Development Journalism in Zimbabwe

We meet again fellows but this time on a different matter. l am sure you have all heard about the animal development journalism if not dont worry l will explain it a bit soon. But am not just giving you a lecture on development journalism but as fellow journalism student am giving you my critical thinking of the extent of development journalism in Zimbabwe.Here we go take note we about to venture on the path of development journalism in Zimbabwe

What is lacking in Zimbabwe

Development journalism is the kind of journalism aimed at providing complete, accurate, objective, balanced, fair and diversified information on development for community consumption. It is what we can term layer two or layer three reporting which diverts from the basic layer one reporting which simply require one to report on the facts provided by the source. Instead, following Thussu2006: ‘s definition of development journalism, “this journalism claims to pursue a news agenda different from the mainstream media, steeped in so called ‘coups and earthquakes’ syndrome and investigates the process behind a story rather than merely reporting the news itself.” It therefore seeks to report why something happened, how something happened, the consequences and implications of what happened with the reporter verifying facts and engaging in investigative reporting. Thus giving more depth on the story, comprehensively and fully informing the reader. This however is not widely the case in Zimbabwe with most development stories being reported in a poor manner, diverting from the original demands of development journalism.

Having given you these definitions now lets venture into today's real business.The major issue prevailing in Zimbabwe is how the journalists reduce development stories into just but a mere event. They do not give that punch that priorities development and the motive to improve standards of living in Zimbabwe. They do not provide critical question that show the relevance of the story as a develop journalism story but merely does layer one reporting providing the basic information from the sources. An example is how the media reported on the President donating computers to schools. The masses did not see the implications and the reasons behind that move as the journalists simply embraced that action without questioning further.

Thedigital divide is another problem affecting development journalism. As Gale notes “The issue of reaching the people is problematic in Africa. The rural area makes up by far the greatest portion of Africa, and the infrastructure is non-existent.” Development journalism is supposed to create and support public discussions. These are mainly there in the digital media such as social network sites but they only reach a limited number of people, those in urban areas, neglecting the larger proportion in the rural areas mainly due to the fact that they are not literate to use the internet and some have no computers or network to access the net.

Commercialisation and the surge to make profits have also weakened development journalism in Zimbabwe. Because these media organisation are already in this industry to make money, it has become difficult for journalist to actually deliver sufficiently on development stories. This is to say that the journalists skew the development stories to fit their profit driven motive. Thussu 2006:11 even argues that “In a market driven news environment there is a discrimination against news that cannot be ‘sold’, resulting in a distorted presentation of events to make them more marketable. Alpha media holdings is in the business for profits therefore it cannot settle to cover a development story instead of a juicy story that could make them have more sales. It is just but the concept of profit maximisation and business survival.

Still on the need to generate money, some media organisation may not skew development journalism on choice but due to other forces. To put this into context, development journalism is a non-profit making motive but however it still needs to generate some money as working capital, the daily life blood of business operations. If this working capital is not there then development journalism seizes to exist completely. As a result, without adequate funding, journalists are forced to be dependent on their aiders who mostly turn out to be foreign organisations such as the International monetary fund or advertisers or even the government. The problems emerge from the idea that this funding does not just come but it has some invariably attached strings. Econet being the major advertisers in the Daily news can exert pressure for their advertisement to be published instead of a development story because they fund Daily News in terms of money for advertisement.

a factor affecting Development journalism

According to Mcphail 2002:31, part of the demands of development journalism is to “encourage indigenous media and discourage reproduction of Western media models, which debase or marginalize local and traditional cultures.” Though there have been laws designed to enforce this demand such as the broadcasting services actthat demands 75% local content, promoting local media in taking a larger stand in their local communities, their application however diverts from the development journalism need to pursue and serve the need of the masses. Instead these laws tend to serve the needs of those in power or those owning the means of production as the Marxist theory

argue. Tawanda Hondora 2003:23 even asserts that the “BSA is an instrument testifying to the fear within government. It only serves to allow ZANU pf to churn out propaganda in its efforts to retain political power.” To illustrate this point let’s consider the three journalist from the community radio station Kwelaz who were arrested and charged under contravening the BSA. T

 Inefficient communication seems to be another problem buttressing the insufficient development journalism in Zimbabwe. Ank Linden even points out, “governmental authorities in the third world countries [Zimbabwe inclusive] often seem to be more interested in maintaining the status quo than in strengthening the communication capacity.” With development journalism demanding “the use of communication to promote development and empowerment” [Dralenga 2008:46] it entails that there has to be interactivity, participation and two way communication between the top management [government] and the mass population [the community].This is however not the case with Zimbabwe which seems to adhere to the modernisation paradigm which according to its principles infringes and shrines development journalism. Instead of that interactivity and the two ways communication to be present there is one way communication with the elite exercising the authoritative voice by merely dictating the development that needs to take place instead of the government and the people engaging in talks to pursue the development that the people need and want.

However one could argue that development journalism is pretty sufficient in Zimbabwe. Mcphail 2002 defines development journalism as a media theory that encourages a press committed to government set priorities and objectives whose efforts work in unison to support national goals. In the case of Zimbabwe that is exactly what is happening. The Zimbabwe democratic institute argues that the media so far has help Zimbabwe in achieving the goal to ensure that Zimbabwe’s development trajectory is supported by locally generated information and knowledge

My fellow friends it is with the many few reasons l have discussed above that l argue that our Zimbabwe is truly lacking on developmnet communication/journalism.Our thirst for money among other things does not fully permit us to fully practise development journalism.Till next time when l give more insight on another issue arios amigos.