DEMOCRACY OR DEMOCRATIZATION? EXPLORING THE ROLES OF THE CONVENTIONAL AND NEW MEDIA IN AFRICAN POLITICS

Abstract

Democratization and democracy take different practical positions in the political life of a society, representing a political process and a system of governance, respectively. Yet, western democracy propaganda in Africa remains incapable of recognizing this difference. Using the conventional media, western democracy warlords have waged the campaign that presents African political systems as democracies whereas Africa still battles with fake democratization they imposed on her. As a result of this propaganda, African citizens innocently mistook democratization for democracy and surrendered their rights and management of their common affairs to undemocratic regimes believing they were democratic governments. The outcome were abuse of rights, mismanagement of public resources, exploitation and corruption,  resulting to poverty, insecurity, hunger, unemployment, agitations, terrorism and wars. Though, the situation has benefited a few, the majority of the population suffers for exclusion in politics and public wealth and became victims of political trickery. Thus, there is a need for proper political information and reorientation of the victims of this political onslaught. This paper explored the roles of the conventional media in creating this ugly situation and the position of the new media in correcting the abnormality. As an exploratory and documentary exercise, the study was aided by relevant literature at our disposal and used the instrumentality of dependency theory for explanation. Our findings showed that the new or social media which made an unregulated entry into Africa’s information and communication space became a tool for mass expression and interrogation of the old order. As a result, many governments across the world are jittery, and moves to halt the trend are ongoing. To consolidate mass expression and entrench genuine political process, Africa requires positive citizen education and indigenous democratization that will use the existing traditional political institutions as workable spring boards.