Media-State Relationship in Democratic Societies: An Appraisal of the current Nigerian Democratic Experiment

Abstract

This essay interrogates the nexus between media and democracy. It is a two-pronged approach to the discourse of media-state  relationship in democratic settings, with the intention to proffer answer to the questions of what role the media play in democratic  consolidation, and what role the state plays to facilitate media operations in the interest of democracy. Divided into four major parts, the  first part sets the scene for discussion by giving an overview of the key concepts- media and democracy, upon which the whole gamut of  the essay hinges. The second part pegs the study on a theory. Here, Development Media Theory has been employed to explain the  dynamics of media-state relationship in budding democracies. Next is a perspective on media-state relationship, where the three state  roles of regulation, participation and facilitation of media operations are discussed. The last part of the essay is a functionalist approach  to the discourse of media-state relationship in a democratic setting, with accent on the major functions expected of a vibrant media  sector such as surveillance, correlation, mobilization, information, enlightenment, education and sensitization, discussed vis-à-vis the  Nigerian “politico-media” landscape. The study concludes that media and democracy are interlocked in a symbiotic relationship that is  beneficial to each other. The relationship here is best described as two sides of the same coin that can never be separated, hence, each  needs and yearns dearly for the other.