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Paper short abstract

This paper explores how digital journalism is practiced in Bangladesh amid political regime change. Drawing on in-depth interviews with journalists from two major news outlets, the study explores how political pressure, legal risk, and digital technologies intersect in everyday newsroom work.

Paper long abstract

The paper examines how digital journalism is practiced amid ongoing political regime change and intensifying state regulation within the broader socio-political and regulatory context of Bangladesh.

This paper draws on qualitative data generated through in-depth interviews with journalists, editors, and newsroom personnel from two major Bangladeshi news organizations: The Daily Prothom Alo and Channel 24. By foregrounding journalists’ narratives, the study captures how political regime change is understood and negotiated at the level of everyday journalistic practice.

The study is analytically informed by Actor-Network Theory (ANT), which conceptualizes digital journalism as a socio-technical practice produced through interactions between human actors and non-human elements such as digital platforms, algorithms, metrics, and legal frameworks.

Findings reveal that digital journalism practices in Bangladesh are profoundly shaped by political regime change and multidimensional state pressures. Interviewees described how legal instruments, particularly digital security and media regulations, influence what can be reported, how stories are framed, and how editorial risks are assessed. Legal action, surveillance, and the threat of harassment have become normalized aspects of journalistic work.

This thesis argues that digital journalism in Bangladesh should be understood as a negotiated and situated practice emerging at the intersection of political power, regulatory control, and digital transformation. By centering journalists’ voices during a period of political regime change, the study contributes to broader debates on digital journalism in the Global South and highlights how technological change is inseparable from questions of governance, power, and professional survival.