Pages: (17-25 )
Abstract
The media not only inform and entertain, but by so doing also define and shape perceptions and by extension, even the nature of reality. The media today exert great influence on the direction and configuration of socio political issues. The media not only provide information on politics, but they themselves are increasingly actors in the arena and not merely innocent by standers who can be expected to always stick to their ethical prescription of balance, fairness, objectivity and detachment when covering issues. Through the gatekeeping, agenda setting, spiral of silence and status conferral power of the media, they shape politics and democratization discourses. When this is juxtaposed with the dangers of media commercialization and its rapidly increasing concentration in a few wealthy, elite hands, the nation’s democratic future is threatened. This is the crux of this article.
Keywords: Media Commercialization, Democratization, Nigeria,