A critical analysis of the role of the media in political transitions: the Zimbabwean case

Abstract

This study uses the November 2017 military assisted political transition in Zimbabwe to critically analyse the role of the media in the political transition in Africa. Scholars contend that the military aided transition code-named Operation Restore Legacy was a “media event’. Both the legacy of media and digital social media sites were at the forefront of reporting the unfolding story to the world. However, there is a scarcity of studies systematically exploring how the media framed the contentious military transition in Zimbabwe. This study intended to fill this gap by deploying the framing theory to examine how four weekly newspapers (The Sunday News, The Sunday Mail, The Financial Gazette, Zimbabwe Independent) from Zimbabwe; and two (the Mail & Guardian and Sunday Times) from South Africa framed the transition. The study is qualitative. Purposive sampling was the principal sampling technique utilised in selecting articles for analysis. Findings demonstrate that the largely polarised Zimbabwean privately owned and state-controlled media provided almost similar narratives about the political transition. In essence, the newspapers defended the position that there was no coup in Zimbabwe, but a transition necessitated by an ageing Robert Mugabe and Grace Mugabe’s monumental blunders. The Mail & Guardian and Sunday Times pursued an almost similar stance insisting that the transition was constitutional and above board. The study, thus, concludes that the newspapers under study legitimised an illegitimate military aided transition in Zimbabwe. The study concurs with the assertion that the media have become political actors.