Robert Mugabe’s 1980 candidature as depicted in the (South African) Sunday Times
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
- Articles
- Submited: October 16, 2022
-
Published: October 17, 2022
Abstract
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has now been in power for three decades. He has acquired
an almost universal image of being a dictator who has steadily governed the country to ruin.
This article investigates the depiction of Robert Mugabe’s candidature in the 1980 Zimbabwean
(common roll) independence election campaign in the Sunday Times, then by far the largest
South African newspaper. A content analysis of the coverage is followed by argumentation that
brings the content of the coverage in line with the general culture of the newspaper. The Sunday
Times employed mainly stereotypical images of Mugabe. For it, the Zimbabwean independence
election campaign revolved respectively around a choice for Southern Africa between capitalism
and Marxism and between the future of white and black power. Mugabe was depicted as an
enemy both of capitalism and of continued white interests
Article Metrics Graph
References
- Adam, H. & Giliomee, H. (1979). The rise and crisis of Afrikaner power. Cape Town: David Philip.
- Anon. (1979, 2 September). 3 152 999 other people are reading the Sunday Times today. Sunday Times, p. 1.
- Boynton, J. (1980). Southern Rhodesia independence elections 1980. Report of the Election Commissioner. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
- Chimutengwende, C.C. (1978). South Africa: The press and the politics of liberation. London: Barbican Books.
- Cleary, S. (1980). Zimbabwe is born. Johannesburg: South African Institute of Race Relations.
- Davidson, B. (1978). Let freedom come. Africa in modern history. Boston: Little, Brown & Company.
- De Wet, J.C. (2007). On democracy and communication: the dilemma of freedom and the challenge of equality, in Communitas, Vol.12.
- Frederikse, J. (1982). None but ourselves. Masses vs. media in the making of Zimbabwe.Johannesburg: Ravan Press.
- Gans, H.J. (1980). Deciding what's news. New York: Vintage Books.
- Graber, D.A. (1980). Mass media and American politics. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press.
- Iser, W. (1974). The implied reader. Patterns of communication in prose fiction from Bunyan to Beckett. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Martin, D. & Johnson, P. (1981). The struggle for Zimbabwe. Johannesburg: Ravan Press.
- McClurg, J. (1982). The one-eyed watchdog. Issue, Spring Issue: 28-29.
- Metykova, M. (2009). A key relation: journalists and their publics, in P. Preston. Making the news. London: Routledge.
- Nolutshungu, S.M. (1982). Changing South Africa. Political considerations. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
- Pollak, R. (1981). Up against apartheid. The role and the plight of the press in South Africa.
- Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
- Preston, P. (2009). Making the news. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203888599
- Roelofse, J.J. (1983). Towards rational discourse. Pretoria: Van Schaik.
- Scruton, R. (1982). A dictionary of political thought. London: MacMillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-06413-7
- Smith, D. Simpson, G. & Davis, I. (1981). Mugabe. London: Sphere Books.
- Southern Rhodesia elections 1980. The report of the Commonwealth Observer Group of elections to independent Zimbabwe. London: Commonwealth Secretariat.
- Steyn Commission. (1981). Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the mass media, Volumes 1-3.
- Tuchman, G. (1978). Making news. A study in the construction of reality. New York: Free Press.
- Willnat, L. & Weaver, D. (2003). Through their eyes: the work of foreign correspondents in the United States. Journalism: Theory, Practice, and Criticism, 4, (4), 403-422. https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849030044001
- Zelizer, B. (2004). Taking journalism seriously. London: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452204499
