Critical Journalism and Democratic Governance in Nigeria

Abstract

Democratic governance is the most popular system of government the world over. It is the government that enhances human rights as well as political participation among the citizens. Critical journalism is one of the factors of effective democratic governance. This paper is as assessment of the contribution of critical journalism to democratic governance in Nigeria. It adopted the descriptive research method whereby relevant literature, documents and records were consulted and analysed based on existing realities, and anchored on the precepts of the social responsibility theory. The paper reveals that, given the dynamic nature of the technology-driven society, journalism entails more than the mere conventional practice of reporting based on the 5W1H to an in-depth interpretation and analysis of the information so reported. Findings also reveal that, critical journalism has played an invaluable role in the sustenance of democratic governance in Nigeria, especially during the present era (1999- date) of democratic governance in the country. Such roles include checkmating excesses in governance, serving as a watchdog over government and breaching the communication gap between the government and the governed. Based on the findings of this paper it is recommended, among others, that Journalists should strive to go beyond merely reporting based on the 5W1H approach, but engage in in-depth investigation, interpretation and unbiased analysis to upgrade the standard of conventional journalism to critical journalism.

Keywords: Critical journalism, democratic governance, democratic process, social responsibility, watchdog