The role of mass media in the fight against corruption

Corruption is a vice in the society that must be fought against by all the stakeholders in the society. Corruption is the root cause of poverty that is predominant in several countries among the majority of the population. In most cases, in a country where corruption has been the order of the day there is evident gap between the rich and the poor in the society. Corruption is a behaviour that deviates from the expectations of a person in any aspects of law, traditions, ethics, morality, and civic virtue. Its a behavior in which a person occupying public or private office acquires wealth in an unlawfully manner either personally or to those people who are close to himher, or provide an enabling environment for others to do so, by using the position entrusted to them of the office they occupy in an improper way. This occurs in all the levels in the country or society such as, the military, government offices, the civil society, judiciary among others (Trang, 2008).

Mass Medias role involves educating the public, informing, entertaining and enlightening the public. Media is prioritized in providing linkages, between the citizens, media, and good governance. Its the voice of the voiceless. When media is used constructively, there are a lot of benefits to be reaped. Media is major way to fight against corruption in our society. This is because mass media is considered as the fourth estatepillar of the society after the main arms of the government that should be involved in the fight against corruption. Hence mass media is very influential in passing the relevant information to the people in all corners. Mass media houses are charged with the responsibility of collecting information in all forms written, video, oral, and passing that same information to many other people who were not at the point of collection so as to be aware of what is going on other parts of the world. Hence any incidents of corrupt acts need to be reported by the media houses irrespective of the person who did it or the nature of the occurrence of the act. Therefore there are strategies that must be adopted by the media in order to be effective enough in fighting corruption in line of their duty (Voltmer, 2009).

The main role is to carry out massive education on the major causes of corruption in all the levels of the society. This involves establishing programs that will mainly address corruption as a vice and how to deal with it. The programs should cover the causes of corruption, who enabled it or who are the people involved, highlight the major scandals that have occurred and what was done or what should have been done to fight it. Investigative journalism is a major strategy in fighting corruption. The media house should carry out investigations on how matters of the states are being carried out in various public offices and private offices. They should dig out all the information relating public resources where an individual may pump public funds for personal benefits. Investigative journalism will address the issues from the onset of such a scam that the office bearer would not want to be discovered even by immediate work mates.

Mass media has access to sufficient resources to execute corruption as their major field to be addressed so as to root it out completely (Martinez,  Boex, 2007).

There should be real life reporting by highlighting the effects of corruption and relating it with the challenges that people are facing such as increased rate of unemployment, inflation, poverty, poor infrastructure, lack of policies that accelerates economic growth and scaring away foreign investors. For example if there is misappropriation of public funds through issuing of a tender to a company to import electronic machine to be used by the immigration department to process passports, at a higher and questionable price, then an in-depth scrutiny must be done especially by the journalists by accessing public information to ascertain the ownership and the directors of the company in question. The amount of money that should have been used to purchase the machine by the company that had quoted the least or slightly lower amount in the tender application should be used to calculate the excess money that was paid out. The excess money should then be related to real life demands of the citizens such as the number of people it can provide for, or the miles of modern road it can construct among others so that people will understand easily the need for fighting such issues of graft.
Media plays a major role in changing opinions of people. It carries out information gathering in a clear manner and pass out the desired information by emphasizing it so that the perception of the citizens will be changed. Media is entrusted by the society a role of enlightening them.  Through this, media should be used as an important resource to inform people, enlighten, educate and entertain. Its a powerful weapon in changing the lives of people in the society hence should be used in the most civilized and useful way in order to enhance accountability of the office bearers, impart knowledge and change the way people relate to corruption menace (Melbourne, 2007).

Media is a powerful organ that can be used to influence members of the public. Hence when the cases of corruption have increased immensely, mass protest can be organized through the media by informing the members of the public about it. Mass protests should be used to put pressure on the government to act on the office bearers for their involvement in corruption. The protest also should be used to demand anticorruption reforms be put in place and the way government handle such other independent bodies like the judiciary. The media is very useful in educating the members of the public on the conduct of the protest that it should be of high discipline so that its benefits will be realized. Mass protest will definitely make the government respond by both sacking the involved persons and putting in place effective mechanisms that will check all acts of corruption (Siochru, 2009).

Corruption should be treated by the media when reporting about it just like it treats terrorism or any natural calamity since it also endangers the lives of the hardworking citizens, though it is not a natural disaster. People going without food is a matter of concern due to corruption deeds of people entrusted to safeguard public funds. Corruption hinders development of a country as most funds that should be used to assist in uplifting the living conditions of the people are misappropriated. The media acts as a powerful voice in communicating all these forms of corruption and enlightening them on the way these acts should be addressed. Media is a very strong force in building and maintaining development in a nation (Johnston, 2008).

On issues of governance, its the bridge between the people and the government hence all that is happening in the government is communicated through the media. The media has a big role in analyzing the trends of various governments that have been in place and pointing out the major causes of corruption in each regime such as the privatization of the public companies which can be a major root cause in escalating corruption. Hence it is the source of stored information on countrys corruption history. They are at the forefront in ensuring that the policies of the government are geared towards fighting corruption. This can be done by ensuring that the government is putting in place mechanisms that are aimed at eradicating the corruption menace in the country by having anticorruption drives. Media puts the government on check in all its policies. The media is so powerful in informing the members of the public on the best system of governance required to fight corruption. Hence they influence the elections that are being carried out by emphasizing the party with good policies especially those geared towards fighting corruption. Its through the media that people will know that good governance brings dividends of development (Andrews, 2007).

In conclusion, the advertisements should be increased and should focus on corruption as a vice and the immediate actions to be taken. In order to have a good and accountable governance, people need to be informed on how they should unite and fight it collectively. There is power of collective responsibility which puts in place government that is accountable for all its actions. Bribe also should be emphasized as the main cause of corruption since most people give and receive it without knowing that it is corruption. Various columnists should concentrate on analyzing corruption cases in the country and in other countries and how it has been dealt with. Possible scenarios should be highlighted as the main suggestions to wipe out corruption. The TV and radio stations should always have various advertisements on war against corruption and hosting various guests in the studio to address the issue. They should also give possible policies that need to be adopted or put in place by the government so as to effectively deal with corruption (Aziz,  Abdullah, 2005).

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