Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Media Studies, 2016 / Many African countries have been holding regular elections since the “Third Wave” of democratisation which reintroduced multi-party politics on the African continent, but few of these elections meet the democratic litmus test, due to, among other factors, the prevalence of election violence. The press has been justifiably or unjustifiably indicted for these imbroglios on account of alleged transgressions linked to its overt or covert incitement to violence. In the ensuing political contestations, citizens bear the burden of diminished prospects of credible information occasioned by a highly politicised press. In the Southern African region, there is no better case to illustrate the entanglement of the press in electoral contestations than Zimbabwe. This study is a qualitative exploration of press and citizen discourses on election violence during the presidential and parliamentary elections held in Zimbabwe between 2000 and 2013. A Foucauldian discursive analytic approach was used to analyse the representation of election violence in two-state-owned and four privately-owned newspapers during presidential and parliamentary elections held over the specified period spanning thirteen years. The study also examined how these press discourses interrelate with citizen discourses. Empirical data were drawn from a corpus of archival textual data comprising hard news and feature articles published in The Herald, The Sunday Mail, The Zimbabwe Independent, The Financial Gazette, Newsday and the Daily News. In-depth interviews were conducted with purposively targeted journalists and editors from the selected newspapers. In addition, in-depth-interviews were held with twenty-one (21) regular newspaper readers who were also politically engaged citizens. The main observation was that press representation of election violence was marked by antagonistic discursive practices reflective of the rivulets of political and ideological bifurcation. Consequently, competing and politically expedient journalistic philosophies emerged. The state-owned press used a model of ‘national interest’ journalism while the privately-owned press preferred the ‘human-rights’ model which crystallized into an over-arching ‘activist journalism’. This ‘activist’ journalistic approach found expression through an array of anti-democratic press discursive practices epitomised by selectivity, silence and salience, the consequence of which was that citizens were starved of credible and impartial information. This thesis argues that the anti-democratic discursive practices deployed by the press camps blunted the citizenry’s critical engagement with the exact motivations, causes and manifestations of election violence. These anti-democratic discursive practices have a potential to engender a culture of political intolerance with long-term consequences that predispose society to political conflict rather than consensus building. / MT2017

This thesis employs Jurgen Habermas’ theory of public sphere as an analytical tool to consider the role played by two popular private newspapers in the struggle for democracy in Zimbabwe, one case from colonial Rhodesia and the other from the post-colonial era. It argues that, functioning under repressive political regimes and in the absence of credible opposition political parties or as a platform for opposition political parties, the African Daily News, between 1956-1964 and the Daily News, between 1999-2003, played a fundamental role in opening up spaces for political freedom in the country. Each was ultimately shut down by the respective government of the time. The newspapers allowed reading publics the opportunity to participate in politics by providing a daily analytical alternative, to that offered by the government and the state media, in relation to the respective political crises that unfolded in each of these periods. The thesis examines both the information policies pursued by the different governments and the way these affected the functioning of private media in their quest to provide an ‘ideal’ public sphere. It explores issues of ownership, funding and editorial policies in reference to each case and how these affected the production of news and issue coverage. It considers issues of class and geography in shaping public response. The thesis also focuses on state reactions to the activities of these newspapers and how these, in turn, affected the activities of private media actors. Finally, it considers the cases together to consider the meanings of the closing down of these newspapers during the two eras under discussion and contributes to the debates about print media vis-a-vis the new forms of media that have come to the fore. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2014.

This thesis is a reaction to the state of utter lawlessness and the abuse of human rights by those in power in Zimbabwe over the past two years and it investigates the possibility of restoring democratic governance in that country by increasing the freedom of expression and media freedom, which is considered to be one of the most valuable elements in advancing democratization. Its aim is to establish the Internet as the best means possible to increasing media freedom and creating new ‘sites of struggle’ for activists in a context where the substantive freedom of expression does not exist. This in turn is shown to advance levels of democracy. To this end, the value of the freedom of expression to media freedom and the value of the latter to increasing levels of democracy is developed and the lack of democracy in Zimbabwe at all levels of society is considered. The Internet is seen to increase the freedoms of speech and association in new and interesting ways and it is discussed in various examples in which it has already been instrumental in evading the censorship of the media and increasing the ability of activists to express themselves freely and to organize more efficiently. Finally, the resources that Internet technology makes available to African journalists and activists are considered along with lessons gleaned from international examples of successful Internet use and it is shown to already be of use to Zimbabwean journalists and activists as they create to new cyberspaces in which they can struggle for positive democratic change in Zimbabwe. The Internet is also shown to have tremendous potential for future use in that country.

This research is premised on the understanding that alternative forms of media emerge to deal with specific ideological projects and, as such, must be seen as satisfying a specific need at a specific point in time. Using the case of a weekly newspaper, The Southern Star which was in circulation from January 2012 to June 2012, this study sought to understand the factors that led to the establishment of the newspaper, what it sought to achieve, how it went about putting that into practice, its message in relation to debates emanating from the ‘Matabeleland Question’ and also the factors that led to the its collapse. In order to address my research questions, I adopted a two stage research design qualitative content analysis and semi structured in depth interviews. In locating the study within the qualitative epistemic understanding of research, it was clear from the qualitative content analysis of 13 editions of the publication and in depth interviews held with 15 respondents that the newspaper was set up with the aim of serving a marginalised section of the population (in this instance the Ndebele) by providing them with a platform to articulate issues affecting them. It also sought to ‘speak’ the ‘unspoken’ within the mainstream media by focusing on Matabeleland identity politics. It achieved this by creating content around the Gukurahundi genocide, Matabeleland development, Matabeleland history and Matabeleland heroes. The newspaper also sought to emancipate the people from the South by advocated for social, cultural, economic and political justice as a resolution to the ‘Matabeleland Question’. However, the newspaper failed to sustain operations due to lack of advertising revenue. As a result of the constraining political environment in which the newspaper operated, potential advertisers were afraid of placing advertisements in the newspaper because of the nature of the content produced, which in view of Zimbabwe’s rival ethnic history, could easily be labelled ethnically divisive. Also, being a new player in the market worked to their disadvantage as prospective advertisers opted to place their adverts in “tried and tested” publications (Zimpapers and Alpha Media Holdings). Additionally, because of poor management, roles were not clearly defined and hence the newspaper failed to operate as a business enterprise. As noted during interviews with junior reporters, there was little or no experience at management level. The paper lacked a coordinated circulation strategy and from inception, was never officially launched, which resulted in the failure to reach significant audiences.

Text in English / This thesis explores the representation of political conflict in the Zimbabwean press with a specific focus on the The Herald, The Sunday Mail, Daily News and The Standard. The thesis sought to unpack the representation of political conflict in the four selected newspapers and to compare and contrast state-owned and privately-owned press representation of power, succession struggles and factionalism in ZANU PF and opposition MDC. The theory is undergirded by the framing theory and data was analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis. The thesis contends that the representation of political conflict in Zimbabwe was sensational and polarized. With clearly separate agendas, the government controlled press, The Herald and The Sunday Mail; and the privately owned Daily News and The Standard, have drawn upon different framing practices to represent political conflict in Zimbabwe. By selecting to report on a particular issue and silencing another, through choice of certain headlines, and vocabulary employed, they have produced a construction of events in political parties that satisfy their political agendas in an increasingly polarized political environment. The newspapers became associated with diverging political opinions, showing political parties they support. On the one hand, the state-funded media represented ZANU PF in positive light while the opposition, particularly the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was represented negatively, mainly depicting the party as harbouring a regime change agenda. On the other hand, the privately-owned press was critical of the ruling party, ZANU PF and blamed the party for economic problems, corruption, mis-rule, and abuse of human rights. As a result of this partisan representation of political reality by the two press camps, they became directly implicated in the conflicts thereby ceasing to be credible sources of information. This clearly illustrates the enormity of challenges faced by the press in political conflicts in politically polarised environments such as Zimbabwe. The thesis argues that when reporting political conflicts ideological considerations of the press take precedents at the expense of the informational and educational mandate of the press as ethics and professional interests of the press are pushed to the back stage. Contrary to the view that the press is a neutral and impersonal purveyor of information, it is an active participant in the framing of political conflicts and its framing is ideological. The study has broadened the body of knowledge on the framing of political conflicts in polarised political environments. / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication Science)

On May 16 2006 the government of Zimbabwe embarked on a clean-up programme of urban centres, destroying informal human settlements and informal businesses. This operation, which the government called operation "Restore Order", resulted in the displacement of nearly one million people and left thousands of families homeless. This study is a discussion and an analysis of the coverage of the clean-up operation by two of Zimbabwe's leading Sunday newspapers, The Sunday Mail and The Standard. The Sunday Mail is owned by the Zimbabwe government and The Standard is privately owned and perceived to be oppositional to the current Zimbabwe government. The two newspapers, therefore, covered the clean-up operation from different perspectives and often presented conflicting reports explaining why the clean-up operation was carried out and the extent of its impact on the lives of millions of Zimbabweans. The chosen research approach is the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework as developed by Fairclough (1995). Using CDA, this study seeks to find out and expose the underlying ideological struggles for hegemony between different social and political groups in Zimbabwe and how the newspapers became actors in this process. This process is made possible by looking at how news reporting is organised in the two newspapers, issues of language use, sourcing and external factors that influenced the coverage of the operation.

MA (English) / Department of English / The study analysed the language used by The Herald and Daily News journalists to report on the marriage conflict between the former Prime Minister Morgan Richard Tsvangirai of Zimbabwe and Ms Locardia Karimatsenga. The Herald is a state-owned newspaper and Daily News is a privately-owned newspaper. An analysis of the marriage conflict enabled readers, in a magnified way, to see how ideological differences between the public and private media in Zimbabwe are represented. The study examined the similarities and/or differences in the manner in which the marriage conflict was represented in both papers. The study also examined the language used in the headlines, established the sources used and evaluated the ideological stances of the two newspapers. The study utilised the case study design. The researcher only focused on articles which were published during the month when the former Prime Minister married Ms Elizabeth Macheka in September 2012. It was also the month when the media published many articles about the marriage saga. Seventeen articles were analysed, eleven from The Herald and six from the Daily News. Framing and Representation theories were deemed appropriate to analyse the articles. Critical Discourse Analysis and semiotic analysis were used to analyse the selected articles and visuals which accompanied them. The findings of the study revealed that The Herald reports tended to be biased against the Prime Minister, while the Daily News was more objective in its use of language.

This study critically interrogates representations of the San and Tonga in the Chronicle and the NewsDay Southern Edition/Southern Eye newspapers in 2013. It makes sense of how these representations and the journalistic practices that underwrite them position the ethnic groups as ‘minorities’ - in relation to other ethnic groups - within the discourses of Zimbabwean nationalism. Underpinned by a constructionist approach (Hall, 1997), the study makes sense of the San and Tonga identities otherwise silenced by the “bi-modal” (Ndlovu- Gatsheni, 2012: 536; Masunungure, 2006) Shona/Ndebele approach to Zimbabwean nationalism. In socio-historic terms, the study is located within the re-emergence of ‘ethnicity’ to contest Zimbabwean nationalism(s) during debates for the New Constitution leading to a Referendum in March 2013. The thesis draws on social theories that offer explanatory power in studying media representations, which include postcolonial (Bhabha, 1990, 1994; Spivak, 1995), hegemony (Gramsci, 1971), and discourse (Foucault, 1970, 1972; Laclau and Mouffe, 1985) theories. These theories speak to the ways in which discourses about identity, belonging, citizenship and democracy are constructed in situations in which unequal social power is contested. The thesis links journalism practice with the politics of representation drawing on normative theories of journalism (Christians et al, 2009), the professional ideology of journalism (Tuchman, 1972; Golding and Elliot, 1996; Hall et al., 1996), and the concept of journalists as an ‘interpretive community’ (Zelizer, 1993). These theories allow us to unmask the role of journalism’s social power in representation, and map ways in which the agency of the journalists has to be considered in relation to the structural features of the media industry in particular, and society in general. The study is qualitative and proceeds by way of combining a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) (Fairclough, 1992; Richardson, 2007) and ideological analysis (Thompson, 1990) of eight news texts taken from the two newspapers and in-depth interviews with 13 journalists from the two newspapers. This way we account for the media representations journalists produced: sometimes reproducing stereotypes, at other times, resisting them. Journalists not only regard themselves as belonging to the dominant ethnic groups of Shona or Ndebele, but as part of the middle class; they take Zimbabwean nationalism for granted, reproducing it as common-sense through sourcing patterns dominated by elites. This silences the San and Tonga constructing them as a ‘minority’ through a double play of invisibility and hyper visibility, where they either don’t appear in the news texts or are overly stereotyped.

The study critically explored the tabloidisation of political news in Zimbabwe by focussing on the coverage of the expulsion of Joice Mujuru from ZANU PF and government by selected newspapers. The study analysed three national dailies across the ownership divide; The Herald, Daily News and NewsDay. The objective of the study was to establish whether or not the decline in standards of journalism and performance in Zimbabwe could be attributed to tabloidisation. The study employed a qualitative methodology through qualitative content analysis and in-depth interviews to assess whether the framing reflected tabloid or broadsheet journalism styles. The framing of Joice Mujuru by The Herald was pejorative and derisive as she was depicted as corrupt, traitor, inept and a simplistic thinker who cannot handle issues to do with statecraft. Daily News sympathised with Joice Mujuru as a victim of chauvinistic factional politics in ZANU PF, especially, after the death of her husband, General Solomon Mujuru. The study argued that Joice was also depicted as a brave leader who could challenge for the office of the president, if she formed a coalition with MDC –T leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Daily News sought to counter all the negative framing of Joice Mujuru by The Herald. NewsDay framing was sympathetic, like Daily News but was more inclined on creating an image of a moderate leader in Mujuru, one who would be acceptable to all Zimbabweans because she had the critical liberation war credentials that Tsvangirai lacked and Mujuru’s perceived abilities to extricate the country from the economic challenges by mending relationships with the West. Despite the diametrically opposed frames in terms of The Herald versus Daily News and NewsDay, all the newspapers are undergoing the damaging process of tabloidisation by employing tabloid styles and formatting in their political news coverage through sensationalism, trivialisation and emotionalism. It was argued that the media needs self-introspection and recommitment to ethical and objective journalism as the watchdogs of society. / Communication / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)