{"title":"Mediated Contestations About the Political Agency of Youth in Zimbabwe","authors":"Khulekani Ndlovu","doi":"10.1080/23743670.2020.1861473","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The political agency of youth has been the subject of much theoretical debate within the domains of political science, youth studies, conflict studies and development studies. This paper adopts a media studies perspective to contestations about the political agency of Zimbabwean youth. Motivation for doing so derives from the recognition that modern politics is predominantly a mass-mediated politics. Relatedly, the subject of youth and politics has received extensive media coverage in Zimbabwean media. Using the critical political economy approach and qualitative frame analysis, the paper explores two purposively sampled case studies that illustrate the contestations about the political agency of Zimbabwean youth. Findings reveal that media framings of youth agency sidestep the substantive policy and public interest issues that animate and motivate young politicians. Such normatively deficient framing is attributable to the political parallelism and media polarisation that characterises Zimbabwean political discourse.","PeriodicalId":54049,"journal":{"name":"African Journalism Studies","volume":"42 1","pages":"1 - 16"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1000,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/23743670.2020.1861473","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"African Journalism Studies","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23743670.2020.1861473","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
ABSTRACT The political agency of youth has been the subject of much theoretical debate within the domains of political science, youth studies, conflict studies and development studies. This paper adopts a media studies perspective to contestations about the political agency of Zimbabwean youth. Motivation for doing so derives from the recognition that modern politics is predominantly a mass-mediated politics. Relatedly, the subject of youth and politics has received extensive media coverage in Zimbabwean media. Using the critical political economy approach and qualitative frame analysis, the paper explores two purposively sampled case studies that illustrate the contestations about the political agency of Zimbabwean youth. Findings reveal that media framings of youth agency sidestep the substantive policy and public interest issues that animate and motivate young politicians. Such normatively deficient framing is attributable to the political parallelism and media polarisation that characterises Zimbabwean political discourse.
期刊介绍:
Accredited by the South African Department of Higher Education and Training for university research purposes African Journalism Studies subscribes to the Code of Best Practice for Peer Reviewed Scholarly Journals of the Academy of Science of South Africa. African Journalism Studies ( AJS) aims to contribute to the ongoing extension of the theories, methodologies and empirical data to under-researched areas of knowledge production, through its emphasis on African journalism studies within a broader, comparative perspective of the Global South. AJS strives for theoretical diversity and methodological inclusivity, by developing theoretical approaches and making critical interventions in global scholarly debates. The journal''s comparative and interdisciplinary approach is informed by the related fields of cultural and media studies, communication studies, African studies, politics, and sociology. The field of journalism studies is understood broadly, as including the practices, norms, value systems, frameworks of representation, audiences, platforms, industries, theories and power relations that relate to the production, consumption and study of journalism. A wide definition of journalism is used, which extends beyond news and current affairs to include digital and social media, documentary film and narrative non-fiction.