Challenges of the Mass Media in Contributing to National Development

JHSP

By

Nnamdi Chinedu Nwanyanwu. Ph.D.

+234 08038882786,
[email protected]

Department of Mass Communication,

School of information and Communication Technology
Port Harcourt Polytechnic, Rivers State Nigeria.

ABSTRACT

Having a free viable and independent media in Nigeria will contribute to national
development. The media has been variously defined by scholars of mass communication
among which media is referred to as a collective means of communication by which general
public or populace is kept informed about the day to day happenings in the society. Hence
mass media is a collection of organs of communication and information dissemination that
reaches out a large number of people. The information circulation is not only confined within
members of the public but the media also serves to coordinate the information flow between
government and the public and vice versa. Basically, the media are described as performing
three functions or roles of information, education and entertainment. These are the
conventional social functions the media render to the public, but which is equally applicable
in broader sense in national development pursuit. It could be said that through educating,
informing and entertaining, the media thereby make the society, society members or the
nation as well as the leadership of the very society aware of the importance and need to
undertake certain process or processes of national development. Also attached to these three
basic roles of media is another role of persuasion, where media are seen as virile tools of
applying persuasive efforts to influence people’s actions towards a particular direction. The
mass media are therefore seen for their role in furnishing the public with necessary
information to achieve development or change goals. However there are challenges militating
against the media that has made it difficult for them to effectively discharge their
constitutional responsibilities. Management not given free hand to operate their stations, Poor
remuneration of staff, Employment of non-professionals, Inadequate funding, Censorship,
Termination of appointments to intimidation amongst others have been identified as
constraints on media contribution to national development
.
Key words: Media, Challenges, National Development, information, education.

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INTRODUCTION

Development refers to a change process geared at improving or making better, the

life and environment of man. Odulaye (1985) posited that development involves the creation

of opportunities for the realization of human potentialities. Where the media comes in

development process is through what is called “development communication”. This

according to Isa (2007) is the type of communication which is consciously packaged by the

sender such that the message content or the information sent could persuade, encourage or

convince the receiver or target audience to adopt an attitude and participate in actualizing a

development plan or goal. At certain instances, the message sent aims at making the target

Development means “a new stage in a changing situation.” To develop is to become

more advanced. In the context of a nation, three major factors must be considered in any

discussion on development – economic growth, self reliance, and social justice. National

development involves political, economic and social factors. Development is a qualitative

change, which entails changes in the structure of the economy, social environment, and

political disposition. The targets of national development are the people, because it is focused

on human population. The overall object of national development is human development, the

purpose of which is to enlarge people’s choices for: greater access to knowledge; better

nutrition and health services; more secure livelihoods; security against crime and physical

violence; political and cultural freedoms; and a sense of participation in community activities.

The media have been variously described as the fourth estate, agenda setter,

watchdog, force multiplier, and gate-keeper, all in an effort to demonstrate their influence on

society. Conversely, the media have been viewed as avenue for sensationalism, propaganda,

and bias, factors inimical to national development. Given these perceptions about the media,

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to what extent do they contribute to national development and what are the challenges they

face?

MEDIA AND DEVELOPMENT

The media, with reference to the collective entity of newspapers, radio, television and

the new media play a very important role in national development. National development

involves changes or advancement in a nation aimed at improving the political, economic and

social lives of the people. The real influence of the media in national development will

depend on the media themselves, the societies in which they operate, and the audience they

reach.

Experience has shown that the Nigerian media published issues of allegations in other

to fight corruption and other social vices but was inconsistent in its stand on it. It instead

devoted a great deal of its columns to represent the interest of those in power. What seems

obvious is that it has been accepted quite reluctantly by media scholars and practioners that

the media is powerful in setting its own agenda for its target audience. Indeed, one seems to

agree with the impression above because of its inherent characteristic of deliberate

suppression of otherwise critical issues of public interest, gross diversion of public attention,

selective target of issues and / or personalities for public and national discourses among

others. In fact, the method for doing this is at times subtle and at other times brazen with the

result that the press has acquired a very powerful and significant status of its own to the

detriment of transparency and accountability. It is true that every media takes the coloration

of the environment where it operates, they (media) however has responsibility to discharge.

In Section 22 of the 1999 constitution, the media has been given a role to ensure that

the government, at all levels, is accountable to the citizenry, little wonder the media is

referred to, as “The Fourth Estate of the Realm”, i.e. The fourth pillar in support of the

essential tripod of government; the Executive, the Legislative and the judiciary. Moreover

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wherever corruption is checked in the conduct of public business, the media usually plays a

critical role. It is generally appreciated that the democracy is well-served by its media which

informs and educates the public, and ensures that the government is accountable to the

people. In short, the nature and character of the media greatly impacts on the performance of

the democratic/governance process and vice versa.

OTHER MEDIA ROLE IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

1) The media leads to formation of attitude change through establishing of values for the

society or nation and thereby building a climate of change in the society or nation.

2) Protection of Social Justice. Here, the media are not only expected to record, compose

or report account of events and stories just as the historians do, but the media are also

expected to analyze issues and facts contained in the news, in line with the need and interest

of Social Justice. They, through the agenda setting functions continue to bring issues of

justice to the front burner.

3) In order to ensure a peaceful national coexistence and progress, the media have before

them the task of discouraging such negative issues as ethnicity, dictatorship in leadership and

of course discourage embezzlement of public funds, as it is the disturbing trend presently

indulged by politicians occupying positions of responsibilities and related public officers in

Nigeria. Perhaps if the media in Nigeria were carrying out or were allowed to ideally carry

out their function of investigating facts and announcing them to the public, the public will be

better served.

4) The responsibility of informing people about development projects and programmes is

another major role of media to national development. Such programmes designed and

proposed by policy makers could be entirely new to the people at whom they need to be

enlightened, educated and mobilized by the media.

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5) Offering solutions to problems: The media are not only expected criticize government

officials and condemn their actions, but also as watchdogs of the society, they should review,

analyze, appraise or criticize, as the case may be, activities of government agencies and

programmes with a view to offering solutions in the areas where they are failing or lacking

and suggest ways to their rectification.

DEVELOPMENT MEDIA THEORY

Development media theory began from the agenda –setting theory espoused by McCombs

and Shaw (1972), which stated that the media tells us not what to think but what to think

about. In other words, the amount of attention given to an issue in the press affects the level

of importance assigned to that issue by the mass media audience. The main thrust of Agenda

Setting theory is that though media may not completely change ones point of view on

particular issue, it tends to change his perception of what is good. That is to say in simple

terms, the fact about the inherent influencing power of media, makes it to be seen and applied

as important instrument in developmental policies of the government at all levels.

FACTORS MILITATING AGAINST THE EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE

PERFORMANCE OF THE PRESS.

The mass media play a vital role in nation-building. It is therefore necessary to

identify the problems facing the mass media in Nigeria. Isa (2007) listed three factors:

1) Restrictions from the so-called “state security” laws and decrees tend to prevent full rights

of expression and writing or broadcasting the facts as they are – by “calling a spade a spade”.

2) Lack of adequate remuneration and protection for media practitioners by the media

managers often lead to suppressing of facts and succumbing to collection of gratification (the

notorious brown envelope syndrome) in order for the reporters to have their ends met.

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3) Crossing the interests of media owners or proprietors is another problem whereby

executives of government owned media prefer to have their lead story carrying big portrait of

the governor or president on the TV screen or front page of Newspaper in order to maintain

their position in office. On the other hand, private media owners often have governors,

ministers and commissioner friends, at which the helpless reporter willing to report facts or

expose an act of dishonesty committed by any of these people could not have his story

published or aired because it crosses their (media owners) personal interests.

Journalism in Nigeria has now shifted from its position as the watchdog to

collaborator in killing of a nation through misinformation and covering up for dishonest

public office holders. It is no more a news that editors and publishers call ministers and

governors to inform them of stories about them and the possibility of “killing it”. Chuku and

Nnamdi (2011) add that exclusive ownership and excessive control of the media have been

counter-productive, defeating the objectives of national development and sometimes

engendering muzzling of the press and independent thought which is the major component of

democracy.

The problems of government owned media house appear to be more complex because

of the usual bureaucratic and mismanagement. Misappropriation of fund exerts a paralyzing

influence on the media. Financial mismanagement, inability to provide enough funds for

technical facilities as well as static administrative protocol coupled with the absence of

practical knowledge of audience management hamper the operations of the media out-fits

especially those owned by the government.

Nwosu, (1990) supports the idea of funding when he points out that “stringent budgets

mean little or no investigative reporting or in depth writing. This is exactly the present cloud

that envelopes many media organizations. The few talented professionals who are presently

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working in these media organizations are only there because they have not found any

alternative. They are not committed because of the inadequate funding.

Furthermore, delayed monthly salaries have led to low morale, job insecurity and lack

of commitment, pilfering and indiscipline. The choice of suitable media technology is another

militating factor against the media output. The changing technological improvement

prevalent in this modern age affects both the broadcast and the print media. Going by the

present economic woes, the procurement of modern technological equipment and facilities

has become a problem to media owners.

New technological transfer is difficult to be adapted to. Other problems associated

with it include problem of spare parts, durability of the new technology, and staff training for

operating the new system. Ethical problems still militate against media organizations in

Nigeria. Amadi (1986) insists that bribery and corruption still exist in the practice of Nigeria

journalism. Ebo (1998) says that this affects audience perception of media credibility. One of

the greatest ethical problems of media organizations is objectivity. Many of these media do

not report balanced news. At times reporters are invited for dinner, given Christmas gifts,

‘brown envelops’ and other forms of gratification. It is highly unacceptable and remains an

ethical problem against the media practioners.

LEGAL CONSTRAINTS ON JOURNALISTIC PRACTICE IN NIGERIA

Thomas Jefferson, the third American president said that he preferred a press without

a government than a government without a press. Sad to say, experience has shown that the

reverse is the case in Nigeria. The authorities (government) hate the investigative inclination,

eagle and probing eyes of journalists thus they try to muzzle the press with legal and extra-

legal instruments at their disposal.

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 Asadu (2007) identified one of the legal control mechanisms that weigh the media

down in the discharge of their social responsibility to the people as law on sedition. Fred

(1999) adds that the ruling class is suspicious that a free press could “lionize” the ordinary

citizens to the extent of causing a shift in the base of power. This assumption, though

erroneous has its grounds on the contributions which journalism made towards the

decolonization of Nigeria.

The root of the ruling class’s suspicion of the press is therefore traceable to the

mistaken imagination according to Wilcox (1975) as cited by Fred (1999:4) since a fettered

pre-independence press was able to remove the powerful colonial masters, then an unfettered

post-independent press would be too hot for less powerful African masters to contend with.

In recognition of the importance of press freedom, Article 19 of the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights (10th December 1948) has it that everyone has the right to

freedom of opinion and expression. This right includes freedom to hold opinions without

interference and to seek and receive information and ideas through any media regardless of

frontiers.

What then is press freedom? Alabi (2003) defined press freedom to mean that the

press should be allowed to publish without prior restraint. Oloruntola, (2007), on the other

hand defines press freedom as the right of the press to publish without being subjected to

intimidation, threat, molestation or blackmail.

Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria lends credence

to the crucial role of the press; the extent to which the Nigerian mass media are able to

discharge. This all-important role depends; to a very large extent, on the width and depth of

the enabling environment that is created and sustained by the law of the land (Okoro and

Okolie, 2004 p.65).

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 Press laws regulate the activities of the professional journalists, for according to

Okunna (1995) cited in Okoro and Okolie, (2004 p.65) media laws are rules made by

government for the regulation of the activities of mass media professionals so as to ensure

correct conduct by them.

According to Nnamdi et al (2016) Media laws are necessary since there is no absolute

freedom anywhere in the world but a closer look at laws governing the activities of

journalism especially the print reveals that the laws have not been mild. Some of these laws

are:

1. The Newspaper Act, 1917

2. Printing Presses Regulation Act, 1933
3. Criminal Code and Penal Code: (a.) Sedition, (b.) Injurious falsehood, (c.) Criminal
defamation, (d.) Prohibition of imported Publications, (e.)Seditious publication against
foreign Heads of State, ( f.) Contempt of court.
4. Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications Act, 1961)
5. Defamation Act, 1961
6. Seditious Meeting Act, 1961
7. Obscene Publication Act, 1961 8. Official Secrets Act, 1962
9. Newspaper (Amendment) Act, 1964
10. Circulation of Newspaper Decree No. 2, 1966
11. The Defamatory and Offensive Publications Decree No. 44, 1966
12. Newspaper (Prohibition of Circulation) Decree No. 17,1967
13. Public Officers (Protection Against False Accusation) Decree No. 11, 1976
14. Newspaper (Prohibition of Circulation) Validation Decree No. 12, 1978 (Momoh, 2002:
10-33)

In a study of journalist’ coverage of late President Musa Yar’Adua’s illness, Nnamdi

and Eke (2011) has it that Most of the journalists interviewed, blamed many of the press laws

as a barrier to effective discharge of their duty. Some of the laws include the Official Secret

Act, libel, invasion of privacy, obscenity/indecency, confidentiality, sedition and false

light/fictionalization. Some of these laws will briefly be discussed to see how they militate

against the social responsibilities of the journalist.

(1) The Official Secrets Act: the Official Secrets Act was enacted in Nigeria in 1962

with the purpose of preventing the disclosure to the public any material which government

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considers as classified matter. The Act defined classified matter as: “Any information or

anything which under any system of security classification, from time to time in use by any

branch of the government, is not to be disclosed to the public, and of which the disclosure to

the public would be prejudicial to the security of Nigeria”.

The Act forbids any government official whether serving or not from disclosing

information considered secret even though it is in the interest of the general public. The Act

also criminalizes spying; as a result, an investigative reporter may be termed a spy. This is a

barrier to effective journalism.

Apart from the Official Secrets Act, there are other laws in Nigeria which seek to

protect government secrets for “security” reasons. They include: the Criminal Code Act; the

Penal Code Act; The Evidence Act and the Constitution itself. For example, the Criminal

Code Act provides in Section 97 (1) that:

Any person who being employed in the public service, communicates fact which comes

to his knowledge by virtue of his office, and which is his duty to keep secret or by any

document which comes to his possession, except to some persons to whom he is bound to

publish or communicate, is guilty of a misdemeanor and is liable to imprisonment for two

years.

(2) Libel: Libel refers to published false statements that injure the reputation of the

person about whom it is published. It is a statement that lowers the esteem of a person in the

eye of right thinking persons.

From the above definition, it is clear that the freedom of expression which is a

fundamental human right and expressly guaranteed by the constitutions of free societies, is by

no means an absolute privilege. The law of libel imposes a notable limitation to unbridle

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freedom of expression. Fear of not overstepping is enough to put the journalist on the check

and such limits his effective performance.

(3) Sedition: - Sedition could be described as the publication of what brings into hatred

or contempt the president of the Federation or a governor of a state or the government itself.

Ganiyu (2010) also added that it is also seditious for a publication to excite

disaffection against the president, a governor or the government; to incite feelings of ill-will

and hostility against the government or the different classes of the population; to cause

discontent or disaffection among the citizens or inhabitants of Nigeria or to incite the people

to take the laws into their hands through riotous action.

Sedition has always been a suppression tool in the hands of dictators. Some have used

it to muffle genuine criticism and at times journalists have been charged with sedition.

(4) Invasion of privacy: - Invasion of privacy could be referred to the disclosure of

sensational material about a person’s love life, health, business affairs or social activities.

Though every journalist should be careful not to invade people’s privacy, however, Mencher

(1996) argue that “the public area is the journalist’s domain; activities that are carried out in

public such as… personalities characterized as public figures cannot be draped with the veil

of privacy”

POLITICAL APPOINTEE / INSTABILITY

Writing on the problem caused by the appointment of political stooges by the state

and federal government to head the media organizations, Iyida (1998) emphasis that:

government paper may have the style sheet all right, the
editor may be good, too good! He knows the job. He sees
journalism even as a vocation, himself as a missionary; his
job as a labour of love, but the problems still persists, why?
It is because of a lot of encroachment. Sometimes
government tends to regard its press as waste disposal unit

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 for party loyalist of sorts. These adventures take time to
adapt and easily roll out editors who become easy victims
of their whims.

The political appointees noted here by Iyida (1998) are the sycophants’ appointed by

the state federal governments as sole administrations or general managers to head their

media.

This presupposes that these political appointees have one thing in mind, to come and

satisfy their political aims, divert government grants and subvention into their private pockets

instead of using them to uplift the standard of the organisation and welfare of its workers.

The ulterior motive behind this comes to light when the editor tenders a formal

complaint on the mishandling and misappropriation of funds of the organization by the

general manager to the governor or minister, the reaction is usually shocking, instead of

reacting positively to these anomalies, he plays it down and takes a mute stand.

The nonchalant attitude of the authority according to Iyida (1998) points to the fact

that he deliberately brought these chieftains to head the media organization so as to

compensate them for their political support and loyalty. This had been the bane of the

government owned media organizations in Nigeria.

The frequent dissolution of the board of directors as a result of the political instability

in the country is another setback to government owned media organizations. Without a proper

scrutiny of suitable credentials, a group of unpatriotic and unqualified members mainly party

loyalists are appointed to kill an already dead company.

CONCLUSION

The role of the media in Nation development cannot be over emphasized, it therefore

means that if the following are observed, the media in Nigeria will contribute adequately to

national development:

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(1) Unnecessary Censorship should be discouraged by the government and when it is

inevitable, it is should be left for the media professionals to determine

(2) Under-funding is inimical to the operation of any media organization and should

therefore be avoided.

(3) Obsolete equipment should be replaced with modern equipment in order to stand the

challenges of modern journalism.

(4) Training and re-training of media professionals in terms of modern media facilities

should be done from time to time.

(5) Well articulated editorial policies capable of placing the Nigerian press in the same

pedestal as their counterparts in other developed and developing nations should be

adopted and maintained in order to give the Nigerian Press a sense of direction.

(6) Professionally qualified persons should be recruited to man the affairs of the media

organizations to avoid sycophancy and yellow journalism.

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