International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue VIII, August 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186
Political economy influence on media content in Zimbabwe: The pre-2018 election discourse.
Silas Nkala
Zimbabwe Open University: Faculty of Arts, Culture and Heritage: Department of Media and Journalism Studies, Zimbabwe
Abstract: The right to freedom of choice, expression and information are fundamental principles of democracy and good governance. However, these concepts are applied differently from country to country and they can be easily identified through free press reportage as to whether they are upheld or not. Democracy in essence breeds good governance and the free press has to act as watchdogs to the systems that are responsible to ensure and enable democracy. The first step to democracy in Zimbabwe and many other countries is believed to be the electoral process which ushers in new governments after every given time frame. In Zimbabwe the term of office of an elected government is five years after which elections are conducted. Before the elections are physically conducted they are usually played in the media. Thus, political parties vying for positions to be the next government use the media as tools to rally support from the electorate. Zimbabwe held harmonised elections in 2018. The political parties in the country got into an election mood ahead of the polls and the media diverted its attention from other issues to focus much on election related reporting. In their reportage two major influences shaped their content and these are the political economy (ownership and funding) and agenda setting. In Zimbabwe there are two folds to media ownership, namely the state and private media. However, their role of setting public agenda usually influences their content at a larger extent.
Key words: Political economy, democracy, election, agenda setting, Zimbabwe, media.
I. INTRODUCTION
Zimbabwe held general elections in July 2018 after the incumbent government of ZANU PF was given a five year mandate to rule the country since 2013. The five year term of government ended in 2018 and the country was gripped by electioneering rhetoric by various political parties who since June 2017 launched their political campaigns. Several new political parties emerged especially since the beginning of 2017, but the most prominently featured names of political parties in the media land scape were the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) at the start of the campaigns which was led by late former President Robert Mugabe and during polls it was led President Emmerson Mnangagwa who emerged a winner of the 2018 presidential polls and Movement for Democratic Change (MDC T) at the time which was led by now late Morgan Tsvangirai and later became MDC Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa who took second place to Mnangagwa. Other parties relatively covered by the media are the MDC T led by Thokozani Khupe, National People’s Party (NPP) led by Joice Mujuru and Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) then