Why there is no development journalism in Zimbabwe

Bonjour mon amies welcome back. Anew day anew beginning and a new topic to discuss about.Last time we discussed l about the extent to which there is development journalism, this time there about l want to explore with you why there is no developmnt journalism in Zimbabwe.Let me rephrase l will look at why development journalism is lacking in Zimbabwe and why it is not the best or most conjusive place to promote or explore development journalism.

Developmentjournalism demands that the media should allow open debate on development enable circulation of diverse opinions and ideas, extend frontiers of freedom to public, further connecting and bridging the gap between government and the public and mobilising the public in support of development agendas. It assigns the media the fourth estate role and echoes the philosophy of the public sphere concept. The above demands are the responsibility of journalists and the media in making sure they are met but however in a nutshell the media fails to promote development journalism due to factors such as commercialisation, ownership and control, gender stereotyping, competition, lack of funds and envelope journalism. 

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Ownership and control of the media is another factor disturbing the promotion of development journalism. Those who own and control the media are the elite who tend to use the media to push up their political and economic agendas instead of buttressing development communication. Reporters for Government run media such as the Chronicle and Star FM cannot provide checks and balances of the government because no owner can monitor themselves. The private media tried to question the Zimpapers group for rewarding its staff in helping ZANu pf win the elections in July but the private media forgot to monitor itself that the agenda behind this was political and not in the interests of the people. Zimpapers group CEO, Mutasa even argued saying “After all, the so called independent media is not so independent….they stand for foreign interest,” where most of their funding and control originates.

The commercial imperative of the media has also led to journalist killing the reporting of development stories and settling for more marketable leads. Sreshthaputra 2010 calls this opportunity cost of stories ‘the nature of the beast’ where the notion ‘where it bleeds it leads’ is still valid in most media houses. Development journalism is a non-profit driven theory but with most media firms in the industry to make money they find it difficult and irrelevant to run stories that will not generate any income or be money friendly to them. As a result this has led to journalist discarding development journalism or rather skewing development journalism to fit the profit motive. Alpha media holdings for instance is pioneered by the profit driver where only what is reported are stories or advertisements that will increase their bank balance and make sure their sales increase.

Millenniumdevelopment goal number three demands the promotion of gender equality and women empowerment. The idea is that development journalism should be inclusive of women with the gender and development approach arguing that women are agents of change. Mommsen 2004 further argues that development journalism should be inclusive of women if not then it should ‘prepared’, ‘baked’ and ‘distributed’ having included women. However the practical case is that the media is still very masculine saving the needs and interests of male against the notion that development exclusive of women is not development. The questions should come to our minds as we consume development journalism products are: who is talking, are women voices present, are women represented, how are women potrayed.Sadly the answers to all these question are negative hence gender stereotyping is another major issue  enshrining development journalism. In Zimbabwe stories to do with economics and politics are always male dominated with dominant voice and the sources masculine as well as the language and diction which are not gender friendly. In the Chronicle article about the increment of tollgates, there is no evidence of women either participating or having affair share for their voices to be heard. All comments come from a male Dr Obert Mpofu clearly suggesting that the story is not gender sensitive.

Envelopejournalism and corruption also undermines the media’s ability to promote development journalism. A psychologist, Dr Price even argues that everyman has a price and can be bought. This is to say that even journalists can be paid to cover stories in a certain angle or not cover them at all. This is the envelope journalism and corruption where journalists accept bribes and incentives to have a certain angle on a particular story. On the 26^th of October marked a new era where the New express reporter, Chen Young Zhou agreed to accepting bribes of about RMB500000 to report negatively on Zoom lion heavy industry science and technology, China’s second largest manufacturer of construction machinery. This crippled relations between China and their international traders causing the Chinese economy to lose at least RMB 1 400 0000 worth of revenue that could have contributed to the gross domestic product of china.

The legislative system can also cause the disturbance of development journalism. The government may craft draconian and repressive laws to ensure this result.Acccording to Thussu 2006:11 “where independent journalism exists in third world countries, the media’s freedom to critically examine state policies is severely restricted by the government’s indirect editorial control by introducing draconian censorship laws or threatening to stop newsprint supply.” These are mainly applied on the private media that does not necessarily have a bedfellow relationship with the government. In the Gukurahundi era Zimbabwe saw the government put into power the emergency powers declaring places like Tsholotso as no go area to prevent journalists from reporting the atrocities of the government. Even today the documentation on this era is very little with most people not knowing what really was happening during that time

It is with these explanations given above that l rest my case after presenting some of the factors undermining development journalism. As a result what we see to be development journalism is not up to standard and lacking. Furthermore there are other factors that can also lead to the enshrining of development journalism such as advertising pressure and the digital divide.