RE-BRANDING THE NIGERIAN MASS MEDIA FOR POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT: ISSUES, PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

Abstract

Mass Media  globally are established on the premise of getting the society informed, educated, and  entertained. These tripartite roles are guided by the ethics of professionalism, accuracy, credibility, balance objectivity, sensitivity, reliability, national interest and social responsibility as the core values of the Nigeria mass media as brands. Doing thus, they media practitioners have are expected to implore employ sanctity, objectivity, and reliability these enshrined values in the discharge of their professional duties .order to be accorded credence in the job they do. The Nigerian Mass media have not always abided by the media code of ethics  lived up to this ideology  as case abound  where media organizations have blatantly breached the they have gone contrary to Nigerian Broadcasting Code Section 5:8 that emphasizes that” a media organization shall exercise good judgment  in their choice  of news stories and headlines. Furthermore, Section 4:3 of the same Code assert that ‘a media organization shall reject any material intended for publication or airing by political parties, candidates and other interest that contains hateful or inciting messages. Invariably, electioneering in the Nigerian media came out of the election that is characterized  by campaigns of calumny and hates. This state of affairs has severely bruised, scandalized and put the Nigerian media into disrepute thereby constituting as an impediment to Nigerian a robust democratic system. Conclusively, to consolidate on the democratic ideology in Nigeria, the media ought to uphold the values as enshrined in the Broadcasting Code as the soul and spirit of their brands to realize the value of integrity, credibility, objectivity and reliability to information to be disseminated to the public information dissemination.