Practicing Journalism pedagogy as if media mattered. A study of the gaps between the media the
state, industry envision, and the media the colleges train for.
Zvenyika Eckson Mugari, Midlands State University, Zimbabwe
zmugari@yahoo.co.uk
Introduction
Zimbabwe has four state universities offering degree level journalism training which among
them enroll an average of 100+ journalism students each year. Three of these universities even
offer post-graduate diploma and Masters in media and journalism courses. This figure adds onto
an equal number if not more students undertaking diploma and certificate level journalism
courses at other colleges in the country. The workplaces (newsrooms) on the other hand have not
been expanding, in fact if anything they have experienced a serious decline over the past five
years. At least seven media houses were shut down since 2000, (Capital Radio; Joy TV,
Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe’s two newspaper titles: The Daily News and The Daily
News on Sunday; Africa Media Group’s The Tribune; Southern African Printing and Publishing
House’ The Mirror and a Bulawayo based newspaper The Weekly). This left the government
with a virtual monopoly stranglehold in the media sector through state controlled Zimpapers
daily and weekly newspapers, Community Newspapers Group producing provincial newspapers
countrywide. The market-share of the privately owned newspapers has remained largely
insignificant over the period under review. The government also controls the country’s only state
broadcaster. It must also be pointed out that even these remaining news production entities have
greatly reduced their print-runs in response to negative economic imperatives affecting the
country in the post 2000 period. Their reach in terms of coverage and distribution has become
even more urban and elitist in focus. This is in spite of the fact that according to the 2002
national census estimates the bulk of the population 65% live in rural areas. This gives a bird’s
over-view of the demand and the supply side of Zimbabwe’s media industry.
What is happening in media and journalism training may be likened to the case of training
someone to drive by way of making them master the rules of the highway code and then going
on to issue them with a driving license without them ever having seen the inside of a car where
there are no cars nor no highways in an essentially pedestrian society. Questions are bound to be
raised about the appropriateness of the training. The content of our journalism curriculum is full
of ideas that are a negation and denial of the meaning and purpose of a rural existence in a
continent that is typically rural. The task of all education, Schumacher contends, ‘is to
understand the present world, the world in which we live and make our choices’. Our Journalism
education results in the social estrangement of those who receive it as they become square pegs
in round holes of their society.
The ease with which the practicing journalists in the country often switch from one media house
to another, whose ideological and political commitments may be different and sometimes even
adversarial to each other is astonishing. There are many examples to this Bornwell Chakaodza
starts of as director in the Ministry of Information, moves over to head the government
controlled Zimpapers as Chief Editor of the group. At that time he is a fervent supporter of
government control and regulation of the media. When he leaves and joins the Standard as its
Editor his views swing to the other side and he declares himself a champion of self regulation
and media freedom to the extent of crusading for the establishment of an independent media
regulatory board (to rival the government media regulator) the Voluntary Media Council of
Zimbabwe and becoming one of its founding board members. William Saidi is yet another
example, he works for Zimpapers from early years of Zimbabwe’s independence, moves to join
the Associated Newspapers Group, Daily News as one of its Editors, when that paper is forcibly
closed down by government he joins The Standard and eventually rejoins Zimpapers’ Herald
newspaper. How they manage to make peace with their own consciences is difficult to account
for. Mano W (2005). puts a finger at some of the problems and challenges that militate against
the practice of professional journalism among Zimbabwe’s scribes with the result that Zimbabwe
ends up with the media nobody wants. “ No one [including the Zimbabwean government] was
happy about the general situation and performance of the media in Zimbabwe in 2001” and the
situation has even worsened presently. At least that has been the conclusion arrived at by a
number of reports and researches conducted on the media since 2000, (Media Ethics Committee
2002, Mano 2005,)
‘
In the prevailing political and economic environment Journalists lose any sense of the higher
ethical standards of their calling at the crucible of their own set of values with those of their
employers cognizant of the fact that at the end of day they need to earn a living. It is against this
background that questions have to be asked about the adequacy or lack thereof of the model of
journalism education in the country. Is it right for Journalism Educators in our universities to
continue with the business as usual approach and let the media evolve how best they will? What
contribution can media educators make over and above transmiting to their charges the requisite
attitudes and skills in news story-craft? Could it be the case that our Journalism Schools are
adept at turning out journalists who probably know enough to write a story well but probably too
little to know why and what to write? Given Zimbabwe’s media situation could there be a basis
on which a case can be forcefully advanced for a more socially engaged Media Educator. This is
by the way not to presume that there will be consensus on the ideal form of the media for a
democratizing Zimbabwe. Does being actively engaged with issues that affect one’s immediate
society have a place in academic work and where does one draw the line? These are pertinent
questions which media scholars in Zimbabwe are beginning to ask themselves.
A Socially Engaged Educator
It would appear from the facts and statistics of who is reached and who are excluded by the
media in Zimbabwe that the university journalism departments are training for a media industry
that either does not exist or is way on its way out of existence. How can the media as presently
configured in our countries make the claim that they have a democratizing role when they have
never learned to speak the languages of more than half of the national population? How can our
media claim that they have a civic role when about 2/3 of the population have ceased to have
anything to do with the media as a source of information, entertainment and education? As part
of the developing world we have long been disabused of the modernization lie about the prospect
of ever catching up and practical wisdom advises less optimism in the dream to make poverty
history. The structural dichotomies between rich and poor, urban and rural which late
colonialism bequeathed to us as a legacy cannot be quickly wished away and the upshot of all
this is that our societies and economies are not going to be soon transformed from largely rural
and subsistent economies into urbanized, industrialized and middle income societies. Instead of
waiting for the slow trickle down of development to transform the countryside into a booming
industrial hub populated with citizens with the wherewithal to buy both the newspapers and the
wares advertised therein is it not more practical to attune our media to the socio-political
exigencies of our time? The media as presently configured in Zimbabwe does not really matter at
least to the majority indigenous population rural based and mired in poverty and by extension the
media pedagogy that serves such a media.
Searching for New Research Directions
For largely the same reason that our commercial media does not take an interest in rural poor
both as subjects and objects of their news coverage, research funders have also found
communication realities of indigenous communities uninspiring not worthy of their research
attention and financing. A quick perusal through undergraduate dissertation topics at the
Midlands State University will show that studies on different aspects of the same flawed media
entities and their productions form the bulk of what is being researched on and rarely do you
come across a study that focuses on indigenous forms of communication on which the rural
population thrives. A search in research journals for published scholarly work on media in
Zimbabwe and Africa would probably produce much similar patterns. This apathetic attitude to
researching African communication realities has remained unchanging sixteen years after a call
for a new research agenda for Journalism Schools in the country made by the then Minister of
Information Chimutengwende C (1993) in an address to the Media and Communication
Symposium at the University of Zimbabwe:
The communication environment at grassroots level remains largely
unresearched, yet understanding this environment would contribute to the ongoing
discussions on grassroots forms of communication and thus enrich existing
theories. Such an approach would enhance the possibilities of mainstream media
playing its intended role in the development (and democratization) process. …
Scholarship of a dedicated is called for in order to conduct research and provide
the communication of Africa. The map can only be complete only if the
relationship between the age-old ways of communicating in Africa and those of
the modern technological world is spelt out at length and in depth.
Much of the current research trained on media content and production processes as well as the
impact on mainstream media of the current repressive regime of media regulatory laws is
relevant and has its own value and place, but a complete neglect of the communication realities
of the ordinary poor is difficult to justify but this seems to be sadly the case and that may well be
at the heart of the current crisis of legitimacy of the media in Zimbabwe and media education..
Conclusion
This paper was meant not to provide answers but to raise questions and provoke us to start
thinking seriously about the relevance of what we teach in Universities to the communities with
whom we share a common destiny.
References
Mano W. 2005 Press Freedom, Professionalism and Proprietorship: Behind the
Zimbabwean Media Divide University of Westminster, London
Schumacher E.F 1973 Small is Beautifull. A Study of Economics as if People Mattered. Blond
and Briggs Ltd London
Timba J. (May 4, 2009)'The right to speak and be spoken to'
http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=4547
Zhuwarara R. et-al (eds) 1993 Media Democratisation and Identity.Depatment of English,
University of Zimbabwe, Harare.