Representation of the Rohingyas in Media and New Media: Narrative, Analysis, and Re-thinking

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue XII, December 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

Representation of the Rohingyas in Media and New Media: Narrative, Analysis, and Re-thinking

Abdur Rahim and Sadat Zaman Khan
Assistant Professor
Department of English Language and Literature (DELL)
Premier University
541, O. R. Nizam Road, Chittagong.

Abstract
Among the recent most-talked issues in the international arena, the Rohingya issue in Myanmar draws the attention of the critical circles. Representation of them in the media and new media covers a vast critical space because of their complex position in the country as Muslims and minority. Moreover, their anthropological and religious resemblance with the people of the neighbouring country Bangladesh has more complicated the issue. The world is divided into two poles regarding Myanmar’s claim of the Rohingyas’ non-nationality and Bengali identity. The topic is relentlessly discussed in both media and new media. The representation is mixed in the media because of different political interests while it is almost one dimensional in the new media. This paper, first of all, shows the way of the representation of the Rohingyas in the media and the new media regarding their exodus to the neighbouring country Bangladesh, and their lives as refugees. Secondly, it highlights how the conventional media fail to bring out the realities about an ethnic group suppressed in multifaceted ways and thirdly, it analyses the role of the new media where discourses appear relentlessly from different sources irrespective of religions, cultures, boundaries, and ideologies.

Keywords: media, new media, refugee, Rohingya, representation, migration

1. Introduction: Media, New Media, and Conventional Power Paradigm

The world is now under some super powers which control the global politics, economy, culture, and ideology. For referring to the absolute power of the powerful nations, Robert Corfe exemplifies America and her policies by adding that “America is not a place where reason is allowed to reign. Only the rude bully is allowed to sway on issues which really matter” (131). From state politics to production to enactment of law, everything is designed in this country with a view to materializing her ideology. Almost all the capitalist countries possess the similar types of tendencies. Apart from the political absolutists, there are some other institutions such as media which propagandize and to some extent, control the views of the nations about the target groups. Media has become the “fourth estate” (Allan, 3) as coined by Edmund Burke which is attributed with social, political, cultural, economic, corporate, religious, and ideological dichotomies of the regular estate. They behave like a state with all of its realities. Their policy of representing a nation is determined by the factors introduced and practiced by the oppressive super-powers. There has been a canonical tendency in the publication policies of the media which are mostly aligned with the central state policies. It becomes more aggressive in those countries with absolute rule in which democracy is not practised. The universal objective of publishing print media is denied in these countries.

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