THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIO-POLITICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS OF DIGITAL MEDIA ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The digital media has often been described as the bastion or watchdog of an economy which brings about sustainable development, a set of public and private institutions that daily inundate large audiences with information, education, entertainment and national agenda setting by stimulating debate on various social, political and economic issues that could facilitate national development. The media is however part of the socio-political and cultural milieu in which it operates. This paper examines the influence of the socio-political and cultural context of digital media on sustainable development in Nigeria. The sources of data collection are mainly secondary. The characterized pluralization of the Nigerian system - class, ethnic and other social diversities is also adherence to the digital media. it was found that the media has a responsibility to look beyond the official clichés of balanced reporting, investigative journalism, objectivity and verification of facts before publication and focus on the higher virtue of defending the fundamental rights of the common people, economic democracy and the consistent exposure of official corruption, abuse of office and resource mismanagement as means of achieving sustainable development. The paper concludes that the media needs to be constantly aligned with the poor and down-trodden who constitute the primary objects of development rather than the elite who have the capacity for extending gratification and patronage to media practitioners. A compromised media could constitute a clog in the wheel of national progress and sustainable development if awareness of the SDGs is halted or not properly galvanized. Therefore, it recommends that, the government and various stakeholders should allow the press to work freely and make the SDGs target modulus available to the common man.