Abstract
Utilising a media-centric critical discourse analysis, this chapter makes two arguments. Firstly, it argues that the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation television station (ZBC TV) extensively parroted the ruling party Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front’s [ZANU PF] hate discourses that were fashioned against the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Secondly, it argues that ZBC online hate discourses were a catalyst that poisoned and, simultaneously, legitimised the ruling party’s anti-opposition narratives, based on ideological and racial differences. This was a form of ‘weaponisation’ of hate speech for political dominance. Consequently, our overall conclusion is that the television station abrogated its responsibility of serving the public interest by not meeting their communication needs. The station’s online news failed to contribute to society because it did not engender ethos of democratic governance, culture and production of valuable information and knowledge, cohesion and integration, which are key expectations of a public broadcaster. Rather, it engendered binary discourses of pro-ruling party and pro-opposition that further fuelled an already polarised political environment.
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Notes
- 1.
The song originates in the struggle against apartheid when it was first sung to protest the Afrikaans dominated apartheid government of South Africa.
- 2.
In 2011, the South Gauteng High Court ruled that the song was discriminatory, harmful, undermined the dignity of Afrikaners and thereby constituted hate speech.
- 3.
See South Africa Human Rights Commission versus journalist Jon Qwalane heard in 2019, at: https://www.google.com/city-press.news24.com/it-must-incite-violence-sca-rules-hate-speech-definition-unconstitutional.
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Munoriyarwa, A., Karombo, S. (2021). “Strike Fear in the Heart of the White Men”: Hate Language on Digital Television—The Case of ZBC Television Online News. In: Motsaathebe, G., Chiumbu, S.H. (eds) Television in Africa in the Digital Age. Gender and Cultural Studies in Africa and the Diaspora. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68854-7_6
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