Abstract
Democracy as a concept has become a common term among the generality of Nigerian citizens as a result of its frequent usage in the media. Although in the real sense of it, it has brought little dividends to Nigerians. In spite of its popular acceptance as the most favourable form of government in the world, the media in Nigeria has portrayed democracy in an uninspiring manner because of the greed, corruption and nepotism of Nigerian politicians thereby making the political communication of democracy as government of the people by the people and for the people unimpressive. Therefore, this paper examines the linkage between the media and democratic governance in Nigeria. It seeks to understand the ills that the media had caused to the democratic governance in Nigeria through sensational coverage of political events. The paper relied on secondary sources of data collection; and it is descriptive and explanatory in nature. The study anchored on Political Communication theory and Agenda-Setting theory to explain the influence of the media on democracy. The findings showed that Nigerian media is faced with myriads of challenges in fulfilling its duty as the watchdog of the society due to the issue of ownership, economic problem, and lack of adherence to professional ethics. It therefore recommended that adequate training that will reflect the ethics of the profession be given to media practitioners and other relevant stakeholders. Also, media practitioners including owners of medial houses should be exposed to an all-embracing political education that will enhance medial professionalism and appreciation of democratic values in Nigeria.
Highlights
Every society operates a form of government for the purpose of maintaining order, peace, security and general well-being of its citizens
The ideology of democracy which is based on representation, participation and rule of law is anchored on the ability of the electorates to freely express their interests through available media of communication
This paper explores the role of the media in democratic governance in Nigeria as well as its challenges
Summary
Every society operates a form of government for the purpose of maintaining order, peace, security and general well-being of its citizens. The basic social values of the society, including; rule of law, human rights, freedom, wealth creation, liberty, equality, among others are expected to be promoted by the media. The media is very crucial in any democratic setting in that it serves as the watchdog of the society This is why it is more dangerous for the media in a democracy to lose its head in unconscionable partisanship (Ogbodo, 2016). The media informs and educates the electorates concerning democratic values, and the citizens’ rights. The rest of the paper is presented in four sections which are: introduction, conceptual analysis, literature reviews, theoretical framework, analysis of issues and recommendations The study is both descriptive and analytical in nature and it relies on secondary sources for generation of data
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