Majority view Bhutanese media as source of information rather than entertainment, states the draft report of Media Impact study 2013. It was just the opposite in 2007.
The finding also says, the penetration of Television in rural has increased over the years. It says, the otherwise, dominant radio listeners in rural area have started watching television.
The draft report also says 36 percent from the total people surveyed prefer Bhutan Broadcasting Service Television. About 25 percent said they prefer Bhutanese radio stations. Only 19 percent said they prefer international news channels.
Some of the stakeholders present during a discussion said licensing a second TV channel would enhance diversity and would boost local content development.
The study also revealed that the news content on BBS TV was trusted more than those on international TV. About 42 percent felt that Kuensel was believable all the time, followed by Business Bhutan with 41 percent, Bhutan Observer stood at 37 percent, Bhutan Youth 33 percent and Bhutan Today at 25 percent.
The survey also revealed that most rural population preferred local TV and radio to local newspapers. Internet and online media were preferred more in urban areas, due to a larger educated population. “There is a rapid change taking place in the media so the idea is to understand what is happening, understand what is working well, understand what are the problems and based on these analysis to update and refine government policies, from the policies laws and changes needed because the industry is changing so fast…” said Dasho Kinley Dorji, the information and communications’ Secretary.
The draft report also highlighted that the news coverage and content were mostly urban-centric. It also highlighted various challenges faced by local media. Some of them were lack of media professional, difficulty to access public information, unbalanced and urban-centric media coverage, and limited media literacy among others.
