Role Of Mass Media

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CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the Study The new media is playing a more prominent role in shaping people’s perception about diverse issues, ranging from social, economic, and political. The new media is strategicin framing political perceptions as it was defined more recently in the United States presidential elections, in which the new media was deployed strategically by candidates to project positive image while opponents discredited same using the new media. The new media is being adopted to hold public officers accountable, which is the traditional role of the media. Researcheshave established that the media constitute a ‘sacred part’ of the society,and that it is the duty of the media to ensure things go smoothly by holding…show more content…
The media also engage and empower communities as well as underpin sustainable development and good governance (UNESCO Portal, 2008). Utor(2000) opines that mass media plays the role of “decision moulder and that of teacher” (p. 21). In addition,Abagen (2009) also asserts that they have “evolved over time into an essential ingredient in thedynamics of political rebirth” (p. 39). By virtue of this responsibility the mass media shape theopinion and attitude of people, especially in their capacity as voters.Media are veritable agents of socialization which also give legitimacy to governments; credence to what is known as social beliefs and political values; set agenda for the society; interpret as well as correlate events to mention a few. Hence, the participation of the media in the electoral process over the years has been a crucial factor to the success or otherwise of elections. The mass media have emerged as the most common source of information about election campaigns in democracies and…show more content…
For instance, Barrack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign has often been described as the first electoral campaign in which the use of the new media had a decisive impact(Fagorusi, 2013). Ale (2014), in his work on The New Media and Democracy, refers to the new media as cell phones with the power of the computers of ten years ago, high speed Internet available anywhere without requiring a desktop computer, and rapid communication which can transfer not just voice files but data of all sorts, and which makes transfers of ideas from one place to another easier and spontaneous. Ideas, here, means video, audio, data or files containing anything and

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