How media and governments should engage constructively for the benefit of citizens: a creative look at the ideal public sphere in the context of a modern African Media System

Abstract

In an era of rapid information exchange and highly digitized world there are new challenges about how government seeks to communicate with citizens to keep them active and meaningfully engaged. In this paper we explore how the nature of the public sphere has evolved over the decades given the dawn of the digital era and how this evolution that rolls back the digital divide, changes the nature of the relationship between the government and citizens and how therelationship between the government and the media can enhance or impoverish such a relationship. This paper will interrogate the ideal public sphere, the current architecture of the public sphere and how such an evolution of same can enhance the dynamic relationship between media and government for the benefit citizens can benefit.