The Political Economy of State television Broadcasting of Critical Development Programmes in Zimbabwe

This book examines the interplay between politics and economic policies, analysing the coverage of Vision 2030‟s Transitional Stabilization Program (TSP) on Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation Television (ZBCTV) News from October 2018 to March 2019. It investigates the dialectical rapport between political power and economic policies. It explores the dynamics between media ownership patterns and the production of media discourses by illuminating how media discourses are tied to political interests and their role in legitimising, replicating and naturalising political dominance. The book explicates the politicisation of economic policies by ruling regimes and unveils how state-controlled media institutions are manipulated to consolidate regime power, smoother opposition and legitimise the ruling party’s ideologies by defining political and economic reality on its own terms, behind the shield of developmental journalism. The study utilised the theory of hegemony in explaining the media’s role in assisting ruling regimes in manufacturing consent thereby uplifting them to the realm of the uncontested. The study is qualitative and utilised online archival collection for data gathering. Data was analysed through critical discourse analysis. The study found out that media ownership has recognisable results on the production of media discourses. It also found out that the formulation of economic policies in Zimbabwe from independence to contemporary times has always been premised on the search and formation of an economic system that would ingrain the ruling party in power and subsequently play as a protagonist in power preservation.