The media has been variously defined by scholars of mass communication among which media is referred to as a collective means of communication by which the general public or populace is kept informed about the day to day happenings in the society. The media is also said to be an aggregation of all communication channels that use techniques of making a lot of direct personal communication between the communicator and the public. While talking of mass media however, the word “mass” means a large number of people or a collection and “media” means organs or channels. Hence mass media is a collection of organs of communication and information dissemination that reaches out a large number of people. The information circulation is not only confined within members of the public but the media also serves to coordinate the information flow between government and the public and vice versa, in our own case, between leaders and the led and vice versa. More importantly, the media is also referred to, as “The Fourth Realm of the Estate”, i.e. The fourth pillar in support of the essential tripod of government; the Executive, the Legislative and the judiciary.

Media always have the benefit of prominent role in presenting the good, bad and ugly. There are various effects of mass media on the society at large. Media tends to influence and it’s obvious, there are positive as well as negative influences of mass media. It all depends upon the way audience perceive things. It is therefore easy to see how critical the media is to every sphere of human endeavor, be it in government, banking sector, corporate and national image branding and investment scheme acceptability.

In underlining the importance of free mass media, it requires good values to be implemented together. We are all aware of the power of mass media is far recognized by everyone as a medium to broadcast information to people at large. To further strengthening of democratic reforms and civil society in the country, mass media is seen as a phenomenal exposure which can give various effects to the nations.

To put it simply: Mass Media can either MAKE or MAR. It is in line with this that I have decided to objectively analyze the recent role of mass media in the Nigerian investment sphere in 2016 (A year I have dubbed, A year of Ponzi Schemes).

It was quite painful to see the economic team of the President Buhari led administration (if there is any at all) helplessly watch the country go into economic recession. Thousands of jobs were lost as several companies embarked on retrenchment of their staff, especially in the banking sector as well as other firms moving their firms out of the country. Needless to say, many state government were unable to meet their financial obligations to their workforce. It was terrible as reports started surfacing online about people attempting suicide. It got that bad!

Should we then have been surprised with the meteoric rise of Ponzi schemes in the country? There had to be an alternative means of survival! Was it just a coincidence that there was an appreciable reduction in the number of criticism, groans and murmurs aimed at government and triggered by poverty?

Yes, I agree that ponzi schemes are only sustainable in an ideal world and would naturally reach its demise with many participants losing out. The government, through its media propaganda, had no need to aid the platform’s unsustainability. With the constant outcry by the government, I was forced to question myself: “Do they really care about us?”.

I’m of the opinion that if the most popular Nigerian ponzi scheme, The Mavrodi Mundial Moneybox (fondly called the MMM) is unable to survive the current bottleneck it finds itself, the media was responsible. They created an inexistent panic. The platform explained the current quagmire to its participants only to be twisted by the media as a platform crash. That, to me, is an irresponsible reportage and a huge disrespect to Nigerians.

Just two weeks ago, one of the leading national dailies, The Vanguard reported the supposed crash of the second most popular ponzi scheme, Ultimate Cycler. This was in spite of the platform announcing that it was about to go on an upgrade as it server became overwhelmed with registrations. Today, the platform is up and running and I’m yet to get a report by the same media outfit on the relaunch. This sort of “Report the demise and not the resurrection” media coverage will not take us far!

Food for thought: A responsible government would rather not allow a ponzi scheme into her country. Once a ponzi scheme kicks off, stopping it would lead to losses. If the scheme had bowed to government pressures, wouldn’t there have been casualties?

This article does not in any way encourage anyone to engage in ponzi schemes. It is a stand up call for the media to concentrate on what really matters, and there are a lot of them!!

READ MORE: http://smartinvestor.com.ng/the-nigerian-media-a-blessing-or-a-curse/

Nigerian media is a curse to Nigerians
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The media is just useless and full of lies .... they are full of false Information and they are biased ..... but we know them anf they have failed ... they claimed MMM Nigeria has crashed to cause panic but we know MMM NIGERIA HAS NOT CRASHED and we refused to panic and 2017 will mark a stronger year for MMM NIGERIA . shame on biased news .... shame on the media . MMM IS A MOVEMENT YOU CAN NOT STOP THE MOVEMENT .