Nationalism and State-Run Media in Zimbabwe

State media plays an incredibly important role in Zimbabwean current political climate, as President Mugabe’s controversial election in 2013 has lead to a dire need to feign a sense of nationalism (BBC). Zimbabwe’s current politics rest heavily on national pride and unity as quite a few governments across the globe shun its practices in a push towards democracy (BBC). This notion that Zimbabwe should be more democratic is a direct result of globalization, and its resistance to these sentiments have had incredibly salient effects on state-media, and in turn, the nation’s cultural climate (CFR). Growing movements against Mugabe and the potential for change upon his death (Mugabe is ninety-one years old), have forced the current government to think a great deal about how to instill a strong national identity in a nation so fraught with economic strife and social inequalities (BBC).

As a result of this need for an intense sense of nationalism, the prevalence of corruptive state-media is on the rise in Zimbabwe. Regardless of imposed censorship, news media in Zimbabwe has a great deal of self-censorship to reflect the wishes and intended sentiments of the government. Although private forms of press still exist, many were shut down by the government in the early 2000’s. Due to the increasing strictness regarding outside news sources, many non-state press organizations have been forced to operate outside of the country. Though many efforts were made to “democratize” state-media, many of the potential reforms were never implemented after Mugabe was reelected. This intensity towards a very unilateral portrayal of Zimbabwe through the media has directly influenced Zimbabwean culture, as many citizens have turned exclusively to the Internet to access information from outside the bubble of state-media.

This shift towards using the Internet as a primary source for news has brought forth even more of an outcry against Mugabe and state-run media, as many Zimbabweans have begun to question the role they are playing in perpetuating this corrupt media and the implications of such a misrepresentation of their country on a global scale. All of these issues are directly linked to globalization, as President Mugabe’s intense push for nationalism and state-media are greatly due to outside pressures to become more democratic, something that is a particular point of contention in a nation whose history deals so closely with indigenization and decolonization.

Zimbabwe does not make many headlines in the United States (except when it’s about Cecil the Lion), however, in the few American interpretations of Zimbabwean media available, only state-media is examined, and an incorrect image of corruption and political incompetence within ‘African media’ as a whole is generated and spread. This distinctly negative effect of globalization is one that operates at a disadvantage to Zimbabwe’s culture, as the efforts to counteract state-run media and deliver truthful news through grassroots organizations that have become so important to Zimbabwean culture are completely lost in the global perception of the nation’s news.