HTML clipboardCyber space is a new world which has few boundaries and the world of journalism is fast converging with it, said Toufique Imrose Khalidi, editor-in-chief of Bangladesh's first online newspaper, on Sunday, reports agency.

Presenting the key-note paper at a seminar on "Prospects of Cyber Journalism in Bangladesh", at the privately-run Stamford University in the city, Khalidi said: "People from one corner of the world to the other realise that every day their life is being changed." "The Internet has now penetrated into every arena of people's lives."

"The new generation is growing up in the online age in an environment dominated and guided by new technology." Journalism must catch up with the new forms of communication that are emerging to reach audiences in formats that extend beyond the printed word, Khalidi stressed.

"Journalists must capitalise on emerging technologies to provide an even deeper news experience through multimedia and interactivity." "Some people call this convergent journalism. It can happen only on the Internet, in cyberspace."

The university's journalism and media studies department head Md Shamsul Islam presided over Sunday's seminar, saying: "bdnews24.com is a milestone in the arena of mass media in Bangladesh." "bdnews24.com is changing the face of journalism in Bangladesh," he said.

bdnews24.com's chief sub-editor Gazi Nasiruddin Khokan, journalism and media studies teachers Zafar Selim, Shabnam Azim, Mahmuda Akhter and students of the department attended. Speaking of his online newspaper and news agency, Khalidi said: "bdnews24.com has been built up on a mix of cyber and traditional journalism."

"Though it has grown around the cyber model, it is guided by accuracy, objectivity and ethical values." "It is different from traditional journalism and in Bangladesh it is completely new." While traditional newspapers post their print version on their Web sites, they do not update round the clock as bdnews24.com does.

Unlike other stationary news sites, bdnews24.com does not fall behind real time, said Khalidi, adding that the young news agency competes with TV. "And more often than not beats television news!" Speaking of other new media conceived in cyberspace, Khalidi said: "The voice of a blogger can be heard as far as BBC and CNN or The New York Times."

A new blog is created every seven seconds, according to technocrati.com, a site that tracks Web journals. "Like other new inventions, blogging has pitfalls. Bloggers can post wild allegations and rumours on their sites without oversight," Khalidi acknowledged.

"But it is an amazing world that connects Iraqi bloggers who put their own take on news from the frontline as far as us here in Bangladesh." Traditional news organisations around the world are now taking more blended approaches, said the bdnews24.com editor-in-chief, citing as an example the BBC's willingness to open itself to bloggers.

"It's still not clear how it will affect traditional journalism," Khalidi said. But the bdnews24.com chief editor added: "Cyber journalism is a part of the new world of Internet and its associate new technologies." The revolutionary developments within the cell phone industry have also helped cyber journalism, he said.

Khalidi mentioned that internet service providers are at present providing connections to about 10 lakh people in Bangladesh. "For a country like ours this is not a small figure at all." As the first mobile and WAP news site provider in Bangladesh, bdnews24.com is a part of this growth of technology, he said.

"Journalists must embrace the fact that the public wants to choose the ways in which they are informed and to sculpt the conversations of the day," said Khalidi. "Journalism's primary mission is to provide information that gives meaning and context to the events that shape people's lives, communities and the world."

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