A Comparative View of Political News in Bangladeshi Media Before and After the July Movement

Drawing on Agenda-Setting, Framing, and Sourcing theories, this study investigates the comparative ‎coverage of political news in Bangladeshi media before and after the July Movement of 2024. The ‎research aims to understand how the movement influenced media narratives, framing, tone and ‎sources in print, online and television outlets. Using a mixed-method approach combining quantitative ‎content coding of 1,150 news items with qualitative thematic textual analysis of framing strategies, ‎the study examined major Bangla and English newspapers, online portals, and television channels ‎across two periods: January–June 2024 (pre-July) and August-December 2024 (post-July). Coding ‎categories included topic salience, tone toward political actors, framing of issues, source diversity and ‎prominence. Findings reveal significant shifts in coverage post-July: protest-related issues became ‎highly salient, tone toward government turned more negative while student and civil society voices ‎were portrayed positively, framing emphasized democracy, accountability and rights over law-and-‎order concerns, and sourcing became more pluralistic. These results suggest that large-scale social ‎movements can influence media narratives and expand the diversity of political voices in the public ‎sphere. The study contributes to the understanding of media dynamics in Bangladesh, highlighting the ‎role of media in shaping political discourse during periods of social upheaval. Implications for ‎journalism, policy and future research are discussed.