Gricean implicature and election predictions: A case of the Zimbabwean 2008 election campaign

Abstract

The article examines the nature of implicature realised in the election-prediction discourse in the Zimbabwean media. The focus is on how the print and electronic media, through its ‘digestion’ of news (Archakis & Tsakona, 2010), predicted the win or loss of political parties or candidates. The article shows how the media has been shaping public opinion in the run-up to the harmonised elections in Zimbabwe in 2008. In order to achieve this, the researcher employed the Gricean conceptualisation of implicature. It is argued that the cooperative principle and the suggested maxims are not observed during face-to-face conversation only. Taking into account the context of the newspaper, journalists are also expected to observe the cooperative principle and the maxims as they converse with the readers of their newspapers. Thus, the article examines how newspaper reporters try to be cooperative while at the same time aligning readers with a particular ideology and political party. The violation or flouting of the maxims has been observed in the newspaper reports as a strategy to shape public opinion, aligning the readers with a particular winning candidate.