|
Back to Index
Economic
Issues
Media
Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2005-2
Monday January 10th – Sunday January 16th
2005
THE official
media’s reluctance to inform their audiences about the deteriorating
economic situation was evident in the way they underplayed the spate
of price increases on various commodities and services that rocked
the New Year by drowning them in positive stories about the perceived
revival of the economy.
For instance,
although the government media highlighted some of the symptoms of
the country’s economic ills in eight (36%) stories out of the 22
reports they carried on the matter, they covered them in isolation
and failed to view them as a reflection of an ailing economy, Fig
3.
Fig. 3 Media
coverage of Zimbabwe’s Economic performance.
Description
|
Government
media
|
Private
media
|
|
Positive
economic developments
|
14 (64%)
|
-
|
|
Negative
economic developments
|
8 (36%)
|
17 (100%)
|
Total
|
22
|
17
|
Rather, these
media, as epitomized by ZBH simply hailed the reported drop in inflation
to 137.7 % in December without explaining its relevance to the galloping
cost of living in the country.
Although the
private media did not share the official media’s optimism and instead
focused solely on the problems dogging the economy, they also did
not explain to their audiences how yet another drop in inflation
related to the plunging living standards of Zimbabweans.
Visit the MMPZ
fact sheet
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
