RT Article
T1 Political corruption in Zimbabwe: news media, audiences and deliberative democracy
JF Crime, media, culture
VO 18
IS 3
SP 393
OP 411
A1 Ndhlovu, Mthokozisi Phathisani
A2 Santos, Phillip
LA English
YR 2022
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1836527691
AB Even though corruption by politicians and in politics is widespread worldwide, it is more pronounced in developing countries, such as Zimbabwe, where members of the political elite overtly abuse power for personal accumulation of wealth. Ideally, the news media, as watchdogs, are expected to investigate and report such abuses of power. However, previous studies in Zimbabwe highlight the news media’s polarised and normative inefficacies. Informed by the theoretical notion of deliberative democracy developed via Habermas and Dahlgren’s work and Hall’s Encoding, Decoding Model, this article uses qualitative content analysis to examine how online readers of Zimbabwe’s two leading daily publications, The Herald and NewsDay, interpreted and evaluated allegations of corruption leveled against ministers and deputy ministers during the height of factionalism in the ruling party (ZANU PF). The article argues that interaction between mainstream media and their audiences online shows the latter’s resourcefulness and, at least, discursive agency in their engagement with narratives about political corruption, itself an imperative premise for future political action.
K1 Deliberation
K1 Zimbabwe
K1 Democracy
K1 online audiences
K1 Polarisation
K1 Political corruption
DO 10.1177/17416590211022416