Throughout the centuries, the world has never existed without information and communication, hence the inexhaustible essence of mass media. The government has the power to either make or reject whatever that will exist within its environment. It also determines how free the mass media will be in their dissemination of information to the people. The question is in what ways has the government influenced the mass media?

The word politics has today acquired many meanings. For an ordinary man in the street, politics is a negative word connoting dubious behavior, scheming and maneuvering to secure an undue advantage over others. But for our purpose here, we shall restrict our consideration of politics to the realm of the state and government wherein it implies that aspect of human activities that deals with distribution of power, influence and authority in the state for the purpose of order and good governance of the state.

According to Haski (1926) politics can be defined as “who gets what, when and how? It is concerned with acquiring power to enable one be in a position to make or effect decision and policies”. According to Deutsch (1974), politics deals with “interplay of interest, the claiming and distribution of rewards that is the value”. Different individuals and groups, or even countries, acting in politics and pursuing their interests may co-operate or compete in regard to the allocation of values. By values, we mean things or relationship which people would like to have or enjoy. Power is regarded as the key value through which all values could be obtained.

The relationship between the mass media and the government institution can best be appreciated if we look at the classical theories of the press. These theories articulate the varying degrees of freedom existing in the media as they operate within any political system. Let us now briefly look at these theories and their basic principles.

Authoritative theory was articulated to define the relationship between the press and the authoritarian environment in Europe during the old days of monarchs and emperors. Under this political system, the mass media, (private or public) are clearly subordinate to the state and are restrained from criticizing of the government of the day or its officials or both. Furthermore, the authoritarian philosophy sees the mass media as only existing for the interest of the government and the elite in the society. To ensure the continuance of such status, a variety of methods is used to impose and legal trial. Such methods include licensing, censorship and legal trial. This theory did not allow freedom of the press. At no time is the press expected to criticize the government even when the press is privately owned.

Libertarian theory is the opposite of authoritarian theory. This philosophy advocates that people should be left free and given access to all types of ideas from which they should freely choose. Also known as free press theory, it posits that media should be owned by anybody who has the means and the desire to do so, and that media should be liberated from government control so that they can provide a free market place of ideas for the enlightenment of the people. In other words, this theory believes in total freedom of the press. One great philosopher that contributed to the libertarian theory of the press was John Stuart Mill in his book titled On Liberty. He argued that if we keep silence on an opinion, we might be silencing the truth and a wrong opinion may contain a grain of truth. Another person who contributed to the libertarian thought was Thomas Jefferson. In his defense of freedom, Jefferson said that if he were to choose between government and newspaper that he will rather have Newspaper than government.

Soviet communist is also called the Soviet-communist theory. Soviet communist theory is referred to as the new authoritarianism because of its similarity with the authoritarian theory. This theory believes in strict control of the press. The theory is of the argument that the press should support the government and not oppose it. In the societies where the Soviet media theory is in operation, all mass media; Newspaper, magazine and broadcast stations are owned and operated by the government. This means that private ownership of the press is forbidden in the Soviet communist Political system.

Logic holds that the government is run by persons within that society. It is also a common truth that everybody is simply egocentric and has the tendency to be protective. It is also a self evident truth that man when elected to power tends to guard that power jealously. Because of this, government does not waste time to trample on the freedom of any institution that offers challenge to it, and one such institution is the press.

Relationship between the government and the mass media could be seen in terms of control and ownership. Control in the sense that government uses a lot of measure to control the affairs of the mass media to avoid being ridiculed by the mass media. Again, ownership in the sense that government owns the mass media or is in partnership with mass media, thereby influencing each them. Government in a bid to have absolute control of the mass media, venture into media ownership with the view of bringing the media to serve as propaganda tools for them. The media practitioners under this sort of media control may not be entirely objective in handling issues of government policies for fear of falling into the hands of the law. They live by the popular maxim which holds that “he who pays the piper dictate the tune” and in this way, throwing professional demands of objectivity, accuracy, balance e.t.c. to the winds.

Even in United States, mass media is still been influence by government although not authoritatively but with appealing force. Although, their relationship seems dynamic, improving as the years goes by, becoming more symbiotic than parasitic. In developing countries, especially in war torn countries in Africa, a journalist can lose his life if he dare attack the government with his pen. REFERENCES

Aloa, Dayo (1997). News Reporting. london: Unique Publication.

Anim, Etim (1960). Editorial Writing. Port Harcourt: Sunray Books.

Amafili, Chidi (1993). “Introduction to Radio/Television Production”. In C.S. Okunna, et al. (eds.), Theory and Practice of Mass Communication. Enugu: ABIC Press Limited.

Nwosu, Ikem (1993). Mass Media and the developing countries Society. Nnewi: The Reader’s Choice Press.

Beltran, Ramiro (1978). “Communication and Cultural Domination USA – Latin America Case.” Media Asia.