social media. So it's impossible to ignore this  fact of life  

Study of recent trends has become important as it impacts a wide range of activities that lead to short and long term gains. It has attracted considerable investment in every sector and they are looking for profits. At the same time, some sectors are not looking at economic gains but political ones. In fact this sector is a high-stake-holding one because it's hoping to change the regime and therefore gain political and economic power at the state level.  

Apart from that there are the entertainment and e-commerce sectors which have become a new playing field where many sorts of innovations and activities are noted. While these activities are on, the participants and consumer behavior in terms of the social media sector are in a state of hype. The weak information infrastructure on social media itself has produced a great deal of interest and optimism. While there are reasons for the same, an analysis of efficiency and efficacy has been made. So, though the sector is large, it's not yet an organized one with long term performance goals.

That is the usual nature of social media everywhere. But the fact remains that a better insight into socio-economic or political results emanating from its activities would lead to greater gains. That awaits to be done but a few organized study projects have been undertaken. Some preliminary opinions are shared here.  

  THE POLITICAL SPACE 

What draws most significant attention is the use of social media space for politics. This is all the more important because the physical political space in Bangladesh is limited and prone to high violence. Since politics exists but adequate space doesn't, the recourse is obviously the digital space and there is a great deal of political content including those broadcast from abroad. The reasons are obvious.

The government has several laws to counter political content on the media including social media and they are regularly used which leads to high caution and self- censorship. However, the upshot of that is the rise of expat political media with high drawing of a partisan audience. 

They are of three kinds of content. 1. Vlogs which are trenchant and often rude political content that has gathered a large following. 2. Talk shows broadcast from abroad but often with local guests as well. The more abrasive comments come from abroad but the mix does allow an opportunity to draw a high audience. 3. Internet TV which broadcasts news items and content and while most are located abroad, some are local who have managed to elude government's action.   

Another source of content is the online broadcast of mainstream TV channels. Their programmes are often broadcast live including their talk shows and later the recorded version. Thus the audience is able to choose content at will. Obviously social media offers greater variety in terms of this media sector in general.

HYPE IS NOT SUSTAINABLE 

An interesting phenomenon has been the rise of alternate players in politics using social media reach. One of the most noticed personalities of recent times is Hero Alam who rose to national prominence using social media. Although he had no party or organization he managed to reach considerably high visibility before he went for political activities including elections. 

As he was backed by the Opposition, he did well though not winning. However, the government party activists went after him and as a person who was a stand- alone, his position was made untenable in the main political space. His fading has been quite rapid and he is marginalized which shows that social media can provide exposure but not sustainability unless backed by the necessary  conditions to succeed in that sector including organizations.  

THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC SPACE

The social and the economic space is split along the social conservation among different segments, digital content  produced on various issues particularly scandals and sensational matters etc. While such content draws views running into several millions, the main revenue generation is from advertisements. And this is where social media becomes a new source of economics for many.

Bangladeshis have moved into the digital space pushed by economic needs. The result has been the involvement of millions of people who are freelancing on the net. It has one of the highest numbers of people who draw their income from the digital space. The problem is that the situation is disorganized and not very helpful for expansion or sustained income.    

The government has spoken of its "digital Bangladesh" aspirations but they are more into large scale projects where the people involved have connections that matter. Thus despite the involvement of millions of people in the economics of social media, there are very few support systems. This is particularly difficult as this sector involves the educated middle class whose chances of external employment in the low skill sector are limited. 

THE GAP 

Given such a scenario where it's not about freedom of expression but livelihood opportunities, the need and opportunity for  a skill development sector exists but as yet not many steps have been taken to make an organized effort to expand the sector leaving it open mostly to individuals to explore. In some ways, it resembles the migration sector at its infancy. 

Social media in Bangladesh is expanding more rapidly than other sectors but the gaps are also obvious. as it's not an organized sector, the capacity development and organizational activities are minimal, preventing higher growth that are also economically fruitful.   

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