WATCHDOG JOURNALISM IN NIGERIA: DEMOCRACY AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Abstract
AbstractMass media has recorded tremendous achievement in Nigeria political system, particularly towards educating the masses on the government policies and programmes. This action performed by the media has significantly influenced the voting behaviour of the electorates in Nigeria which arguably attributed to the historical landmark success recorded in the country by the opposition party (All Progressive Party) to unseat the ruling party (Peoples Democratic Party) during the 2015 general election. The study examines the media role in Nigeria towards ensuring that the political officers/politicians are accountable to the masses whom their interests is represented. The study makes use of structuration theory that explain how the structure and action of man make the society and that the two are indivisible to study. The actions of man that affects the structure must have be attributed to the role and the kind of information disseminated by the media in such society. The study reveals that some media houses subject themselves to tool of oppression by the ruling party in order deprive the opposition of their rights to access media and canvass for votes. The study equally reveals that the unethical practice among the media to discriminate over the political parties’ programmes is capable of jeopardizing the political awareness of the masses. This study therefore is a qualitative in nature that employs the use of secondary data source of data to assess how media ensure that the political officers are accountable to the masses in Nigeria.
Keywords: Media, Accountability, Voting Behaviour, Democracy
References
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