DO LOCAL NEWSPAPERS REFLECT THE LOCALS? A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON LOCAL AND NATIONAL NEWS COVERAGE IN KHULNA

Local newspapers reflect the voices of the periphery as they have direct and close connections with the local community. This study aims to examine the coverage policy of local newspapers in Khulna, with a particular focus on a comparative analysis of local and national news. This study followed a sequential research design, employing content analysis and in-depth interview methods. The content analysis method was used to assess the several aspects of news coverage and six in-depth interviews were conducted to explore the explanation of content analysis. A total of 2,278 news articles from three local newspapers were scanned and manually inputted into a coding sheet. These codes were analyzed with Microsoft Excell-16 and news-theme was visualized with NVivo-11. The analysis was divided into three phases (i.e., Comparative coverage, news theme, and geographical proximity). The major findings indicate that the ratio of local and national news coverage demonstrates minimal variance in terms of both frequency and column-inch metrics. It has been revealed, however, that the majority of advertisements (96.02%) come from local sources but coverage of local news is comparatively lower, accounting for 53.90%. The most covered local news theme is crime (41.77%), while political news gets highest coverage in the national news category which is 29.81%. Additionally, Jessore district, one of the nearest districts of Khulna receives the highest coverage which is 13.74% while Meherpur district, geographically remotest district of Khulna, received the lowest coverage. The majority of local news is capital-centric, with the Dhaka division receiving the maximum coverage at 93.02%.  It indicates that local news was not sufficiently prioritized in local newspapers. Even while geographical proximity acted as a significant factor in news coverage, the news is predominantly urban-oriented.