An Appraisal of the Press as an Institution in the Digital Age: Key Dynamics

Philomena E. Umoren & Etop O. Akpan

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Abstract

Digital communication is changing media practice, relationships between individuals, media, government and society. In the wake of the increasingly complex media environment, the philosophical assumptions of some normative media theories and the media effects theories require re-examination as new models are needed given the current social realities. In order to answer the stated objectives, the qualitative research method was applied. The appraisal showed that digital technologies had widely become indispensable for journalism practice. Thus, the press in the digital era should be participatory, deinstitutionalised, innovative and entrepreneurial. The paper concluded that the press must be institutionalised so that it may guarantee participatory equality and use its financial and symbolic clout to call the powerful to account, and that journalists must be held to norms of public service rather than financial profitability.

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