The CNN defect

Abstract

Zimbabwe has been in a political and economic crisis for nearly a decade. Although the causes of the crisis are complex and multifaceted, the global media have tended to foreground human rights and good governance issues at the expense of other possible news frames. This article focuses on CNN's representations of the crisis within the context of an election. It argues that while CNN played an important role in human rights within that context, the appropriation of this discourse was largely selective and race and class were very influential in its news narratives. Apart from this, the article also observes that CNN's news frames on the election were episodic, simplistic and lacked contextual grounding. The network's sensationalistic reporting and its selective application of human rights are seen as largely caused by certain ideological and economic imperatives that continue to affect Western journalism's reportage of Africa even in the global age. While CNN's logistical problems of its ban in Zimbabwe are acknowledged, they are not seen as hugely influential in the organisation's news reports. The article concludes that in the global age, global news media such as CNN need a paradigm shift from Eurocentricism to polycentricism where their news must embody and articulate the multiple narratives and worldviews that reflect the hybridity of Africa's post colonies. The subtle demonization of the decolonisation agenda in CNN's news and its isolation from the democratisation project is seen as inimical to the creation of a post-colonial Zimbabwe that can transcend the greater questions of historical justice and economic democracy.