Journal Abstract

The Constitutions of democratic countries list, and elaborately specify the makeup and functions of, three branches of government: the Executive, Legislature, and Judiciary. The Media, dubbed the Fourth Estate by Edmund Burke, cannot be a part of the government. In fact, to contemplate a free media being a part of a government would be an oxymoron. After all, the Media is there to keep a check on the abuse of power by the government and other power structures. This paper looks at the media’s role in a country’s governance, security, and development, and these are encapsulated, indicating also to their complementarity, in the quality traditional media’s glamour best: political journalism. Today, in the early twenty-first century, journalism is still, for good and ill, at the heart of politics. But political journalism is also changing and reinventing itself as a craft and a profession in the face of harsh competition, a rapidly changing business environment, and a political world undergoing its own profound changes. Furthermore, in the Internet Age, the new media, because of the possibilities for good or mischief that it can create, is often a target for manipulation towards one’s own benefit, and at the expense of other political entities, in a number of countries.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.52823/SCZP3591