ROLE OF MEDIA IN EMERGING DEMOCRACY

ABSTRACT

The media are an indispensable agent of development in any nation given their invaluable contribution to governance as a watchdog and partner in progress with other arms of government. In a developing country like Nigeria, the mass media have been instrumental to the delivery and consolidation of the current democratic experience. Within this context, this paper examines the role the media have played and continue to play in the socio-political and socio-economic reengineering of structures in a country faced with enormous problems which militate against its optimal performance as an emergent democracy. The paper employs the historical and analytical approaches as its methodology of illuminating on the issues set out. In the end, it suggests that the Nigerian government revoke all laws that have served as clogs on the wheels of the Nigerian media; hence, it canvasses for the urgent passage of the freedom of information bill (FOIB) into law.