New media as monitors of democracy

Abstract

While Zimbabwe’s first two post-independence elections in 1980 and 1985 were generallyconsidered to be a credible expression of the will of the people, subsequent elections in thatcountry were largely contested, with allegations of rigging, gerrymandering, vote-buying andcoercion, among several other irregularities. With a media landscape that is largely dominatedby state ownership and control, the total reporting on elections in Zimbabwe has always beenopenly biased in favour of President Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF party, resulting in a hugeloss of credibility for both the electoral system and the state-owned media themselves. However,the advent of new communications technologies, such as the Internet and mobile phones, hasushered in a new era of political communication where citizens actively participate both in theelection campaign and the monitoring processes. This paper looks at the contribution of theinnovations in political communication that have come with these new media, focusing particularlyon the uses of mobile phones (in particular the SMS or short message service) during Zimbabwe’scontested 2008 election. More specifically, it explores the ways in which ordinary Zimbabweansappropriated the SMS as a tool for monitoring that election. Further, it discusses the implicationsof these new technologies for the conduct of elections in Zimbabwe and elsewhere on the Africancontinent, and for democracy in general. What is clear is that these new forms of communicationare fast eroding the monopoly of incumbent politicians over the communications landscape,undercutting the liberation discourse that has had a stranglehold on election processes, andsignalling the possibility of more open political spaces where divergent views can coexist.