NEWSMAKING PRACTICES AND PROFESSIONALISM IN THE ZIMBABWEAN PRESS

Abstract

This article examines newsmaking practices and professional cultures in the Zimbabwean press. It explores the extent to which journalists make independent professional choices in the context of organisational, occupational, and wider contextual demands that shape and promote specific newsmaking cultures. The paper argues that the country's polarised political terrain and journalists' struggles for economic survival in the context of a severe economic crisis have spawned practices that provide context for (re)examining the relevance of the predominant Anglo-American epistemological imperatives of journalism in Africa. Thus, while on the surface daily journalistic practices in the Zimbabwean press typify the prevalent and somewhat universal professional normative ideals such as balance, impartiality and fairness, a deeper analysis reveals discrepancies that counter these established ideals. To this end, the claim that professional journalists subscribe to the generic normative ideals of objectivity and associated journalistic notions perhaps generalises what in fact are differentiated newsmaking cultures.