Browsing by Author "Muringa, Tigere Paidamoyo."

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An assessment of the Zimbabwean print media adherence to the principles of partiality and objectivity in election reporting : the case of the 2013 Zimbabwean presidential elections.
(2017) Muringa, Tigere Paidamoyo.; Sewchurran, Anusharani.
This study takes an exploratory approach in order to ascertain the extent to which the Herald and Newsday adhered to the journalistic principles of impartiality, fairness, and objectivity in the period leading to the July 31st 2013 presidential elections in Zimbabwe. The study used a qualitative methodology. It utilised a purposive sampling technique to collect news stories, headlines and extracts from the editorial section of the Herald and Newsday. The data was collected and gathered from the online archives of the two newspapers and then analysed using two content analysis techniques (content summative analysis and content latent analysis). The study argues that with the use of frames and agenda setting techniques (whether consciously or unconsciously) the news media when covering elections stories compromise the journalistic principles of objectivity, fairness, impartiality and truth-telling (that should ensure that they carry out their role in a professional manner). As such, the Herald and Newsday when reporting news in the period leading to the July 31st 2013 presidential elections, reported the election in a biased manner. Reports in the two newspapers were replete with editorial intrusions, reports of unconfirmed sources and clear attacks on other political candidates. Consequently, the two newspapers failed to a great extent to adhere to the principles of fairness, objectivity, impartiality and truth-telling. In this study, it materialised that the 2013 presidential elections exposed the polarisation that shaped the Zimbabwe media landscape even before the country attained its independence. It further revealed that this polarisation led to a manifestation of ideological warfare that was characterised by an array of partisan dichotomies, generating rough division and multifaceted biases. The credibility of print media (Herald and Newsday) in Zimbabwe is highly questionable as the press seeks to promote certain interests and ideologies while forfeiting its fundamental role as the fourth estate.
News covering in the online press media during the ANC elective conference of December 2017.
(2019) Muringa, Tigere Paidamoyo.; McCracken, Donal Patrick.
Online press plays an imperative role in the legitimation of ideas, individuals, events and interpretations. Evidence suggests that news media play a significant role in legitimising and de-legitimising political candidates, particularly in the period leading to and after elections. There is increased interest in recent studies in the field of media framing, legitimation and de-legitimising of political candidates. While scholars provide useful insights on prospective media use of frames to de-popularise political leaders, up to now, studies have not gone beyond explaining the frames used by the news media. Little effort has been made to understand the relationship between media frames and the different discursive practices that affect the construction of such frames. Drawing on Van Gorp's (2007) framing theory and Foucault's (1980) concept of discourse power/knowledge to investigate news coverage in the South African online press, this thesis examined the frames used by News24 and IOL to legitimise and de-legitimise election candidates during their reporting of the 54th National Congress of the African National Congress. Using the national congress as a case study in point, qualitative archival data consisting of 100 news articles were retrieved from online archives of New24 and IOL. The information was analysed to assess how the content reported was framed to legitimise or de-legitimise Cyril Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dhlamini-Zuma's political leadership qualities both at the national and political party level. Through a critical discourse analysis approach, six broad frames were thematically organised and presented as evidence on how news frames were constructed through culturally constituted communication artefacts. The study found that the reports by both, News24 and IOL were heavily influenced by the prevailing societal discourses that shaped politics and economy in the period of their construction. Notably, this thesis reveals how both presses used similar frames in their reporting. Even though they used similar frames, there were significant differences in approaches that were used by IOL and News24 in reporting on Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa. As a result, this study contributes to the body of knowledge, by confirming how the press evokes cultural discourses when reporting on political candidates, to remind readers and allow them to interpret issues and topics using the culturally constructed reality as a frame of reference.