Media polarity and implications on diplomatic profiling of Zimbabwe: cases of the Sunday Mail, the Herald, the Daily News and the Standard newspapers.

Abstract

The research sought to investigate why there is media polarity in Zimbabwe and its implications on the diplomatic profiling. The theoretical framework involved the Agenda Setting theory, the and the Neo-liberalism theory. Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies involving the pragmatism philosophy and mixed methods research approach were used. From populations of 50 media players and 40 diplomats, the researcher selected samples of 44 and 36, respectively using stratified sampling technique. Critical Discourse Analysis was used in analysing the media content. It emerged from the study that the key reasons for media polarity in Zimbabwe are alignment of news outlets with political parties or ideologies, differing beliefs and values and differences in technological advancements. It was also concluded that Media polarity has adverse implications on diplomatic profiling of Zimbabwe. Political factors play a central role in fuelling media polarity as the issue of political figures influencing media narratives is related to economic, social and technological factors. Technological factors also play a central role in media polarity during this digital age as it is difficult to separate between true and false information due to the Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). Government was recommended to diversify sources and perspectives in the media industry which promotes media pluralism, through relaxation of media rules and laws. The media players, both state owned and private, were recommended to constantly engage in dialogue with different media stakeholders.