The representation of Zimbabwean liberation war chronicles in The Sunday Mail and The Patriot

Abstract

This research set out to explore the role played by The Sunday Mail and The Patriot in the framing of the Liberation war chronicles from 2015 to 2016 respectively. The main argument of this research is that the two newspapers partially represent all political parties in their reportage of the Liberation war chronicles due to political obligation to the ruling party ZANU-PF. The study assessed the effects of ownership, control and funding mechanism of The Sunday Mail and The Patriot on news reportage of the Liberation war chronicles. The study was guided by the following theories consisting of the representation theory, framing theory and agenda setting theory. The study breached a gap in the exploration of the underlying problem of political interference in the media’s role to freely and fairly promote national identity and nationhood. The study implored the qualitative research paradigm as the study was purely qualitative in nature. Thus the study utilized qualitative content analysis and critical discourse analysis through sampling to identify the appropriate participants for interviews, focus groups and archival material to be used in the study. The study found out in general that The Sunday Mail and The Patriot newspapers proved their loyalty and allegiance to the ruling party ZANU-PF in supporting the political ideologies of the Mugabe regime for a one party state. This explained the one-sided and biased news reportage of the Liberation war chronicles and misconceptions of the societal perception of contemporary political and economic issues.