Abstract
The media over the years have been globally acknowledged as the watchdog of the society and their information/monitoring roles considered a sine qua non for democracy and good governance. The media, popularly referred to as the Fourth Estate of the Realm, have been identified as a key institution that plays a critical role in defining the political, economic and socio-cultural reality of given nations. The importance of the media today is immense and indispensable. Never before in mankind’s history, the media had such a noteworthy impact on our lives (behaviors) and environments-this perhaps is due to modern technology. In developing state like Nigeria, the media have been instrumental to the struggle for democracy in 1999 after a long period of military rule. Based on this backdrop, this paper examined the contribution or the role of Nigerian media to Nigeria’s transition to civil rule (democracy) in May 1999. The paper adopted descriptive research method through the use of secondary sources of data and anchored on the precepts of the Agenda Setting Theory. However, the study concluded that access to media is enormous for the success of democracy because for any democratic regime to survive, adequate quality information is essential. Key words: Democratization, democracy, imperative and media.
Highlights
Over the past two decades, Sub-Saharan ( ‘Africa’) has been partly transformed by the winds of democratic change (Diamond, 2010), sequel to the collapse of Soviet Unions in the 20th century
In an attempt to avoid the problems associated with the lexical use of the concept, political and social scientists have offered a number of definitions and explanations on the concepts, for instance, Agbaje (1999) opined that democracy is a term that is used to describe an idea, process or system of government
The greatest challenges faced by Nigerian media in its bid to strengthen the transitional project to effective civil/ democratic rule is the behaviors of the Nigeria politicians, especially those in governments and at state levels irrespective of their political party affiliation
Summary
Over the past two decades, Sub-Saharan ( ‘Africa’) has been partly transformed by the winds of democratic change (Diamond, 2010), sequel to the collapse of Soviet Unions in the 20th century. In an attempt to avoid the problems associated with the lexical use of the concept (democracy), political and social scientists have offered a number of definitions and explanations on the concepts, for instance, Agbaje (1999) opined that democracy is a term that is used to describe an idea, process (series of event leading to change or a course of action) or system of government It entrenches and expands the right, ability and capacity of people in any community to take control of their lives through participation, in discussion and decision on issues and events that affect them and their community. The print (in particular) and electronic media shall be focused on
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