Representation of Political Conflict in the Zimbabwean Press: the Case of the Herald, the Sunday Mail , Daily News and the Standard, 1999-2016
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Representation of Political Conflict in the Zimbabwean Press: The Case of The Herald, The Sunday Mail , Daily News and The Standard, 1999-2016 by TEDDY MUNGWARI submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY in the subject COMMUNICATION SCIENCE at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA SUPERVISOR: PROF K B KHAN NOVEMBER 2017 1 ABSTRACT 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. KEY WORDS : Framing, factionalism, conflict, elections, succession, media, referendum, representation. i DECLARATION I, Teddy Mungwari, declare that Representation of Political Conflict in the Zimbabwean Press: The Case of The Herald, The Sunday Mail , Daily News and The Standard, 1999- 2016 is my own work and that all the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. Mr. T Mungwari DATE Student number: 55770681 ii DEDICATION To my late parents, Taurai Enock and Constancia Mungwari, my family, children and almighty God for their support and patience while undertaking this research. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost I give thanks to Almighty God for his guidance, protection and grace during the course of this academic journey. I would like to thank my supervisor, Prof KB Khan for her support and supervision. The indefatigable academic mentoring given by her made this study an insightful quest. I would like to extend special thanks to Dr. Ephraim Vhutuza, for the emotional support, wisdom and generosity especially for linking me to Prof KB Khan. Thank you for always understanding the difficulties I went through in this study. Times came when I needed insight from people who had firsthand experience of the situation in Zimbabwe and Prof Jonathan Moyo and George Charamba were really welcoming, particularly during the first stages of my studies. Thank you for your support. Special thanks to Prof S. Sondering and Prof Maurice T.Vambe, who were my PhD proposal readers, for their wonderful contribution in the early stages of my PhD proposal development. I would like to thank the content and language editors for generously and professionally editing the work. During the advanced stages of my PhD, I networked with many people who actually enriched the value of my study. I would like to extend special thanks to Dr.Tendai Marima of Aljazeera, particularly for her advice that I analyse gender issues and for linking me to the Conflict Studies Website as well as suggesting key authors on gender issues. Of course, a PhD comes with financial and emotional demands, this study materialised because of the generous support I got from UNISA Financial Aid Bureau. To the editors of The Herald , The Sunday Mail , Daily News and The Standard , you are all amazing. Thank you for giving me access to your libraries. Special thanks go to Kuda Mazuru, the Zimbabwe Newspapers Librarian for untiring support while analyzing the newspaper articles. I would also like to thank the entire personnel at Zimbabwe National Archives for allowing me easy access to newspaper articles I needed. To my family: Sharon, Natasha, Natalia, Karen, Michelle, Takudzwa and Teresa. Thank you all. Special thanks go to Pastor Lanslot Mpamba of Celebration Church Westgate for his encouragement. iv ABBREVIATIONS ZANU-PF: Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front ZAPU : Zimbabwe African People’s Union ZUM : Zimbabwe Unity Movement MDC : Movement for Democratic Change ZIPRA : Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army ZIPA : Zimbabwe People’s Army ZIMPF : Zimbabwe People First GNU : Government of National Unity GPA : Global Political Agreement CDA : Critical Discourse Analysis v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Stages of Splinter Party Formation .............................................................. 1627 Figure 2: Potential Reasons of Dissent ....................................................................... 16339 vi Contents CHAPTER 1: Introduction and Background to Study ....................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ............... ...................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Context of Study ............................................................................................................. 3 1.3 Purpose of study .............................................................................................................. 4 1.4 Political Conflict in Zimbabwe: A Historical Background............................................. 6 1.5 Relevance of the topic ................................................................................................... 14 1.6 Relationship of the topic to the Discipline of Communication..................................... 14 1.7 Literature Review......................................................................................................... 15 1.8 Theoretical Framework ................................................................................................. 20 1.8.1 Theories of Media Representation ......................................................................... 25 1.8.2 Agenda Setting ....................................................................................................... 26 1.8.3 Framing ....................................................... ........................................................... 29 1.8.4 Discourse and Ideology.......................................................................................... 31 1.9 Goals and objectives of the study ................................................................................. 33 1.9.1 Objectives of the study........................................................................................... 34 1.10 Formulation of the research problems ....................................................................... 34 1.10.1 Formulation of the research questions ................................................................. 34 1.10.2 Formulation of the key assumptions .................................................................... 34 1.11 Methodology .............................................................................................................. 34 1.11.1 The research method ............................................................................................ 34 1.11.2 Population ........................................................................................................... 35 1.11. 3 Unit of Analysis .................................................................................................. 36 1.11.4 Sample........ ....................................................................................................... 36 1.11. 5 Sampling techniques .......................................... ................................................. 39 1.11.6 Purposive sampling ............................................................................................. 39 1.12 Feasibility