Novelist Jeffrey Archer in his work, The Fourth Estate made this observation: “In May 1789, Louis XVI summoned to Versailles a full meeting of the ‘Estates General’. The First Estate consisted of three hundred clergy. The Second Estate, three hundred nobles. The Third Estate, six hundred commoners. Some years later, after the French revolution, Edmund Burke, looking up at the Press Gallery of the House of Commons, said, ‘Younder sits the Fourth Estate, and they are more important than them all”.
The Fourth Estate referred to above is the Press. The Press is a body of journalists who write for newspapers or magazines or prepare news or features to be broadcast on radio or television. Journalism is about the production of news stories that bring public attention to issues of public interest. Journalism gets its mandate from its audience.
The Press has a wider access to the people; hence it has a very strong impact on the nation. It plays a vital role in the opinion making process of the country. Now that the world has become a global village, the Press has the power to turn our dreams into reality. It is the need of the hour that the Press should play its role in the nation-building process. Instead of indulging in false propagation, the media should try to optimize the situation.
These days, the term ‘Press’ has grown from journalism as practiced with the pen as any means by which journalism is practiced. As such, we have the print media comprising all categories including newspapers, magazines etc, and we have the electronic media which includes the radio, television, blog sites and the internet.
Looking through the ages, we see that the two major agents for social change and societal reforms have been the church and the Press, both of them sometimes working hand in hand to cause such changes.
The invention of the movable type printing press by Johannes Gutenberg around 1493, ushered in a new era, kick-starting the European renaissance which eventually led to the industrial age. It is noteworthy that the printing press was borne out of research concerning the church and the first major use of the press was for printing of bibles.
The invention of the printing press allowed ideas to be shared, information to be stored and disseminated, and empowered a new class of individuals who found an easy way to express themselves and speak to a wider audience beyond that possible by hand written pages. The impact of the printing press is so profound that till today, we of the media are still being known as the “Press” over 400 years after.
The government of then, seeing the impact of the Press and its great influence over the people, sought to stifle the Press by gagging the most prescient members of the journalistic class. Men like Martin Luther, William Tyndale and co had to pay the highest journalistic price, dying for what they believed in that the truth must be told.
Since then, there has existed a fragile relationship between the government and the Press. The government always attempts to harness the Press for its purposes while the Press seeks to express itself as a watchdog of the government and the nation.
The power of the Press to influence societal change and national direction has been and is greatly recognized by nations. This is why the Press the world over is virtually the most controlled and regulated industry. The power of the Press is so recognised that every great nation has a propaganda unit, either to keep its citizens in check or to fool other nations.
An instructive flashback to the now collapsed Soviet Union shows that until the day of the collapse, the Soviets thought that their nation was the greatest in the world and was moving smoothly. Thanks to a well oiled propaganda machine front-lined by a government controlled Press. It is instructive that many people went into self-denial and even committed suicide when faced with the harsh reality that they had always been fed a lie. The more totalitarian a nation, the more controlled the Press.
The Press is most beautiful in its role as the champion of national causes as evidenced during the era of the great depression in the United States where the government rallied the media to create a new mindset for the American people, giving them a belief in themselves and pointing out areas and directions for entrepreneurial adventures.
We see that beauty in a fearless Press acting as the watchdog for the nation and bringing down unpopular governments as witnessed during the Ibrahim Babingida and Sanni Abacha years in Nigeria. We saw that manifestation as the Press almost single-handedly fought the third term agenda of the Olusegun Obasanjo government to a standstill.
In its role as watchdog, the press should exercise a high degree of responsibility by seeking the national good above who breaks the news first. There should also be a high degree of maturity and vetting to prevent national disasters and carnages.
Etiaba, a lawyer, writes from Port Harcourt.

Echezona Etiaba