The proliferation of digital platforms and the advent of citizen journalism have fundamentally restructured the global media landscape, lowering barriers to entry and democratizing the production and dissemination of news content. While this transformation has expanded public voices and challenged traditional gatekeeping, it has simultaneously precipitated a measurable erosion of core journalistic principles — including accuracy, editorial independence, source transparency, and ethical accountability. This study examined the relationship between media democratization and the decline of journalistic norms, with particular focus on how structural, technological, and institutional factors mediate this relationship. Employing a cross-sectional survey research design, data were collected from 320 respondents comprising professional journalists, citizen journalists, media educators, and frequent news consumers drawn from diverse media environments. Univariate, bivariate, and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) analyses were conducted using SPSS version 26 and AMOS version 24. Findings revealed statistically significant negative associations between democratization indices and ethical adherence scores (r = −0.52, p < 0.001). The SEM results confirmed that media democratization exerted a strong direct effect on the erosion of journalistic norms (β = 0.61, p < 0.001), which in turn significantly predicted both public trust deficits (β = 0.67, p < 0.001) and misinformation spread (β = 0.58, p < 0.001). The model demonstrated excellent fit (CFI = 0.96; RMSEA = 0.048; SRMR = 0.051). These results underscore the urgent need for regulatory frameworks, professional capacity-building, and platform accountability mechanisms to preserve journalistic integrity in an increasingly democratized media environment. The study recommends the establishment of inclusive professional standards bodies, mandatory digital media literacy programmes, and algorithmic accountability protocols to mitigate the adverse effects of journalism's democratization on public discourse and democratic governance.