Abstract
Ph.D. (Communication Studies)
Emerging from strong capitalist base, the Zimbabwean economy from 1980 adopted a dual model characterised by a co-existence of capitalism and socialism. An economic identity crisis ensued with socialism largely in rhetoric and capitalism remaining the main economic system. Socialism was conveniently applied where the government stood to benefit, for example keeping already existing state owned enterprises while nationalising those deemed strategic. An economic crisis that was already evident in 1980 intensified in the following decades and still persists. The crisis has only taken different shapes and intensity over the years. The press being an indispensable part of the capitalist system has been there to interpret the economic identity crisis and the economic crises. Surprisingly there is a dearth of studies interrogating how the Zimbabwean financial press has interpreted Zimbabwe’s economic identity crisis and the various economic crises the country has gone through. This study analyses how two financial newspapers, state controlled the Business Herald and privately owned the Financial Gazette, represented the economy from 1980 to 2018. It interrogates how the dual nature of the economy, capitalist and socialist at the same time, has influenced how journalists report the economy. It further interrogates how the wider contextual realities precipitated by the economic schizophrenia influenced news production practices at the two newspapers...