Academic literature on the topic 'Blogs – Political aspects – Zimbabwe'

This article focuses on racial discourses on political blogs during one of the first racial controversies of Obama’s presidency. I examined the interactional dynamics in the comment sections of posts from left and right blogs during the controversy. I found that the majority of participants on partisan blogs either racialized the controversy to promote a racial claim or deracialized the controversy to protect a racial claim from potentially threatening aspects of a controversy. I focus on the ambiguous challenges to racialization and deracialization that occurred in the course of internal debate over the specifics of the case and over nonracial claims. I argue that blog participants preserved racial frameworks by managing the ambiguity that arises from debates. This article contributes to the literature on racial discourse and political polarization by identifying processes that help explain how each “national conversation on race” maintains and perhaps expands the partisan divide on race.

The Government of Zimbabwe has only recently begun to implement the commitment of the liberation movements to give land to poor ‘communal’ farmers, especially those dispossessed by the whiteminority régime after Rhodesia's unilateral declaration of independence in 1965. It needs to be recalled that by virtue of the Land Tenure Act of 1969 almost half of the country's agricultural land was allocated to Europeans, who had ‘greater access to the regions considered suited to intensive crop and livestock production’, and that ‘On average, each of the nearly 7,000 European farms was roughly 100 times the size of any of the 700,000 or so holdings in the Tribal Trust Lands’. The fact that much of this land was under-utilised only served to increase African resentment.

Few can doubt the proposition that there is an important difference between information and knowledge, and that more of the former does not necessarily lead to the latter. Whereas a great deal has been written from all manner of perspectives about the situation in Africa both before and since independence, the resulting corpus of literature has seldom yielded a mainstream understanding of basic aspects of state politics. Doubtless many feel that the more they read about the continent, the less they known about what is going on and why.

Objectives:The aim of this study, in the context of disinvestment related health technology assessment, is to examine whether analysis of Web 2.0—commercial media output, blogs, and discussion forums—can provide an understanding of media framing, community perspectives, and the sociopolitical aspects of an entrenched technology.Methods: Thematic analysis of relevant data from fifty-nine media articles, thirty-nine discussion forums, thirteen blogs, and three Facebook pages relating to our case study: public funding for assisted reproductive technology services. Mainstream media and community-based social media responses were compared.Results:Media responses were narrow, primarily describing emotive individual narratives or the political nexus of interests. Community (including patient) responses were broader including discussion of opportunity cost and vested interests but mostly reflected the polar ends of the debate, diverging strongly for or against disinvestment from public funding.Conclusion:Web2.0 and media analysis offers an inexpensive method to capture media portrayal, divergent community responses both to that portrayal and independent of it, and insight into the sociopolitical aspects of an entrenched technology undergoing disinvestment debate.

This article examines the use of blogs to mediate the experiences of citizens during a violent election in Zimbabwe. It focuses specifically on how people disseminated and shared information about their tribulations under a regime that used coercive measures in the face of its crumbling hegemonic edifice. The article frames these practices within theories of alternative media and citizen journalism and argues that digitization has occasioned new counter-hegemonic spaces and new forms of journalism that are deinstitutionalized and deprofessionalized, and whose radicalism is reflected in both form and content. I argue that this radicalism in part articulates a postmodern philosophy and style as seen in its rejection of the elaborate codes and conventions of mainstream journalism. The internet is seen as certainly enhancing the people’s right to communicate, but only to a limited extent because of access disparities on the one hand, and its appropriation by liberal social movements whose configuration is elitist, on the other. I conclude by arguing that the alternative media in Zimbabwe, as reflected by Kubatana’s bloggers, lack the capacity to envision alternative social and political orders outside the neoliberal framework. This, I contend, is partly because of the political economy of both blogging as a social practice and alternative media as subaltern spaces. Just as the bloggers are embedded to Kubatana’s virtual space to self-publish, Kubatana is likewise embedded to a neoliberal discourse that is traceable to its funding and financing systems.

In Zimbabwean society, what may not be spoken sometimes becomes acceptable in song – whether to avoid social taboos and enable a wife to complain against her mother-in-law, or in broadening the boundaries of political protest. In this article, Martin Rohmer looks back to the ways in which song enabled forms of protest against forced labour and other aspects of colonial rule – in times of outward compliance as well as of direct struggle – and considers how urban theatre groups in independent Zimbabwe have adapted the tradition to their own, contemporary ends. Martin Rohmer spent almost two years studying Zimbabwean theatre when a research assistant at the University of Bayreuth, and completed his doctorate on Theatre and Performance in Zimbabwe at the Humboldt University, Berlin, in 1997. Since then he has been working in the field of cultural management for the Young Artists' Festival in Bayreuth. The present paper was first presented at the Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association in San Francisco in November 1996.

In this paper, a very dynamic linguistic phenomenon, humour, is analysed on the basis of the Theory of Conceptual Blending developed by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner (2002). It was discovered that in Lithuanian politicized discourse during and after the period of elections (2012, 2016) the majority of political events and personalities were given an evaluative implicit assessment through hu­mour/irony, which can be seen as an emergent result of blending processes. In the paper, the tendency to ridicule politicians and political events on news websites is discussed focusing exceptionally on the processes of blending at the lexical level. The research reveals that the coinage of new lexical units by fusing at least two source words or splinters follows certain patterns. The structural analysis is based on the works of Anita Lehrer, Michael Kelly, Stefan Gries, and Ekaterine Bakaradze. The main claims of the paper are supported by 362 blends collected from the headlines and comments of delfi.lt, lrytas. lt, and blogs, during the period of 2012–2016.

The main focus of the study was to ascertain the potential of the informal sector to provide much-needed revenue for the government. It also focused on the challenges faced in informal sector revenue taxation and possible solutions thereof. The Zimbabwe revenue authority has maintained presumptive tax for the sector and subcontracting to the city of Harare for the collection of revenue from the informal sector. Despite all this, the industry still underperformed in terms of revenue raised. The study sought to find out challenges of taxing the informal sector, the potential of the informal sector, the effectiveness of the Zimbabwe revenue authority in taxing the informal sector, and possible ways of improving the taxing of this rampant sector. The study found out that there is great potential from the informal sector, but turning it into tangible gains has been elusive due to political interference, lack of proper infrastructure, unfair application of tax laws and general mistrust of the government. The study recommended that the government ought to play an active role by making sure there is the political will to make sure that players in the informal sector contribute to the focus in line with Adam Smith’s general principles which include fairness and equity. There is a need for staffing levels to be commensurate with the workloads and also the motivation of the employees. The research also recommended the adaptation of Information Communication Technology to ensure accountability and traceability of transactions in the informal sector as they move away from a cash-based system recommendation.

Guided by the theory of conflict transformation, this article contributes to knowledge through articulating the significance of peacebuilding that is centred on civilian survival strategies (CSS) of flight, silence, voice, and joining the perpetrators of violence. The purpose is to articulate what could be done to promote reconciliation and build peace in a heavily polarised environment. CSS aid in identifying, from the perspective of the victims and even witnesses, the aspects that need to be built into the reconciliation process in Zimbabwe, and how these can enable reconciliation to take place. The CSS model demonstrated that citizens wanted reconciliation to be effected through truth-telling, ending political violence, and eliminating structural factors that lead to political violence, tolerance, and the mending of relationships. This article thus reveals the utility of reconciliation that benefits from CSS. Zimbabwe can potentially benefit from civilian input in carrying out a locally initiated and durable reconciliation programme.

The food security crisis which gripped the sub Sahara Africa after the drought in 1999/2000 threatened development initiatives in these countries. Zimbabwe&rsquo
s situation has since worsened and the country has failed to recuperate from the food problems, even after an improvement in the climatic conditions. International and local food aid activities then became a priority in the fight to sustain the right to food for the affected regions. It is argued in this research that if food aid is distributed on the basis of need it will enable the vulnerable populations recuperate form food insecurity problems. It is also postulated that if well implemented, food aid programmes are also able to play the dual role of averting starvation and leading to long term development. This thesis departs from the allegations of food aid politicisation in Zimbabwe.

Using the rational choice and neopatrimonial theories of individual behaviour, this research endeavored to ascertain whether political decisions influenced the government food aid distributions which were conducted through the Grain Marketing Board. In line with these theories, it is argued in this study that politicians behave in a manner that maximizes the fulfillment of their individual needs rather than the needs of the people who vote them in positions of power.

A qualitative approach was adopted in this study and data was gathered through household interviews in the Seke and Goromonzi districts of the Mashonaland East province in Zimbabwe. Furthermore, interviews were conducted with food aid experts from the governmental and non governmental organisations dealing with food security issues in Zimbabwe.

The study sets out to examine the television coverage of the 2002 presidential campaign in Zimbabwe by examining the extent to which the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation fulfilled the mandate of public service broadcasting. The primary objective of this study is to assess how ZBC television newscasts mediated pluralistic politics in the coverage of the country's presidential election campaign, in line with the normative public sphere principles. The thesis comprises seven chapters organized, first, with an introductory chapter, which provides the general background of the study. The chapter offers the rationale for the focus on TV rather than other media fomls . There are two theoretical and contextual chapters in which the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods is explained and findings are presented. Finally, the conclusion offers recommendations about the form broadcasting might take to fulfil a public service mandate and these include the strengthening of the public service broadcasting model along normative public sphere principles. The findings of the analysed election newscasts confirm that ZBC television election news was constructed in favour of ZANU PF at the expense of voices from other social and political constituencies.
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The construction of journalistic professionalism in Zimbabwe has stirred debate among scholars. Critics have argued that professionalism has been compromised by the stifling media laws in Zimbabwe as well as the extra legal measures the state has enforced to control the press. Some have also argued that a new kind of journalism must be emerging in the Zimbabwean newsroom as journalism try to cope with the political and economic pressures bedeviling the country. Much of this criticism however, has not been based on close interrogation of professionalism from the perspective of the journalists in any particular newsroom. It is against this background that this study examines the constructions of professionalism at the Financial Gazette. In particular it explores the meaning of professionalism through interrogating the journalistic practices the journalists consider during the process of news production in the context of overwhelming state power. In undertaking this examination, the study draws primarily on qualitative research methods, particularly observation and multi-layered individual in-depth interviews. As the study demonstrates, the interrogation of professionalism from the perspective of newsroom practices uncovers the complex manner in which professionalism is negotiated in the Gazette’s newsroom located in a country undergoing transition in Democracy. The study establishes that when measured against normative canons of journalistic professionalism the Gazette is deviating from such tenets as public service and watchdog journalism. As the study indicates, perhaps unbeknown to the respondents, the ruling ZANU PF party hegemony is reproduced at the Gazette through choice of news values such as sovereignty and patriotism all euphemisms for ruling party‘s slogans.

How a country is perceived by foreign investors is becoming increasingly significant to the ability of individual countries to attract foreign direct investment into their economies. In Africa, existing negative perceptions of the continent as an investment destination have been considered as an obstacle for foreign direct investment inflows to the continent in general. Although Zimbabwe offers foreign investors multiple lucrative investment opportunities, attracting foreign direct investment to the country presents a unique challenge due to the image of the country post the 1998-2008 economic crisis. Despite the vast research on the determinants of foreign direct inflows to particular countries, little is known about whether non-financial image-related factors influence the inflow of foreign direct investment to a particular country, especially a country with a unfavourable global image like Zimbabwe. The primary objective of this study was therefore to determine the perceived non-financial nation brand image factors considered to be influential for attracting specific foreign direct investment inflow opportunities in Zimbabwe. A comprehensive literature review resulted in the identification of nine independent variables (tourism, governance, people, culture and heritage, exports, investment and immigration, factor endowments, infrastructure, and legal and regulation frameworks), as well as four dependent variables (market-, resource-, efficiency- and strategic asset-seeking foreign direct investment inflow opportunities in Zimbabwe). A hypothesised model was developed in order to examine whether the independent variables have an influence on the dependent variables, and as a result nine hypotheses were formulated to test the relationships between the nine independent variables and each of the four dependent variables. A cross-sectional, quantitative deductive approach to research was employed in order to generate the data required for hypothesis testing. Purposive sampling techniques were employed to draw the sample frame for the study. A self-administered online survey was conducted, and generated empirical data from a final sample comprised of 305 investors who had applied to invest in Zimbabwe through the Zimbabwe Investment Authority between January 2009 and April 2015. Data was analysed using STATISTICA 12 software. Exploratory factor analysis was utilised to extract the constructs and validate the measuring instrument. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated in order to test the reliability and internal consistency of the measuring instrument. As a result, a total of six valid and reliable independent variables, and four dependent variables were retained for further analysis. The results of the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients revealed mostly moderate correlations. The Multi-Collinearity diagnostics test confirmed the absence of collinearity between the independent variables and dependent variables respectively. Subsequently, the results of the four sets of multiple regression analyses, disclosed thirteen statistically significant relationships between the six independent variables and the four categorical dependent variables. Tourism had significant relationships with market-, efficiency- and strategic asset-seeking FDI inflow opportunities. Government actions had significant relationships with resource- and strategic asset-seeking FDI inflow opportunities. People had significant relationships with resource- and efficiency- seeking FDI inflow opportunities. Export had significant relationships with market-, resource-, efficiency- and strategic asset-seeking FDI inflow opportunities. Regulatory framework had significant relationships with market- and resource-seeking FDI inflow opportunities. The results of the Analysis of Variance revealed that investor status can be used to predict which non-financial nation brand image determinants played a role in the ultimate decision for taking up foreign direct investment opportunities in Zimbabwe. Further analysis of the role that the demographic profiles of the investors played in predicting which non-financial nation brand image determinants are considered influential in taking up foreign direct investment opportunities in Zimbabwe was confirmed in the Multivariate Analysis of Variance with thirty-four statically significant relationships identified. Further analysis by means of post-hoc Scheffé testing and Cohen’s d-values calculations confirm that thirty-nine practically significant mean differences were evident. This study makes a novel contribution to the empirical body of nation branding, foreign direct investment and investment promotion research by developing and testing a hypothetical model that synthesises facets of the three fields of study. This study represents a new discourse in the identification of the determinants of FDI (that being non-financial determinants) and provides an explanatory framework for the non-financial nation brand image determinants influencing each type of FDI inflow opportunity sought in Zimbabwe. It is within this framework that recommendations, based on empirical evidence, are made for the Government of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Investment Authority. Some of these recommendations could be implemented within the short-term, while others may be more strategic in the long term. Recommendations made include that the Government of Zimbabwe undertakes significant policy reviews, continues its engagement with key external stakeholders such as other governments, supra-national financial institutions, and foreign investors, as well as adhering to existing favourable FDI policies. It is also recommended that the Zimbabwe Investment Authority adopt an intermediary role, by linking the Government of Zimbabwe with potential foreign investors through investor targeting, as well as promoting Zimbabwe as an investment destination by engaging in image-building activities such as public diplomacy, investor relations, specialised advertising and hosting investor forums with multiple, distinct investor segments. These image-building activities should be centered on the non-financial nation brand image determinants that foreign investors consider to be influential to foreign direct investment in Zimbabwe, and should be geared towards improving and managing the perceived image of Zimbabwe as an investment destination.

Although Zimbabwe is a signatory to various regional and international conventions, treatises, declarations and protocols that seek to promote and create an environment conducive the attainment of gender equality, despite all these commitments, the Zimbabwean Government still lags behind in the area of political participation of women. This study was done to investigate gender equality and the level of participation in governmental decision making processes with specific reference to the cabinet of Zimbabwe. The subject for discussion was traced back to 1980 when Zimbabwe gained its independence and the researcher aimed to ascertain whether there was any significant improvement in terms of women’s participation in governmental decision-making processes and structures. The study also unravelled reasons why women have been at the peripherals of decision- making in cabinet. The study also brought out and evaluated the strategies used by the government of Zimbabwe in managing a gender-sensitive working environment and the legislation that has been put in place to guide the process. At the same time an evaluation was done among the respondents to ascertain the strengths and weaknesses of the strategies identified. Political parties were also included in the process since women who find their way into parliament do so using the tickets of their respective political parties. The political parties have a role to play since they have their respective constitutions in gender sensitive issues and it remains to be seen if they are implementing this which would result in identifying the numbers of women who are in the cabinet. The study is of significance to the Zimbabwean situation at the moment as the country is in the process of drafting a new constitution. The current Constitution in its Section 23 which provides for “protection from discrimination on the grounds of race, tribe, political opinion or physical disability of the persons concerned it is not clear as to what form of representation or position women should occupy in politics and decision-making positions. Given the above research analysis it is possible to conclude that indeed women have an impact on decision making in cabinet. The findings show the impact of considering the value of women in decision-making bodies as they spearheading development in their respective wards and the nation at large. Women were also viewed as decision makers who would contribute in the development of the nation just as much as men are assumed to do. The empowerment of women legislators and the aspiring candidates is a process that has a long way to go to ensure gender equality in governmental decision making processes but it is a necessary process.

This study investigates the complex role editorials – a newspaper's institutional voice – play in highly-polarised political contexts. Employing Van Dijk's insight that editorials "are usually not only, and even not primarily, directed at the common reader: rather they tend to directly or indirectly address influential news actors" (1992: 244), the study focuses on how the editorials of two Zimbabwean daily newspapers – The Herald, a perceived pro-government newspaper, and NewsDay, a perceived pro-opposition newspaper – speak to those in power. The study looks at these two newspapers' editorials from 1 June to 31 December 2013, which covers the period prior to, during and after the 2013 national elections. The 31 July, 2013 elections took place after four years of an uneasy government of national unity (GNU), which comprised ZANU-PF and the two MDC formations (Raftopoulos, 2013:978). Given the polarisation that is pervasive in the Zimbabwean politics and media, the study draws on Hallin and Mancini (2004)'s "Polarised Pluralist Model". In this model the media are used as instruments of struggle in conflicts, sometimes by dictatorships and by movements struggling against them, but also by contending parties in periods of democratic politics (Hallin and Mancini, 2004:61). Further, the methodological approach that informs this study is primarily qualitative. A qualitative content analysis of 30 editorials seeks to identify themes covered in the editorials. The study also employs a rhetorical analysis of 12 editorials and in-depth interviews and these form the adopted three-stage research design. The findings of this research somewhat contradict the common view in Zimbabwe that the privately-owned media blindly support the opposition while the stateowned media do the same to ZANU-PF (Chari, 2009:10; Mabweazara, 2011:110). Although The Herald openly supported ZANU-PF prior to the election, it shifted after the election as it pushed the ruling party to fulfill pledges made on the campaign trail. Some ZANU-PF officials were also censured by The Herald, although this selective criticism can be linked to factionalism in the party. NewsDay editorials reminded the newly formed government to mend the economy and provide basic services. While, the daily constantly censured Mugabe and ZANU-PF prior to the election, it also occasionally berated the MDC, which can be attributed to its participation in the GNU as that took away the privilege it previously had of not being hold accountable by the press.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2004.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: There can be little doubt about the ability of major international sporting events to capture the aspirations and hopes of nations. These events have an uncanny ability of seemingly effortlessly doing what a hundred speeches and mass rallies by politicians could only hope to achieve. Therefore, it is no surprise that they are commonly understood to be able to bring nations and people together and provide a focus for national identity and unity. The 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa is an obvious proponent of such a claim, whereby South Africa was emerging from a long and arduous political transition and needed something more than going to the polling booths to unite the nation. Major international sporting events are also said to be able to provide a catalyst or incentive for democratization and human rights enhancement in authoritarian or semi-authoritarian regimes. The 1988 Olympics in South Korea is a landmark of such claims whereby the South Korean government was said to bow to the democratizing pressures exerted on it due to its hosting of the event. Many have argued that China’s hosting of the Olympics in 2008 will have a similar effect. However, equally potent, major international sporting events can have various unintended consequences in terms of identity formation, democratization prospects and human rights for the host nations. An analysis of South Africa and Zimbabwe’s co-hosting of the 2003 Cricket World Cup demonstrates this point. The outcomes of the study suggest that whilst it is normally the intention for the host nations to use the games to bring nations and people together, the Cricket World Cup opened up a rift between races, both within the race contours of the cricket playing Commonwealth world and within South Africa's domestic politics. It was also established that much like the 1995 Rugby World Cup had sought to reconcile blacks and whites domestically under the “Rainbow Nation” during Mandela's presidency, the 2003 Cricket World Cup, with its more regional focus and under Mbeki’s presidency, presented an excellent opportunity for transnational reconciliation between Africa and the Anglo-Saxon world. However, the 2003 Cricket World Cup, as a project in racial reconciliation, was essentially a failure. This was predominantly due to the choice by South Africa of Zimbabwe as co-host and due to the shift of South Africa's national identity from that of the “Rainbow Nation” under Mandela, to that of “Africanism” under Mbeki. President Mbeki’s drive towards “Africanism” proved divisive both transnationally and domestically. Symbolically, the Cricket World Cup, when compared with the 1995 Rugby World Cup, had served to highlight the decline of the “Rainbow Nation”. Zimbabwe's co-hosting of the event had served to further entrench the authoritarian regime. Instead of the regime opening up due to its co-hosting of the event, a broad clampdown on civil and political liberties was experienced. The Zimbabwean government felt the need to tighten its grip during the lead up to the event and throughout the tournament itself. The aim was to project a sanitized view of Zimbabwe to the rest of the world. Thus, the event presented an opportunity for the government to shore up its credibility and produce political propaganda. South Africa’s stance of “quiet diplomacy” also indirectly helped to further entrench the regime through the World Cup. Zimbabwe's co-hosting also impacted negatively on the opposition, the MDC. In addition to this, the various pressures which major events are said to exert on a host nation to reform politically and which result from boycott campaigns, pressure from the media, stimulation of civil society and protests, were not very effective in enhancing democratization prospects and human rights in Zimbabwe. This study reaches the overall conclusion that the claims that major events bring nations and people together and provide a catalyst or incentive for democratization and human rights enhancement in authoritarian regimes, need further revision. South Africa and Zimbabwe's co-hosting of the event did indeed have unintended consequences. Policy implications are also assessed. Future areas for research are also identified.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Daar bestaan min twyfel dat groot internasionele sportgebeurtenisse die strewes en verwagtinge van nasies aanwakker. Hierdie gebeutenisse het die vermoë om op ‘n oënskylike moeitelose wyse meer te bereik as wat ‘n honderd toesprake en massavergaderings deur politici kan hoop om te bereik. Daarom is dit geen verrassing nie dat daar vry algemeen aanvaar word dat hierdie gebeurtenisse oor die vermoë beskik om nasies en mense by mekaar te bring en ‘n fokus vir nasionale identiteit en eenheid kan verskaf. Die 1995 Rugby Wêreldbeker in Suid-Afrika, is ‘n ooglopende voorbeeld: Suid Afrika het uit ‘n lang en moeilike politieke oorgang gekom en het meer as ‘n blote verkiesing nodig gehad ten einde die nasie te verenig. Voorts is dit ook so dat groot internasionale sportgebeurtenisse ‘n katalisator of aansporing is vir demokratisering en die bevordering van mensregte in outoritêre en semi-outoritêre regerings. Die 1988 Olimpiese Spele in Suid-Korea ondersteun hierdie aanspraak. As gasheerland van hierdie spele, het die Suid-Koreaanse regering onder toenemende druk gekom om aan die vereistes van demokrasie te voldoen. Daar word verwag dat die Olimpiese Spele van 2008 dieselfde impak op China, die gasheerland, sal hê. Terselfdertyd is dit egter ook so dat groot internasionale sportgebeurtenisse vir die gasheerlande onverwagte negatiewe gevolge ten opsigte van identiteitsvorming, demokratiseringsvooruitsigte en bevordering van menseregte kan hê. n’ Ontleiding van Sui-Afrika en Zimbabwe se mede-aanbieding van die 2003 Krieket Wêreldbeker staaf hierdie stelling. Die resultate van die studie toon aan dat alhoewel gasheerlande normaalweg groot sportgebeurtenisse gebruik om nasies en mense byeen te bring, het die 2003 Krieket Wêreldbeker ‘n kloof tussen rasse veroorsaak – binne die krieketspelende Statebondswêreld sowel as die Suid- Afrikaanse huishoudelike politiek. Daar is ook vasgestel dat net soos die 1995 Rugby Wêreldbeker aan Suid-Afrika tydens die presidentskap van Mandela en onder die vaandel van die “Reënboognasie” ‘n plaaslike versoeningsgeleentheid tussen swart en wit gebied het, net so het die 2003 Krieket Wêreldbeker, met sy regionale fokus en onder presidentskap van Mbeki, ook ‘n uitstekende geleentheid vir trans-nasionale versoening tussen Afrika en die Anglo-Saksiese wêreld gebied. As versoeningsprojek was die 2003 Krieket Wêreldbeker egter in wese ‘n mislukking, hoofsaaklik as gevolg van Suid-Afrika se besluit dat Zimbabwe ‘n mede-gasheer moes wees en weens die feit dat Suid-Afrika se nasionale identiteit ‘n klemverskuiwing van “Reënboognasie” onder Mandela tot “Afrikanisme” onder Mbeki, ondergaan het. President Mbeki se beklemtoning van “Afrikanisme” was ook huishoudelik en trans-nasionaal verdelend. Simbolies gesproke, het die Krieket Wêreldbeker – in teenstelling met die Rugby Wêreldbeker – die “Reënboognasie” se verkwyning beklemtoon. Daar is ook vasgestel dat Zimbabwe se mede-aanbieding van die Krieket Wêreldbeker inderdaad hierdie outoritêre regering versterk het. In plaas daarvan die Zimbabwiese regering sy outoritêre greep as gevolg van sy mede-aanbieding verslap het, was daar inderdaad ‘n verdere breë onderdrukking van burgerlike en politieke regte. Die Zimbabwiese regering het in die aanloop tot en in die loop van die toernooi sy outoritêre greep verstewig ten einde ‘n gesaniteerde beeld van Zimbabwe aan die res van die wêreld te kon voorhou. Die Zimbabwiese regering het die geleentheid misbruik om geloofwaardigheid te probeer wen en politieke propaganda uit te stuur. Suid-Afrika se standpunt van “stille diplomasie” het ook die hand van Zimbabwiese regering versterk; en Zimbabwe se mede-aanbieding van die toernooi het ‘n negatiewe impak op die opposisie, die MDC, gehad. Die dwang wat op gasheerlande deur middel van boikotte, die media en proteste uitgeoefen kan word om polities te hervorm, was in die geval van Zimbabwe nie effektief nie. In hierdie studie word tot die slotsom gekom dat die aansprake dat groot sportgebeurtenisse nasies en mense saambring en ‘n aansporing vir demokratisering van outoritêre regerings is, verdere hersiening verg. Suid-Afrika en Zimbabwe se mede-aanbieding van die toernooi het onbeoogde gevolge gehad – en in sommige gevalle was hierdie gevolge selfs direk die teenoorgestelde van wat verwag is. Beleidsimplikasies word ook evalueer. Voorts word toekomstige navorsingsareas ook identifiseer.

This thesis analyzes how the news blogs Daily Kos and Power line construct news presented from an ideological viewpoint. Specifically the types of evidence used by the blogs to assert their viewpoints and their intended audiences were analyzed. This thesis utilized theory from Jean Francois Lyotard to explain how images and text were used by the blogs to legitimate their ideological narrative. Edwin Black's theory of second . ' persona was used to analyze the intended audience of the blogs. The ideology of the two blogs was described by the political spectrum developed by Barry Clark. The analysis of the two blogs found that both blogs utilized various sources to legitimize their narratives. The two blogs constructed news stories in stylistically similar manners. News constructed in this manner reinforces ideological viewpoints and manifests itself in a partisan electorate and partisan politicians unwilling to be flexible with their political positions. This inflexibility is not beneficial in a democracy that needs compromise in order to function.

On May 16 2006 the government of Zimbabwe embarked on a clean-up programme of urban centres, destroying informal human settlements and informal businesses. This operation, which the government called operation "Restore Order", resulted in the displacement of nearly one million people and left thousands of families homeless. This study is a discussion and an analysis of the coverage of the clean-up operation by two of Zimbabwe's leading Sunday newspapers, The Sunday Mail and The Standard. The Sunday Mail is owned by the Zimbabwe government and The Standard is privately owned and perceived to be oppositional to the current Zimbabwe government. The two newspapers, therefore, covered the clean-up operation from different perspectives and often presented conflicting reports explaining why the clean-up operation was carried out and the extent of its impact on the lives of millions of Zimbabweans. The chosen research approach is the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework as developed by Fairclough (1995). Using CDA, this study seeks to find out and expose the underlying ideological struggles for hegemony between different social and political groups in Zimbabwe and how the newspapers became actors in this process. This process is made possible by looking at how news reporting is organised in the two newspapers, issues of language use, sourcing and external factors that influenced the coverage of the operation.

This chapter uses Illich's (1973) concept of conviviality for analysing the challenges and opportunities of using email for political communication in authoritarian states. Based on evidence from a case study of Zimbabwe's Media Monitoring Project (MMPZ), it contends that while conviviality allows the use of ICTs for political mobilisation, it also enables a counterproductive “big brother” effect. In addition to constant censorship and overt operations, covert strategies are often used for disrupting communication platforms. This calls for a framework for harnessing ICTs for political mobilisation. This chapter is a case study on how perceived state surveillance disrupted a vibrant communicative space in Zimbabwe. Based on evidence from the volumes of email traffic transacted over two weeks of panic, anger, and heroism, the chapter discusses the challenges and opportunities of using email for political mobilisation and warns against uncritical celebration of the role of ICTs in political mobilisation. It concludes by suggesting how the adaption of e-strategies from email marketing to political communication is among the skills that could break the tie between political opponents armed with the same convivial tools for political communication in the information age.

This chapter defines a new field called network politics. Network politics refers to politics and networks. These networks include the Internet, private networks, cellular networks, telephone networks, radio networks, television networks, etc. Network politics includes the applications of networks to enable one or more individuals or organizations to engage in political communication. Furthermore, network politics includes government regulation of networks. Finally, network politics includes the accompanying issues that arise when networks are used for political communication or when there is government regulation of networks. The domain of network politics includes, but is not limited to, e-politics (social networking for driving revolutions and organizing protests, online petitions, political blogs and vlogs, whistleblower Websites, online campaigning, e-participation, virtual town halls, e-voting, Internet freedom, access to information, net neutrality, etc.) and applications of other networks in politics (robocalling, text messaging, TV broadcasting, etc.). The definition of this field should significantly increase the pace of research and development in this important field.

What happens when a classic tool meets the Internet? This is the question that word of mouth (WOM) marketing faces. Word of mouth marketing as the oldest marketing method was completed by oral communication. But since entering the Internet era, and especially with the advent of Web 2.0, the way people share information is more dependent on hands rather than mouth – that is, through the keyboard, mouse, and smart phones – to affect others easily. This chapter will discuss the blogs and eWoM from the business, technical, social, and political aspects to reveal how eWoM thrives in the age of the Internet.

The article deals with the ways in which social networks and the blogosphere influence the formation and implementation of a PR campaign. Examples from the political sphere (election campaigns, initiatives), business (TV brands, traditional and online media) have revealed the opportunities that Facebook, Telegram, Twitter, YouTube and blogs promote in promoting advertising, ideas, campaigns, thoughts, or products. Author blogs created on special websites or online media may not be as much of a tool in PR as an additional tool on social media. It is noted that choosing a blog as the main tool of PR campaign has both positive and negative points. Social networks intervene in the sphere of human life, become a means of communication, promotion, branding. The effectiveness of social networks has been evidenced by such historically significant events as Brexit, the Arab Spring, and the Revolution of Dignity. Special attention was paid to the 2019 presidential election. Based on the analysis of individual PR campaigns, the reasons for successful and unsuccessful campaigns from the point of view of network communication, which provide unlimited multimedia and interactive tools for PR, are highlighted. In fact, these concepts significantly affect the effectiveness of the implementation of PR-campaign, its final effectiveness, which is determined by the achievement of goals. Attention is drawn to the culture of communication during the PR campaign, as well as the concepts of “trolls”, “trolling”, “bots”, “botoin industry”. The social communication component of these concepts is unconditional. Choosing a blog as the main tool of a marketing campaign has both positive and negative aspects. Only a person with great creative potential can run and create a blog. In addition, it takes a long time. In fact, these two points are losing compared to other internet marketing tools. Further research is interesting in two respects. First, a comparison of the dynamics of the effectiveness of PR-campaign tools in Ukraine in 2020 and in the past, in particular, at the dawn of state independence. Secondly, to investigate how/or the concept of PR-campaigns in social networks and blogs is constantly changing.