The newspaper article authored by Josephine Mude entitled Fake Fizzy Drinks Flood Market appeared on page 2 of The Times of 23-29 March 2007.
The article was based on the making of fake fizzy drinks at Kudzanayi bus terminus in Gweru. A snap survey carried out by The Times shows that most fizzy drinks sold at the terminus are not originals as the bottle labelling might imply. Vendors are making fruit juice mixtures, which are made out of milk, fizzy drinks, water and orange juice. These fake mixtures are turning out to be a favourite for some who believe they taste better than the real fizzy drinks.
This report was newsworthy because it was about an illegal operation, which is flooding the market. It becomes a national issue because vendors are selling to the public whose health is at risk food staffs and mixtures, which are not properly prepared and bottled. This activity is of concern, since this juice making is being carried out at a terminus, which is a national road junction and a major meeting place for different people.
The readers would have benefited more from a balanced report that includes the response of the vendors who are said to be making the drinks and a comment from the street kids who have been implicated as suppliers of the empty bottles. A balanced presentation would have made the article more informative to the readers. This is of public interest since the government is making frantic efforts to curb illegal activities, which are rampant in country. The reporter also seems to take the “street kids” phenomenon that they are a nuisance, that they are vermin as a given, absolving society of any blame for making some people live on the streets.
The reporter has a social responsibility of presenting news, which should be truthful. For this reason the reporter should have made an effort to get comment from the vendors but the reporter seems to know what the drinks are made of and only states that the juices look and taste like originals. What if they were in fact originals?
Vendors have resorted to manufacturing and selling “fake” juices as a means of earning a living. Implied in the report is the view that this is criminal and that the government should do something to stop it. Poor government policies and the macro-economic environment resulting from them are conveniently elided in this story. It is the poor vendors who are to blame for their poverty – in “blame the victim style”.
By Siphiwe Pagiwa, PgDip Media and Society Studies - MSU.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Local censure, global award for local hotel - case of media equivocating
A reporter purportedly reporting from Gweru by the name Chris Tabvura writes about how the Midlands Hotel’s CEO, Patrick Kombai, received an award given to the hotel in Spain – The Zimbabwean 1-7 March 2007.
This award was at the 32 International awards for Tourism, Hotel and Catering Industry in Spain. The Midlands Hotel’s CEO Patrick Hamutendi Kombai was given a certificate and a global badge was awarded to the hotel for business excellence and quality management. All this took place at a glittering ceremony in Madrid, Spain.
What I find difficult to understand is that not so long ago this same hotel was said to be operating below standard. It was alleged that the hotel had been closed so that necessary renovations could be made to improve standards. What boggles the mind is that the same hotel was condemned by the Hoteliers Association of Zimbabwe Quality Insurers over its “deplorable” state and it was dropped from its, is it two or three star status. How then could the same condemned hotel receive a global badge for excellence? This raises more questions than answers. One can only wonder, is it a clash of the global versus the local in hotel standards?
Through this report, the journalist is indirectly asking the readers to question the closure of the Midlands Hotel as substandard. Could it be on political grounds or was it a genuine inspection that took place a few weeks ago? In the report Kombai, owner of the Midlands Hotel, is quoted to have said a group of government officials “known as the Kaseke- Tabengwa group” had traveled around the country purporting to inspect hotels, restaurants and lodges in the name of Zimbabwe Tourism Authority. There was no comment from the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority or Hoteliers Association of Zimbabwe. However, for some of us who live in Gweru and often make a deliberate effort to avoid walking along the hotel’s pavement on the western side to avoid the not so very enticing and aromatic smell of human waste know better whose standards to believe.
By Beauty Muromo PgDip in Media and Society Studies - MSU
This award was at the 32 International awards for Tourism, Hotel and Catering Industry in Spain. The Midlands Hotel’s CEO Patrick Hamutendi Kombai was given a certificate and a global badge was awarded to the hotel for business excellence and quality management. All this took place at a glittering ceremony in Madrid, Spain.
What I find difficult to understand is that not so long ago this same hotel was said to be operating below standard. It was alleged that the hotel had been closed so that necessary renovations could be made to improve standards. What boggles the mind is that the same hotel was condemned by the Hoteliers Association of Zimbabwe Quality Insurers over its “deplorable” state and it was dropped from its, is it two or three star status. How then could the same condemned hotel receive a global badge for excellence? This raises more questions than answers. One can only wonder, is it a clash of the global versus the local in hotel standards?
Through this report, the journalist is indirectly asking the readers to question the closure of the Midlands Hotel as substandard. Could it be on political grounds or was it a genuine inspection that took place a few weeks ago? In the report Kombai, owner of the Midlands Hotel, is quoted to have said a group of government officials “known as the Kaseke- Tabengwa group” had traveled around the country purporting to inspect hotels, restaurants and lodges in the name of Zimbabwe Tourism Authority. There was no comment from the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority or Hoteliers Association of Zimbabwe. However, for some of us who live in Gweru and often make a deliberate effort to avoid walking along the hotel’s pavement on the western side to avoid the not so very enticing and aromatic smell of human waste know better whose standards to believe.
By Beauty Muromo PgDip in Media and Society Studies - MSU
Elements of tabloidisation evident in Zim media
The Zimbabwean print media is slowly but surely trudging towards tabloidisation. By tabloiddisation I mean the tendency to focus on sensational and sometimes trivial stories. This is a feature of most western newspapers which focus on the lifestyles of celebrities such as members of the royal family, David Beckham; Nicole Kidman; and Naomi Campbell to mention but a few. The launching of The Trends magazine; Sunday Mail Entertainment, Sunday News Leisure magazine and even the inclusion of some sensational stories in the main newspapers point towards tabloidisation.
Another feature of tabloidisation is the absence of public interest in most or all of these stories. The Sunday Mail of 15-21 April and The Herald of 13 April 2007 carried stories on World Bank President Wolfowitz’s scandalous promotion of his girlfriend and the subsequent pressure on him to quit. Of what interest is this information to the Zimbabwean audience? In what way does it impact on them? Other stories that quickly come to mind are in the same issues mentioned above on David Beckham’s wife drinking alcohol as a way of gaining appetite and, Prince William’s split from his girlfriend Kate Middleton. Again these stories though interesting are surely not of public interest if they have any relevance at all to the Zimbabwean audience.
Apart from instances cited above, the wide coverage given to Studio 263’s Denzel Burutsa’s (Jabulani Jari) relationship with and marriage to Chipo Bizure (Eve), their subsequent divorce and confrontations drives home my point. The way the story was covered in the local media reminds one of the O J Simpson saga and the hounding of the late Princess Diana by the paparazzi which eventually led to her tragic death. Of what value was this story to the audience? Was this not an invasion of the two’s private life? The coverage was so thorough especially, one of the episodes in which they allegedly had an altercation such that one wonders whether the two were ever left to enjoy their privacy. This leaves one with more questions than answers: In what ways did the media contribute to their divorce? Had they been left alone from the onset, would they have split up? The case of Tinopona Katsande and her boyfriend also testifies to my assertions.
In Katsande’s case the media started speculating about their split after Katsande moved back to Harare. In The Herald of 13 April Katsande and her boyfriend ridicule the media speculations. What effect is media coverage likely to have on their relationship? The case of Burutsa and Bizure, Rocqui and Pauline (who divorced) leaves one wondering whether Katsande and Ncube’s relationship, Selma Mtukudzi’s relationship with the younger Manatsa and Muwengwa’s (Nevernay Chinyanga) marriage will withstand this intense media gaze, (in Chinyanga’s case the Sunday Mail reported that his wife had an altercation with her husband’s alleged girlfriend in a supermarket)
.
Media voyeurism is also evident in Makanaka’s case. The media created her by giving her prominence. And now the same media is mercilessly destroying her and committing infanticide with impunity despite the fact that she is just a teenager who happens to have fallen out with the same media, which “created” her. This merciless predatory tendency was evident in the cartoons of Makanaka in The Sunday Mail of 11 March in which she was shown taking a swipe at the Girl Child Network.
.
The Zimbabwean media should instead focus on matters of public interest. The stories cited in this article had no value in them, that is, in relation to the generality of the audience. It is high time the media redefine its role in the Zimbabwean society and start focusing on pertinent issues such as ways of improving the economy and society’s well being. In addition they should help break up the polarization of the Zimbabwean society rather than help in the further division of society, and focusing on trivial issues.
By Albert Chibuwe PgDip in Media and Society Studies –MSU.
Another feature of tabloidisation is the absence of public interest in most or all of these stories. The Sunday Mail of 15-21 April and The Herald of 13 April 2007 carried stories on World Bank President Wolfowitz’s scandalous promotion of his girlfriend and the subsequent pressure on him to quit. Of what interest is this information to the Zimbabwean audience? In what way does it impact on them? Other stories that quickly come to mind are in the same issues mentioned above on David Beckham’s wife drinking alcohol as a way of gaining appetite and, Prince William’s split from his girlfriend Kate Middleton. Again these stories though interesting are surely not of public interest if they have any relevance at all to the Zimbabwean audience.
Apart from instances cited above, the wide coverage given to Studio 263’s Denzel Burutsa’s (Jabulani Jari) relationship with and marriage to Chipo Bizure (Eve), their subsequent divorce and confrontations drives home my point. The way the story was covered in the local media reminds one of the O J Simpson saga and the hounding of the late Princess Diana by the paparazzi which eventually led to her tragic death. Of what value was this story to the audience? Was this not an invasion of the two’s private life? The coverage was so thorough especially, one of the episodes in which they allegedly had an altercation such that one wonders whether the two were ever left to enjoy their privacy. This leaves one with more questions than answers: In what ways did the media contribute to their divorce? Had they been left alone from the onset, would they have split up? The case of Tinopona Katsande and her boyfriend also testifies to my assertions.
In Katsande’s case the media started speculating about their split after Katsande moved back to Harare. In The Herald of 13 April Katsande and her boyfriend ridicule the media speculations. What effect is media coverage likely to have on their relationship? The case of Burutsa and Bizure, Rocqui and Pauline (who divorced) leaves one wondering whether Katsande and Ncube’s relationship, Selma Mtukudzi’s relationship with the younger Manatsa and Muwengwa’s (Nevernay Chinyanga) marriage will withstand this intense media gaze, (in Chinyanga’s case the Sunday Mail reported that his wife had an altercation with her husband’s alleged girlfriend in a supermarket)
.
Media voyeurism is also evident in Makanaka’s case. The media created her by giving her prominence. And now the same media is mercilessly destroying her and committing infanticide with impunity despite the fact that she is just a teenager who happens to have fallen out with the same media, which “created” her. This merciless predatory tendency was evident in the cartoons of Makanaka in The Sunday Mail of 11 March in which she was shown taking a swipe at the Girl Child Network.
.
The Zimbabwean media should instead focus on matters of public interest. The stories cited in this article had no value in them, that is, in relation to the generality of the audience. It is high time the media redefine its role in the Zimbabwean society and start focusing on pertinent issues such as ways of improving the economy and society’s well being. In addition they should help break up the polarization of the Zimbabwean society rather than help in the further division of society, and focusing on trivial issues.
By Albert Chibuwe PgDip in Media and Society Studies –MSU.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Why new radio station without national coverage?
Nearly 45% of the rural areas in Zimbabwe do not have access to radio signals and the assertion that radio is the medium of Africa seems to hold very little, if any water if the situation in Zimbabwe is anything to go by. However, the Minister of Information, Dr Sikhanyiso Ndhlovu, on the 6th of April, announced that the government has released $8.5bn for the establishment of a short-wave radio station in Gweru, which will tell the Zimbabwean story to Zimbabweans
Areas that do not receive local radio transmission are those close to the borders, like for example the whole stretch of area from Lupane to Victoria Falls, Beitbridge, Plumtree, Nyamapanda, Binga, Chiredzi and parts of Mberengwa. People in these areas listen to foreign stations, for instance, people in Lupane listen to ZambeziFM and other short-wave radio stations whose content are likely to compromise our territorial sovereignty and integrity.
These short-wave radio stations have been at the receiving end of government criticism, e.g. Studio 7, Short-wave radio Africa, Voice of the People, as imperialist, anti-government and western propaganda machines. The attacks however, leave many commentators wondering at the logic of increasing the number of stations in the country when there is no nationwide coverage. There have also been talks of why the government is busy attacking foreign radio stations for “telling our story in their own way,” instead of doing their homework and make sure that they (the government), “tell our story in our own way,” and tell it to everyone.
Currently there are four radio stations in the country i.e. Radio Zimbabwe, National FM, Spot FM, and Power FM, all of which are under the national broadcaster Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation directly controlled by government. Recently there have been talks of a proposed fifth radio station to be launched in Gweru.
This station according to the Minister of Information, Doctor Sikhanyiso Ndhlovu should tell the Zimbabwean story to Zimbabweans, but the question is how can you tell the Zimbabwean story to Zimbabweans when you cannot access them?
What then is wrong in listening to foreign stations if one cannot access local stations?
By Mufudzi Shumba (Level 2, semester 2, Bsc Media and Society Studies, MSU)
Areas that do not receive local radio transmission are those close to the borders, like for example the whole stretch of area from Lupane to Victoria Falls, Beitbridge, Plumtree, Nyamapanda, Binga, Chiredzi and parts of Mberengwa. People in these areas listen to foreign stations, for instance, people in Lupane listen to ZambeziFM and other short-wave radio stations whose content are likely to compromise our territorial sovereignty and integrity.
These short-wave radio stations have been at the receiving end of government criticism, e.g. Studio 7, Short-wave radio Africa, Voice of the People, as imperialist, anti-government and western propaganda machines. The attacks however, leave many commentators wondering at the logic of increasing the number of stations in the country when there is no nationwide coverage. There have also been talks of why the government is busy attacking foreign radio stations for “telling our story in their own way,” instead of doing their homework and make sure that they (the government), “tell our story in our own way,” and tell it to everyone.
Currently there are four radio stations in the country i.e. Radio Zimbabwe, National FM, Spot FM, and Power FM, all of which are under the national broadcaster Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation directly controlled by government. Recently there have been talks of a proposed fifth radio station to be launched in Gweru.
This station according to the Minister of Information, Doctor Sikhanyiso Ndhlovu should tell the Zimbabwean story to Zimbabweans, but the question is how can you tell the Zimbabwean story to Zimbabweans when you cannot access them?
What then is wrong in listening to foreign stations if one cannot access local stations?
By Mufudzi Shumba (Level 2, semester 2, Bsc Media and Society Studies, MSU)
Zim media, faithful mirror image of its colonial forerunner
Zimbabwe attained independence in 1980. Before we attained Uhuru the white regime or elites in the economic sector sympathetic to it controlled all the means of mental production including the media. Media played an hegemonic role in upholding a philosophy of white supremacy and the subjugation of the black majority at that time. Come 1980 the current ruling regime took it as it was with a few cosmetic adjustments to it. In present day Zimbabwe 27 years after independence and ‘majority rule’ the media remains an instrument of alienation of the vast majority black population still living in the margins.
In our country a lot of the issues such as the current economic condition is normalized such that readers, listeners and viewers continue to see it as normal. The seriousness of the issues is not brought up for public debate. Each time the Reserve Bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono addresses the nation the media is upbeat about it as ‘the’ solution to the prevailing socio-economic crisis when in actual fact people continue to suffer. Very little space is given to dissenting views. The introduction of bearer cheques in 2004, operation sunrise and the striking down of zeroes, and now the social contract, all are welcomed and praised as if final panacea to our problems. But there is very little to show for it except the spiralling four digit inflation.
The media continue to be tools for mental domination better still a propaganda tool whereby those with political and economic power promote and legitimate their interests.
On TV programmes such as Murimi wanhasi, Face the Nation provide restricted forum where like-minded supporters of the ruling party take turns and compete to hip praises on the national leadership and its policies, one supposes for their ‘undertaker’ role over this declining economy. This means the ideas of the ruling elite dominate even today years after colonization. Even where the so called Private Press is supposed to provide a counter to rulling party monologues it does so from an ultra elitist view point often unrepresentative of the marjority marginalised groups. They represent capital and speak on its behalf. The same techniques used by the oppressive colonial regime continue to be used. Thus, it is my contention that the media still needs to be liberated in Zimbabwe today if it is to serve the true interests and aspirations of the majority, For example talk about something as basic as availability and access to so called mainstream media whether print or electronic less than 30% of the population is reached by either newspapers or radio or TV signals from Pockets Hill, the rest must fend for themselves by listening to TV and radio stations in neighbouring countries like South Africa, Botswana, Zambia etc. Talk of defending of national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Where are we getting it all wrong fellow Zimbabweans?
By Gamuchirai Mudimu, Bsc Media and Society Studies, (Level 2 semester2) - MSU
In our country a lot of the issues such as the current economic condition is normalized such that readers, listeners and viewers continue to see it as normal. The seriousness of the issues is not brought up for public debate. Each time the Reserve Bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono addresses the nation the media is upbeat about it as ‘the’ solution to the prevailing socio-economic crisis when in actual fact people continue to suffer. Very little space is given to dissenting views. The introduction of bearer cheques in 2004, operation sunrise and the striking down of zeroes, and now the social contract, all are welcomed and praised as if final panacea to our problems. But there is very little to show for it except the spiralling four digit inflation.
The media continue to be tools for mental domination better still a propaganda tool whereby those with political and economic power promote and legitimate their interests.
On TV programmes such as Murimi wanhasi, Face the Nation provide restricted forum where like-minded supporters of the ruling party take turns and compete to hip praises on the national leadership and its policies, one supposes for their ‘undertaker’ role over this declining economy. This means the ideas of the ruling elite dominate even today years after colonization. Even where the so called Private Press is supposed to provide a counter to rulling party monologues it does so from an ultra elitist view point often unrepresentative of the marjority marginalised groups. They represent capital and speak on its behalf. The same techniques used by the oppressive colonial regime continue to be used. Thus, it is my contention that the media still needs to be liberated in Zimbabwe today if it is to serve the true interests and aspirations of the majority, For example talk about something as basic as availability and access to so called mainstream media whether print or electronic less than 30% of the population is reached by either newspapers or radio or TV signals from Pockets Hill, the rest must fend for themselves by listening to TV and radio stations in neighbouring countries like South Africa, Botswana, Zambia etc. Talk of defending of national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Where are we getting it all wrong fellow Zimbabweans?
By Gamuchirai Mudimu, Bsc Media and Society Studies, (Level 2 semester2) - MSU
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)