Tribhuvan University

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

A
PROJECT REPORT
ON
NEWS PORTAL
(Course Code: CAPJ256)

Submitted to Department of Information Technology

Kabhre Multiple Campus
A Report submitted for the partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of
Bachelor’s in Computer Application (Fourth Semester)

Submitted by
Prashant Dahal (TU Regd No. 6-2-244-20-2020)
Dipul Thapa (TU Regd No. 6-2-244-9-2020)

November 10, 2023

Under the Supervision of

Er. Suman Shrestha
 Supervisor’s Recommendation

I hereby recommend that this project developed under my super vision by Prashant
Dahal (TU Regd No. 6-2-244-20-2020) and Dipul Thapa (TU Regd No. 6-2-244-9-
2020) entitled “NEWS PORTAL” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of Bachelor of Computer Application is recommended for the final evaluation.

………………

Er. Suman Shrestha

Department of Humanities and Social Science

ii
 Letter of Approval

This project entitled “News Portal” by Prashant Dahal & Dipul Thapa as a partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor in Computer Application
(Fourth Semester) has been examined by us and is accepted.

……………………….
……………………………
Er. Suman Shrestha
Mr. Jagdeep Palanchowke
Supervisor
HOD
Kabhre Multiple Campus
Kabhre Multiple Campus
Banepa-6
Banepa-6

……………………………… ……………………….
Internal Examiner Er. Kumar Parsun
Er. Rabin K.C Assistant Professor
Kabhre Multiple Campus Padmakanya Multiple Campus
Banepa-6

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 Acknowledgements
Our earnest appreciation to our Supervisor Er. Suman Shrestha for directing us
all through the arranging and advancement period of the framework. Without
his vital role and direction, we would not achieve the last phase of improvement.

We would like to thank our close peers and classmates for being supportive and
encouraging throughout our project development journey here in Kabhre
Multiple Campus. Our sincere gratitude goes to KMC Banepa for providing
the platform where we were able to cherish and nurture our compassion and
improve our technical skills.

Yours Sincerely
Prashant Dahal
Dipul Thapa

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 Abstract

In this ever-changing world it’s hard to keep up with the pace and catch up. Every
corner of the world has its own unknown stories to be told. The News Portal is a news
reading portal. A web development project aims to create a platform that enables users
to receive news on a categorized method which is easily managed and can be accessed
conveniently. Additionally, News is categorized on different subcategory according to
different topic like Popular news, Top Stories and more. Admin panel is only authorized
for admin and sub-admin which are pre added. Admin panel handles all the data update
and deletion resided on local server.

Keywords: News Portal, Popular news, Top Stories, Admin Panel, Local Server

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 Table of Contents

Supervisor Recommendation…………………………………………………….......i
Letter of Approval……………………………………………………………………ii

Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………….iii

Abstract…… .…………………………………….………………………………….iv

Table of Contents…….………………………………………………………………vi

List of Figures………………………………………………………………………viii

List of Abbreviations………………………………………………………………ix

Chapter 1: Introduction……………………………………………………………....9

1.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………….....9

1.2 Problem Statement………………………………………………………..9

1.3 Objectives…………………………………………….……………...…..10

1.4 Scope and Limitation…………………………………………………….10

1.4.1 Scope…………………………………………………………………...10
1.4.2 Limitation………………………….…………………………………...10
Chapter 2: Background Study and Literature Review………………………….…..11

2.1 Background Study………………………………………..…………….11

2.2 Literature Review………………………………………………………11

Chapter 3: System Analysis And Design………………………………………….. 13

3.1 System Analysis…………………………………………………………13

3.1.1 Requirement Analysis……………………………………………...….14
i. Functional Requirement……………………………………………….14
ii. Non-Functional Requirement…………………………………………15
3.1.2 Feasibility Analysis………………………………………………… 16
i. Technical Feasibility…………………………………………………..16
ii. Operational Feasibility………………………………………………..16
iii. Economic Feasibility…………………………………………………16
iv. Schedule Feasibility…………………………………………………..16
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 3.1.3 Gantt Chart……………………………………………………………17
3.1.4 Data Modeling (ER Diagram)…..…………………………………….18
3.1.4 DFD…………………………………………………………………...19
3.2 System Design……………… ……………………………………….20
3.2.1 Architectural Design………………………………………………….20
3.2.2 Database Schema……………………………………………………..20
3.2.3 Interface Design (UI Interface) ………………………………………21
3.2.4 Physical DFD…………………………………………………………29
Chapter 4: Implementation And Testing…………………………………………30

4.1 Implementation………………………………………………………..31
4.1.1 Tools used………………………………………………………….…31
4.1.2 Implementation Details of Modules……………………………….…31
4.2 Testing………………………………………………………………..33
Chapter 3: Conclusion And Future Recommendation…………………………...34

References……………………………………………………………………….….35

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 List of Figures

Fig 1: Waterfall Development Model……………………………….………...….14

Fig 2: Gantt chart of News Portal…………………………………………………17

Fig 3: ER Diagram of News Portal……………………………………………….18

Fig 4: Context diagram of News Portal……………………………………………19

Fig 5: Level 1 DFD of News Portal………………………………………………19

Fig 6: Architecture of News Portal………………………………………………..20

Fig 7: Database Schema (News Portal) ……………………………………………21

Fig 8-12: Interface of frontend and backend (News Portal) ………………………22-28

Fig 13: Physical DFD of News Portal………………………………………………29

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 List of Abbreviations

CSS: Cascading Style Sheet

DFD: Data Flow Diagram

ER Diagram: Entity Relationship Diagram

GUI: Graphic User Interface

HTML: Hypertext Markup Language

MySQL: My Structured Query Language

PHP: PHP Hypertext Preprocessor

SDLC: Software Development Life Cycle

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 Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Introduction
In today’s digital age, the consumption of news and information has shifted
significantly from traditional print media to online platforms. As a response to
this evolving trend, our project aims to create a user-friendly and accessible
NEWS PORTAL website. This website will serve as a one-stop destination for
users seeking up-to-date and reliable news across different categories. Our vision
for this project is to provide a seamless and intuitive user experience, ensuring
that visitors can easily navigate and access the latest news articles, reports, and
updates.
In this report, we will outline the key features and functionalities of our website
NEWS PORTAL, discuss the technologies and tools employed in its
development, and detail the design and user experience considerations that have
guided our choices.

1.2 Problem Statement

The ever-increasing demand for news on the internet must lead to a saturation of
news websites, making it challenging for users to find a reliable and user-friendly
platform for accessing news. Many existing news websites are cluttered, slow to
load, leading to a sub optimal user experience. Some websites are more complex
to navigate for someone with little knowledge about the internet. Additionally,
with the rise of technology the use of traditional methods like newspapers are
declining day by day. The problem we aim to address is to create a simple and
user-interactive news portal going along with the ever growing technology with
needly interaction like comments for the response that not only delivers news
efficiently but also ensures the credibility of the content.

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1.3 Objectives
Our project has the following primary objectives:

1. Design and Develop a Simple User-friendly news portal: Create an intuitive

and visually understandable website layout that allows users convenience.
2. Reliable News Sources: Establishing a vetting process for selecting news
sources and verifying the credibility of news articles.
3. User Engagement Features: Implement features such as commenting and
searching encouraging user engagement and interaction to the platform.
4. Content Categorization: Organize news content into categories for easy
navigation.

1.4 Scope and Limitation

1.4.1 Scope:
1. Admin Registration and Authentication

2. News Article Display

3. Search Functionality

4. Comments

5. Simple Design

1.4.2 Limitation:
1. Limited Resources
2. Security
3. No Monetization
4. Objectively Personalized

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Chapter 2: Background Study and Literature Review
2.1 Background Study
The internet has been a hub for its high efficiency and richness, and information
gathering. The current news system like newspaper is outdated whereas many news
portal websites are creating confusion between users creating a dilemma on which
website may give the reliable source of news. The complexity of news transfer through
newspaper is getting outpaced by the news portal on the internet. Nowadays people are
shifting to digital era where everyone’s daily needs and works are being digitalized in
different ways where time is the most precious things compared to money and other
essentials so News portal may help many people on day-to-day activities by giving user
facility to access news anywhere and anytime with internet accessible. By incorporating
these elements into the development and launch of “GlobalNewsHub”, the aim is to
create a news portal that not only informs but also engages and builds a community
around global news. Adjustments and refinements can be made based on user feedback
and emerging trends in the media landscape.

2.2 Literature Review

Historical Development of News Portal Websites
News portal websites have witnessed a remarkable evolution from their inception to the
present digital age. Initially, news dissemination was predominantly through traditional
print media, such as newspapers and magazines. However, the advent of the internet
revolutionized news consumption habits, leading to the emergence of news portal
websites. These websites began as digital counterparts to print newspapers, offering
online versions of articles and eventually evolving into comprehensive multimedia
platforms (2.).

Theories of Journalism and Media Studies

Several theories within the field of journalism and media studies are relevant to the
analysis of news portal websites. The agenda-setting theory posits that media can
influence public opinion by emphasizing certain topics, setting the agenda for public
discourse (3). In the context of news portals, this theory can be applied to understand

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how the selection and prominence of news stories impact public awareness and
perceptions.

In the context of Nepal, there are numerous media delivering news through different
medium like news portal website such as “Online-khabar”, BBC, CNN, “Setopati” and
similarly news television like Nepal Television Image Himalayan newspaper and
journals by the same company. Recently, one of the famous and well-known social
media news portal “Routine of Nepal Banda” (1) was accused of showing biased and
manipulated news to the user which led many misunderstandings. As I was going
through this, I decided to take a different approach creating a simple and reliable news
portal compatible with the large group of people and trying to make those amendments
creating a desired news portal.

The gatekeeping theory focuses on the role of editors and journalists in filtering and
controlling the flow of news (5). In online news portals, gatekeeping extends to the
curation of content and the decisions made by algorithms and editorial teams regarding
what stories are to feature prominently.

Challenges and Opportunities in the Digital Age

News portal websites face a range of challenges in the digital age. The proliferation of
misinformation and "fake news" on online platforms has raised concerns about the
credibility of news sources (6).
Despite these challenges, news portal websites also present opportunities for
innovation. Many have embraced data journalism, interactive storytelling, and reader
engagement strategies to enhance their content.

Future Trends and Challenges

The future of news portal websites is likely to be shaped by emerging technologies,
such as AI-driven content recommendation systems, immersive storytelling through
virtual reality (VR), and the integration of blockchain technology for content
verification (4). Sustainability models, including subscription-based services and
nonprofit journalism, will also play a critical role in shaping the industry's future.

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 Chapter 3: System Analysis And Design

3.1. System Analysis

Considering the fact this project involves design and implementation of a software
system regardless of whether it is well based, it will be important to mention and
consider some models used in SDLC. Some general models of software development
are namely:

Ø The Waterfall Approach: It represents activities in requirements, specification,

design, implementation and testing. All these processes are separate.
Ø Incremental / Evolutionary development: It involves a rapid development of the
specifications and then refined later for the customer.
Ø Formal transformation: This approach is based on setting and producing a
mathematical specification for the system to meet.
Ø System assembly from reusable components: This approach assumes that part
of the system already exists. This model is focused on integration.

After reading through all these models. The waterfall model fits the development of
this website. The main aim of using this approach is to focus on each part of the model
during development and come back to it if need be. The project can easily be broken
down into different parts based on this model.

This is the model that is used to develop the News Portal website. However, feedback
loops will be allowed during the whole software development process. The model
chosen for this project must favor two developers for a project.

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 Fig 1: Waterfall Development Model

3.1.1. Requirement Analysis

Requirement analysis is a crucial step for determining the success of a system
or software project. Requirements are generally split into two types:

i. Functional requirement
ii. Non-functional requirements

i. Functional Requirement
This section provides the requirement overview of the system. Various
modules implemented by the system are:

• User Module
Ø Users can search for the news.
Ø Users can comment on a post.
Ø Users can access about us and contact us.

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 • Admin Login Module
Ø Only registered admin and sub admin can login.
Ø It ensures security for the system.
Ø It helps to authenticate end users.
Ø Only validate name and password can logged in system.
• Admin Module
Ø Only admin and sub admin can access.
Ø Admin can edit, add and delete posts and articles.
Ø Admin has control over comments.
Ø Admin can logout and change password.

ii. Non-functional Requirement

Non-functional requirements of the system are identified as:

• Efficiency Requirement
It refers to how well it handles capacity, throughput, and response
time. With News Portal, both users and admins may easily access
the news and user and read and comment on it.

• Reliability Requirement
To degree to which the software system regularly executes the stated
functions without failure is called reliability which were performed
accurately by system.

• Usability Requirement
The system’s usability criteria states how simple it must be to use.
The system was created in a user-friendly environment so that users
and admins could easily and successfully complete various activities
in the system.

• Implementation Requirements
The process of turning strategies and plans into actions to achieve
strategic objectives and goals is known as implementation. The front

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 end was created using HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, with PHP serving as
server-side programming language for database connectivity at the
backend, i.e., MySQL was utilized.
3.1.2 Feasibility Study
i. Technical Feasibility
These include hardware, software and technologies. The system is
technically possible because it requires access to the use of a browser and
the internet. The System’s user interface is also quite simple.

ii. Operational Feasibility

Reliability, maintainability, usability and supportability are among them.
The system is operationally practical since it is reliable for all types of users,
regardless of whether they are computer literate. For a small to large-scale
organization, the proposed system is supported. It is straight-forward to use.

iii. Economic Feasibility

The project was developed within the organization’s budgetary constraints.
The project resource was freely available, and no additional obligations
were required. The creation of the system does not necessitate the use of
expensive hardware or software. The platform is open source and the
resources required for the project are also open source.

iv. Schedule Feasibility

Among various phases of the project data collecting took longer time as data
were collected from different information sources. After the data is
acquired, the next development phase can be completed in as little as a
month.

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3.1.3 Gantt Chart
Gantt Chart is a bar chart that provides a visual view of tasks scheduled over time. A
Gantt chat is used for planning projects of all sizes, and it is a useful tool of visualizing
the work schedule based on weeks spent on the certain phases which are being divided
into different by implementing the Waterfall development model.

Fig 2: Gantt Chart of News Portal

In the above Gantt Chart showing the start and finish week of project development such
as requirement analysis, system design, implementation, testing and deployment &
maintenance. It clearly shows that our project started in the first week of April where it
took us the first three weeks to complete the requirement analysis phase and system
took 4 weeks to complete and others are also shown as same. Where implementation
phase took most of the time due to its complexity, and the main core of project
development is the implementation where actual development process is carried out. It
took us about 6 months and 2 weeks to complete this project according to the chart
above.

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3.1.4 Data Modeling (ER Diagram)

This ER diagram represents the model of this project (News Portal). The ER diagram
of project shows all the visual instrument of database table and the relations between
user, news, admin etc. it uses a structured data to define the relationship between
structured data group of News Portal functionalities. The main entities of this project
are admin, sub-admin and news.

Fig 3: ER-diagram of News Portal

In the above diagram there are four entity such as user, admin, sub-admin and news
where there are different categories to manage each component individually. The figure
simply shows the data access on different levels. Sub-admin manages comments and
admin manages news both have their unique id to be authorized. Where user can only
read news and comment on it which both admin and sub admin can access

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3.1.5 Data Flow Diagram

Data flow diagrams show the flow of data from external entities into the system
and form one process to another within the system. Each process within the system is
first shown as context level DFD and later as a detailed DFD. The context level DFD
provides a conceptual view of the process and its surrounding input, output and data
stores. The detailed DFD provides a more detailed and comprehensive view of the
interaction among the subprocess.

Fig 4: Context diagram of News Portal

Fig 5: Level 1 DFD of News Portal

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3.2. System Design

3.2.1 Architectural Design

The next phase of design will be planning the architecture of the application.
There will be in some cases a separation of the user interface and data. The business
layer will be totally independent and not embedded in the views of the website. Data
will be stored in an SQL database. To query the database and code behind for server-
side scripting will be in PHP. The other business objects will have their own layer. The
architecture of the application is shown below in figure:

Fig 6: Two Tier Architecture

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3.2.2. Database Schema Design

Fig 7: Database Schema Design of News Portal

The design of the database is called a schema. This tells us about the structural view of
the database. It gives us an overall description of the database. A database schema
defines how the data is organized using the schema diagram.

In the above database schema diagram, we have six tables tbladmin, tblpages,
tblposts, tblcomments, tblcategory and tblsubcategory. Above diagram is also showing
the relationship between tables like admin manages posts pages and comments where
posts are divided into categories and sub-categories.

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3.2.3. Interface Design
After implementing the design, the project is completed and below images
show the final design of the project by implementing all the requirements we had
gathered. Below images show the complete images of the project:

Fig 8: Homepage of News Portal

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Fig 9: Pages of News Portal

24
Fig 10: Admin login page and dashboard of News Portal

25
Fig 11: Post section of admin panel

26
Fig: Sub-admin section of admin panel

27
Fig 11: Category and Sub-category sections of admin panel

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 Fig 12: Comments and Pages section of admin panel

Above images are the instances of the project trying to cover the overall view of the
website. All the images aboves shows the different sections of the project of both
frontend and backend. With the help of those images any one can get the idead of
project.

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3.2.4 Physical DFD

Fig 13: Physical DFD of News Portal

Physical data flow diagram shows how the flow is implemented in the system. Physical
DFD is more specific and closer to implementation. Figure illustrated above shows a
physical DFD of News Portal.

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Chapter 3: Implementation and Testing
4.1. Implementation
4.1.1. Tools Used
The various system tools that have been used in developing both the front
end and the back end of the project are discussed in this chapter.

Front End
Figma, HTML, CSS/Bootstrap4, JavaScript/jQuery and PHP are utilized.

Figma:
Figma is a tool for designing layouts and architecture. It was used to design the layout
of this project.

HTML5
HTML is a syntax used to format a text document on the web. It is used to create the
overall structure of the project.

CSS/Bootstrap4
Bootstrap is a library of CSS which is the style sheet for the HTML document. It is used
to give the overall design of a website.

JavaScript/jQuery
jQuery is a popular and widely used JavaScript library that simplifies many common
tasks involved in web development. It is used to make websites more dynamic and
interactive.

PHP
PHP is a server-side scripting language designed for web development but also used as
a general-purpose programming language. It is used to dynamically display pages in
the project and interact with database.

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AJAX
AJAX, which stands for "Asynchronous JavaScript and XML," is a set of web
development techniques used to create asynchronous web applications. It allows you to
update parts of a web page without having to refresh the entire page.

Back End
The back end is implemented using MySQL which is used to design databases.

MySQL
MySQL is the world’s one of the widely used open-source RDBMS. The SQL stands
for Structured Query Language. MySQL is used stored all the data of website.

Other Tools Used

Draw.io
Draw.io is a web tool that helps in designig sturture like ER diagram and DFD.

XAMPP
XAMPP is a tool that enable users to own computer as local server.

4.1.2 Implementation
After the design was completed, it was time to implementin the application.
Implementing applications of this scale requires lots of resources and explaining the
whole implantaion process will not be clarified in this paper. However,major important
aspects in the implementation will be discribed.

The website designs

Figma is used to design over all layout of the project and every other implementation
like HTML, CSS, JS and PHP was done using Visual Studio Code. Bootsrap was used
to style the whole website. The actual implementationhas been done using JavaScript
and PHP. PHP also has been used to interact with the backend database. SQL is used
for database.

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4.2 Testing
For the application or ewbsite to be deployed it has to be tested. Hence test cases
will be written to test this application. There are many tests to be carried outon a web
application from perfromance, functionality, database loading time and many
others.We will not carry out every tezt for the application considering the time scale to
present this project. We will focus mainly on functionality, security and performance.

4.2.1 Test Cases for Manual Testing

Table 1: Admin Login

ID Test Case Test Data Expected Actual Pass/
Description Result Result Fail
LOG Admin Admin123 Display As pass
1 enters Password: test123 message expected
wrong Invalid
credentials Details

LOG Admin admin Show the As Pass

2 enters right Test@123 admin expected
credentials panel

Table 2: Search News

ID Test Case Test Expected Result Actual Pass/
Description Data Result Fail
Tst 1 User search Politics Display news As Pass
news/category related to politics Expected

Tst 2 User search England No data found As Pass

term is wrong vs expected
France

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 Table 3: Add Update and Delete data

ID Test Case Test Data Expected Actual Pass/

Description Result Result Fail
AUD Admin forgets Category: None Message: As Pass
1 to enter Tiltle: Baseball Please fill out expected
required fields Description: this field
to add new sub- American Sports
category

AUD Admin enters a Title: Hollywood Category As Pass

2 all required field Descrioption: added expected
to add a Hollywood sucesfully
category Blockbusters

AUD Admin deletes a delete Are you sure As Pass

3 post to delete this Expected
post?

AUD Admin approve Approve Sucessfully As

4 comments done expected

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Chapter 4: Conclusion and Future Planning
4.1 Lesson Acquired/Outcome
On the current stage of project, the users will be able to access news and search
with their categorization. In this News Portal website one can also comments on
news and admin can approve or not.

4.2 Conclusion
Our goal was to create full-fledged application where one can access the news
without any complexity. The current application has fulfilled these goals. We
followed the specifications strictly but enhanced some of the features when there
was need for it. Building this web application has been challenging and enriching
because throughout the project we learnt a lot about full stack development and
lot more concepts about PHP, HTML, JavaScript and other implemented tools.
As we came to the end of this project, we realized that there are many
enhancements that can be made on the application. Some of these ideas came
from those who tested the application and some from both of us. Any other
enhancements can be made in future development of the application.

4.3 Future Recommendations

Here is what can be done in the future on this website to increase the usability,
user experience and interaction of the website. There is lot to be done still hence
this application can be considered as a starting point of learning and improving.

§ Add User Registration.

§ Add multiple pages for more information.
§ Addition of themes.
§ Add forums and videos.
§ Add personalization features.
§ Greater user experience
§ Add history section.
§ Add social features.
§ Add better search portal.

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Refrences
1. (RONB Allegation on biased news)Online Khabar,2023 online Available:
https://english.onlinekhabar.com/ronb-impact-the-public-trust.html
2. (integration of blockchain technology) Pavlik, J.: Pavlik, J. (2001). Journalism
and New Media. New York: Columbia University Press.
http://dx.doi.org/10.7312/pavl11482
3. (setting the agenda for public discourse) Maxwell E. McCombs and Donald L.
Shaw: Vol. 36, No. 2 (Summer, 1972)
4. (journalists in filtering and controlling the flow of news) White,1950:
Volume 27, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1177/107769905002700
6. (concerns about the credibility of news sources) Andreson et al 2019 :
PMID: 36626611 DOI: 10.1123/ijsnem.2020-0135

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