INVESTIGATING THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN NEWS MEDIA TRUST AND PARTICIPATORY GOVERNANCE AMONG NIGERIAN YOUTHS

Abstract

As Africa’s most populous country and one of the most influential countries on the continent, Nigeria unarguably has continued to struggle to make some progress in strengthening its democracy since it returned two decades ago. The media as the fourth estate has important functions to play in strengthening democracy and sustaining good political systems by galvanizing people’s interest through civic education and participation in governance. However, the media’s role in African society as societal watchdog and development partners seem to be problematic because of issues of commercialization, competition, and political economy of the media. As the media tries to perform its role amidst these hindrances, what becomes rife is journalist downplaying journalistic ethos and principles that can affect public confidence in the media. Drawing on media credibility research and amidst the argument that confidence in the media is a moderating factor in people’s media use and political behaviour, we surveyed 160 Nigerian youths to investigate the relationship between news media trust and participatory governance. Running a Pearson correlation analysis, we found a negative relationship between the two constructs despite youths’ high exposure to the media. However, television still enjoys the highest level of trust among the types of media. The results highlight the need for media organisations to repackage and keep up with their guards against influences that may erode their integrity.