The Reposted Agenda: Topic Dominance and Ethical Issues in Bangladeshi Media’s Facebook News Distribution

Md. Shariful Islam, Md. Shamim Hossain, Md. Uzzal Talukder, Md. Easin Ahmed

Abstract


News media frequently share news content on social media. While audience behaviour regarding news sharing has been extensively studied, the practices of the media outlets themselves in this regard remain underexplored. This study examines the characteristics, frequency, and ethical standards of repetitive news sharing by Bangladeshi traditional media on Facebook. Using manual content analysis and computer-assisted textual analysis (CATA), the study analyses 764 repeatedly shared news posts collected from the Facebook pages of five leading media outlets. News items were coded on three dimensions, news topics, genre and ethical characteristics, and a textual analysis of 6,528 headline terms was performed using Voyant Tools to identify dominant themes and collocations. Findings reveal that traditional media mostly repeat hard news (71.7%). Politics is the most covered topic, followed by sports and crime. Despite Bangladesh being an agricultural country, agriculture is among the least frequently shared topics by traditional media on Facebook. In contrast, soft news, while being shared less often, contains much higher percentage of unethical elements than hard news. Repeated headlines have 24.30% unethical characteristics, with exclamation marks (9.90%) and clickbait (6.50%) being the most frequent. A textual analysis reveals that political actors and major sporting events such as the World Cup are also dominant in the repeated news agenda. The study highlights the need for greater ethical consistency in social media news distribution and calls for broader thematic diversity.

 

Keywords: News sharing, news topic, news genre, social media, traditional media.

 

https://doi.org/10.17576/JKMJC-2026-4203-08


Full Text:

PDF

References


Alimi, E. Y., & Maney, G. M. (2018). Focusing on focusing events: Event selection, media coverage, and the dynamics of contentious meaning‐making. Sociological Forum, 33(3), 757–782. https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12442

Allcott, H., Gentzkow, M., & Yu, C. (2019). Trends in the diffusion of misinformation on social media. Research & Politics, 6(2), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053168019848554

Almgren, S. M. (2017). Undoing churnalism? Users sharing local news on Facebook. Digital Journalism, 5(8), 1060–1079. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2017.1343089

Al-Rawi, A. (2024). Metajournalistic discourse on TikTok. Emerging Media, 2(1), 134–154. https://doi.org/10.1177/27523543241244566

Al-Zaman, Md. S. (2023). A computer-assisted textual analysis of 10,191 rape news headlines shared on social media. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 7(1), Article 100437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2023.100437

Al-Zaman, Md. S. (2024). Social media users’ engagement with religious misinformation: An exploratory sequential mixed-methods analysis. Emerging Media, 2(2), 181–209. https://doi.org/10.1177/27523543241257715

Al-Zaman, Md. S., & Noman, M. Md. S. (2024). Investigating political news coverage patterns in Bangladesh during 2013–2022 using computational methods. Newspaper Research Journal, 45(2), 205–224. https://doi.org/10.1177/07395329231221515

Amazeen, M. A. (2020). News in an era of content confusion: Effects of news use motivations and context on native advertising and digital news perceptions. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 97(1), 161–187. https://doi.org/gp6b72

Amazeen, M. A., & Wojdynski, B. W. (2020). The effects of disclosure format on native advertising recognition and audience perceptions of legacy and online news publishers. Journalism, 21(12), 1965–1984. https://doi.org/gjpjj2

Baran, S. J., & Davis, D. K. (2021). Mass communication theory: Foundations, ferment, and future (8th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Bhagat, S., & Kim, D. J. (2022). Examining users’ news sharing behaviour on social media: Role of perception of online civic engagement and dual social influences. Behaviour & Information Technology, 42(10), 1630–1648. https://doi.org/rpst

Bosshard, A. B., Leroux, M., Lester, N. A., Bickel, B., Stoll, S., & Townsend, S. W. (2022). From collocations to call-ocations: Using linguistic methods to quantify animal call combinations. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 76(9), Article 122. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-022-03224-3

Bright, J. (2016). The social news gap: How news reading and news sharing diverge. Journal of Communication, 66(3), 343–365. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12232

Carcioppolo, N., Lun, D., & McFarlane, S. J. (2022). Exaggerated and questioning clickbait headlines and their influence on media learning. Journal of Media Psychology, 34(1), 30–41. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000298

Choi, J., Lee, J. K., & Metzgar, E. T. (2017). Investigating effects of social media news sharing on the relationship between network heterogeneity and political participation. Computers in Human Behavior, 75, 25–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.05.003

Department of Film and Publications. (2023). The circulations and rate of newspapers. Government of Bangladesh. http://www.dfp.gov.bd/site/page/6469f3ce-a47b-453f-84e6-c60e3732bae5/

Dicle, M. F., & Dicle, B. (2018). Content analysis: Frequency distribution of words. The Stata Journal, 18(2), 379–386. https://doi.org/10.1177/1536867X1801800205

Duffy, A., & Ling, R. (2020). The gift of news: Phatic news sharing on social media for social cohesion. Journalism Studies, 21(1), 72–87. https://doi.org/rpsv

Fletcher, R., & Nielsen, R. K. (2018). Are people incidentally exposed to news on social media? A comparative analysis. New Media & Society, 20(7), 2450–2468. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444817724170

García-Perdomo, V., Salaverría, R., Brown, D. K., & Harlow, S. (2018). To share or not to share: The influence of news values and topics on popular social media content in the United States, Brazil, and Argentina. Journalism Studies, 19(8), 1180–1201. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2016.1265896

Guo, L., & Vargo, C. (2020). “Fake news” and emerging online media ecosystem: An integrated intermedia agenda-setting analysis of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Communication Research, 47(2), 178–200. https://doi.org/gfkdft

Habib, M. A. (2023, September 3). Navigating biases, power dynamics and media integrity. The Daily Star. https://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/views/news/navigating-biases-power-dynamics-and-media-integrity-3410176

Hiaeshutter-Rice, D., & Weeks, B. (2021). Understanding audience engagement with mainstream and alternative news posts on Facebook. Digital Journalism, 9(5), 519–548. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2021.1924068

Jung, A., Stieglitz, S., Kissmer, T., Mirbabaie, M., & Kroll, T. (2022). Click me. . .! The influence of clickbait on user engagement in social media and the role of digital nudging. PLoS ONE, 17(6), Article e0266743. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266743

Kabir, S. N. (2023). Small talk, big issue: Development, silence and the elite agenda in a Bangladeshi newspaper. The Journal of Development Communication, 34(2), 36–46. https://jdc.journals.unisel.edu.my/index.php/jdc/article/view/246

Kalsnes, B., & Larsson, A. O. (2018). Understanding news sharing across social media: Detailing distribution on Facebook and Twitter. Journalism Studies, 19(11), 1669–1688. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2017.1297686

Khawar, S., & Boukes, M. (2024). Analyzing sensationalism in news on Twitter (X): Clickbait journalism by legacy vs. online-native outlets and the consequences for user engagement. Digital Journalism, 12(10), 1464–1487. https://doi.org/rpsw

Khuntia, J., Sun, H., & Yim, D. (2016). Sharing news through social networks. International Journal on Media Management, 18(1), 59–74. https://doi.org/gcx6cg

Lamot, K. (2022). What the metrics say: The softening of news on the Facebook pages of mainstream media outlets. Digital Journalism, 10(4), 517–536. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2021.1974917

Lee, N. Y. (2022). Headlines for summarizing news or attracting readers’ attention? Comparing news headlines in South Korean newspapers with the New York Times. Journalism, 23(4), 892–909. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884920929202

León, E. D., Vermeer, S., & Trilling, D. (2021). Electoral news sharing: A study of changes in news coverage and Facebook sharing behaviour during the 2018 Mexican elections. Information, Communication & Society, 25(14), 2110–2128. https://doi.org/gpz5w5

Lepird, C. S., Ng, L. H. X., Wu, A., & Carley, K. M. (2024). What news is shared where and how: A multi-platform analysis of news shared during the 2022 U.S. midterm elections. Social Media + Society, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241245950

Li, M., Gao, Q., & Yu, T. (2023). Kappa statistic considerations in evaluating inter-rater reliability between two raters: Which, when and context matters. BMC Cancer, 23(1), Article 799. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-023-11325-z

Maniou, T. A., & Papadopoulou, L. (2024). Is it time to ‘send in the clowns’? What happens to the ‘rest of the news’ in social media during extreme crises. Media Watch, 15(2), 143–159. https://doi.org/10.1177/09760911241238376

Marwick, A. E. (2018). Why do people share fake news? A sociotechnical model of media effects. Georgetown Law Technology Review, 2(2), 474–512.

McCombs, M., & Valenzuela, S. (2020). Setting the agenda: The mass media and public opinion (3rd ed.). Polity Press.

McKenny, A. F., Aguinis, H., Short, J. C., & Anglin, A. H. (2018). What doesn’t get measured does exist: Improving the accuracy of computer-aided text analysis. Journal of Management, 44(7), 2909–2933. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206316657594

Media Landscapes. (2023). Bangladesh: Media overview. https://medialandscapes.org/country/bangladesh/media/social-networks

Molina, M. D., Sundar, S. S., Le, T., & Lee, D. (2021). “Fake news” is not simply false information: A concept explication and taxonomy of online content. American Behavioral Scientist, 65(2), 180–212. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764219878224

Molyneux, L., & Coddington, M. (2020). Aggregation, clickbait and their effect on perceptions of journalistic credibility and quality. Journalism Practice, 14(4), 429–446. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2019.1628658

Moy, P., Tewksbury, D., & Rinke, E. M. (2016). Agenda‐setting, priming, and framing. In K. B. Jensen, E. W. Rothenbuhler, J. D. Pooley, & R. T. Craig (Eds.), The international encyclopedia of communication theory and philosophy (pp. 1–13). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118766804.wbiect266

Nanni, V., Caprio, E., Bombieri, G., Schiaparelli, S., Chiorri, C., Mammola, S., Pedrini, P., & Penteriani, V. (2020). Social media and large carnivores: Sharing biased news on attacks on humans. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 8, Article 71. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2020.00071

Nekmat, E. (2020). Nudge effect of fact-check alerts: Source influence and media skepticism on sharing of news misinformation in social media. Social Media + Society, 6(1), Article 2056305119897322. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305119897322

Nuseir, M. T., Refae, G. A. E., Alshurideh, M., Urabi, S., & Kurdi, B. A. (2023). The influence of sharing fake news, self-regulation, cyber bullying on social media fatigue during COVID-19 work technology conflict as mediator role. In M. Alshurideh, B. H. Al Kurdi, R. Masa’deh, H. M. Alzoubi, & S. Salloum (Eds.), The effect of information technology on business and marketing intelligence systems (Vol. 1056, pp. 131–145). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12382-5_7

Otto, L. P., & Glogger, I. (2019). Hard and soft news. In T. P. Vos & F. Hanusch (Eds.), The international encyclopedia of journalism studies (pp. 1–3). Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118841570.iejs0229

Park, C. S., & Kaye, B. K. (2023). Applying news values theory to liking, commenting and sharing mainstream news articles on Facebook. Journalism, 24(3), 633–653. https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849211019895

Pelau, C., Pop, M.-I., Stanescu, M., & Sanda, G. (2023). The breaking news effect and its impact on the credibility and trust in information posted on social media. Electronics, 12(2), Article 423. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12020423

Reporters Without Borders. (2023). Bangladesh: Media landscape. https://rsf.org/en/country/bangladesh#media-outlets-6256

Scacco, J. M., & Muddiman, A. (2020). The curiosity effect: Information seeking in the contemporary news environment. New Media & Society, 22(3), 429–448. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819863408

Segesten, A. D., Bossetta, M., Holmberg, N., & Niehorster, D. C. (2022). The cueing power of comments on social media: How disagreement in Facebook comments affects user engagement with news. Information, Communication & Society, 25(8), 1115–1134. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2020.1850836

Statcounter. (2023). Social media stats Bangladesh. https://gs.statcounter.com/social-media-stats/all/bangladesh

Statista. (2023). Leading countries based on Facebook audience size as of January 2023. https://www.statista.com/statistics/268136/top-15-countries-based-on-number-of-facebook-users/

Su, Y., & Borah, P. (2019). Who is the agenda setter? Examining the intermedia agenda-setting effect between Twitter and newspapers. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 16(3), 236–249. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2019.1641451

Sundar, S. S., Snyder, E. C., Liao, M., Yin, J., Wang, J., & Chi, G. (2025). Sharing without clicking on news in social media. Nature Human Behaviour, 9(1), 156–168. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-02067-4

Tandoc, E. C., Lim, Z. W., & Ling, R. (2018). Defining “fake news”: A typology of scholarly definitions. Digital Journalism, 6(2), 137–153. https://doi.org/gdgzp5

Thompson, N., Wang, X., & Daya, P. (2020). Determinants of news sharing behavior on social media. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 60(6), 593–601. https://doi.org/10.1080/08874417.2019.1566803

Valenzuela, S., Piña, M., & Ramírez, J. (2017). Behavioral effects of framing on social media users: How conflict, economic, human interest, and morality frames drive news sharing. Journal of Communication, 67(5), 803–826. https://doi.org/gcpwqm

Verma, N., Fleischmann, K. R., & Koltai, K. S. (2017). Human values and trust in scientific journals, the mainstream media and fake news. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 54(1), 426–435. https://doi.org/ghkc6k

Wang, L., & Rzeszotarski, J. M. (2023). Understanding motivational factors in social media news sharing decisions. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 7(CSCW1), Article 145, 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1145/3579538

Watson, J., van der Linden, S., Watson, M., & Stillwell, D. (2024). Negative online news articles are shared more to social media. Scientific Reports, 14, Article 21592. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-71263-z

Zannettou, S., Sirivianos, M., Blackburn, J., & Kourtellis, N. (2019). The web of false information: Rumors, fake news, hoaxes, clickbait, and various other shenanigans. Journal of Data and Information Quality, 11(3), Article 10, 1–37. https://doi.org/10.1145/3309699

Zhou, X., Jain, A., Phoha, V. V., & Zafarani, R. (2020). Fake news early detection: An interdisciplinary study (arXiv Publication No. 1904.11679). arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1904.11679


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


e-ISSN: 2289-1528