Representation of the Rohingyas in Media and New Media: Narrative, Analysis, and Re-thinking

Among the recent most-talked issues in the international arena, the Rohingya issue in Myanmar draws the attention of the critical circles. Representation of them in the media and new media covers a vast critical space because of their complex position in the country as Muslims and minority. Moreover, their anthropological and religious resemblance with the people of the neighbouring country Bangladesh has more complicated the issue. The world is divided into two poles regarding Myanmar’s claim of the Rohingyas’ non-nationality and Bengali identity. The topic is relentlessly discussed in both media and new media. The representation is mixed in the media because of different political interests while it is almost one dimensional in the new media. This paper, first of all, shows the way of the representation of the Rohingyas in the media and the new media regarding their exodus to the neighbouring country Bangladesh, and their lives as refugees. Secondly, it highlights how the conventional media fail to bring out the realities about an ethnic group suppressed in multifaceted ways and thirdly, it analyses the role of the new media where discourses appear relentlessly from different sources irrespective of religions, cultures, boundaries, and ideologies.