At least 36,000 people in America's journalism industry have lost jobs since the spread of the pandemic, according to Columbia Journalism Review. The statistics of job losses or furloughs of Bangladeshi newsmen are not released by any organisation in the country.
Stakeholders outside the industry still know what happens, from sources other than media outlets and journalism departments of different universities that are mandated to do some research on the media industry. There are echoes of research carried out elsewhere with some saying without context that newspapers will die or television is dead.
There is the obvious crisis of formal information about the media itself in Bangladesh, which defines culture and state of the industry. Simultaneously, public sensitivity to news in this part of the world has been eroded unthinkably.
'Conservatives' may ask why the media issues should be discussed in the public domain. Such a question doesn't require any answer in view of the nature of journalism as a profession and media as an industry - it is supposed to deal with and depends on people as readers, viewers, subscribers and advertisers.
A key symptom of the media's status as the fourth estate is revealed in 'Global Corruption Barometer: Asia 2020': Bangladesh's 63 per cent people fear retaliation while reporting corruption.
The decline of the conventional media, if it is said so bluntly, is triggered perhaps more by a credibility gap than the challenges arising out of information technology and global online boom.
A unique investigative piece, a soothing feature, a critical analysis, or a strong editorial - nothing is taken over, though sometimes stolen, from the legacy media, by the social networking platforms. But, people these days hardly like a story or love to watch a TV show unlike the "news as it is" they traditionally expect from the so-called mainstream media.
Media outlets publish millions of contents every day that may be largely considered boring, pro-establishment, elitist, PR (public relations) campaign, motivated, self-censored, lacking edge and missing public engagement.
Why won't the people turn their faces away from newspaper pages and television screen if and when rhetoric eclipses facts, propaganda beats public interest, drama replaces urgent needs, a misinformation regime confuses the audience, mockery insults people's will and individual's whims dominate the media coverage?
A media organisation thus distances itself from the people, losing its own strength followed only by business losses. Some outlets in different countries have even lost their 'nuisance value' due to the voice of individuals, and unleashing of anarchy, on the social media.
In America, media entities like The New York Times and the CNN, if not local newspapers, were offered a different lifeline called "Trump bump" through his unexpected election victory in 2016. While resistance to Donald Trump's rampant lying generated readers' interest, his departure from the White House is going to create a new atmosphere.
"We can now treat the situation as an opportunity. Our industry, one of critical public importance, needs to be rebuilt and reconceived," Kyle Pope, the editor in chief of the Columbia Journalism Review, writes in an article 'An industry in flux'. "The revitalization of the press is sure to consume the nation - as it will be both covered and lived by the people who chronicle it."
The Bangladesh media have been neither blessed with any bump for attaining 'cheap' popularity in recent years nor has there been any revolutionary endeavour to review the industry that could have credibly attracted people to journalism. This literary genre must uphold truth and be sellable, if you want to depend on people for your revenue.
People still read a lot of news stories, if they find them unique and trustworthy, from the sea of web, rejecting the majority. That indicates prospects and threats the media industry has in the coming days.
We in Bangladesh need to recognise that news is a public good, not any master's voice. A euphemistic soul-searching with old mindset won't connect readers and viewers of the new generations to the future media. Almost every player knows what's to be done, but can't act accordingly, to reset the media.