Abstract

Media and elections is a widely researched area in Zimbabwe and across the world. But studies on elections and the media in Zimbabwe have tended to focus more on media’s coverage of specific elections. This study, which is grounded in the Habermasian public sphere theory and political economy of the media theory, explores Zimbabwean media’s election coverage trends. Specifically, the study focuses on both the 2013 and 2018 Zimbabwe national elections. It analyses the patterns of both the publicly owned and privately owned media’s coverage of electoral processes in Zimbabwe and interrogates forces behind these patterns. Purposively selected news articles published during the period under study were subjected to critical discourse analysis. The study shows that there are more of continuities than discontinuities in the framing of the 2013 and 2018 elections by the Zimbabwean press. Polarisation, partisan reporting and misogyny were evident in the reportage. The state-controlled media were pro-ruling party while private press were pro-opposition. Women were symbolically annihilated and ‘lynched’ in both the private media and private press. Such trends show that the attainment of an ‘ideal’ public sphere in Zimbabwe’s electoral processes remains utopian.

Key Words: Zimbabwe, Elections, The Herald, Nelson Chamisa, Mnangagwa

Author’s Bio

*Albert Chibuwe, Ph.D., is a Lecturer in the Department of Media and Society Studies, Midlands State University, Gweru, Zimbabwe. Research Interests: political communication/political marketing; social media, and advertising.

^JCMR Journal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 11, No. 2, October 2019, pp. 133 - 145