The diasporic community is a socio-political formation, created as a result of either voluntary
or forced migration, whose members regard themselves as of the same ethno-national origin
and who permanently reside as minorities in one or several host countries (Sheffer, 2003: 9).
Zimbabwean communities have experienced displacement as a result of the political
environment before independence and a repeat of the past after independence. Those that
have been displaced and dislocated, maintain a cultural, social and political link with their
communities by creating ideological spaces that give the communities hope of solving the
problems of their land. One activity is the establishment of diasporic media which enable a
dialogical engagement between the people in the diaspora and those at home.
As Roza Tshagarousianou (2002) suggests, such spaces of negotiation and exchange are
increasingly becoming sites where conflicting claims of belonging as well as common
frameworks of identity and solidarity coexist and become articulated. Such an activity
facilitates the creation of what Arjun Appadurai (1993) describes as among other things,
mediascapes (the way that visual imagery impacts the world) and ideascapes (political
messages about ideas).These activities challenge the mediascape and ideascape of the status
quo in order to give the populace a space for ideation. According to Safran (1991: 83-84)they
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homeland should the conditions prove favourable. Meantime they continue maintaining
support for their homeland through among other things, diasporic media activity.
As Soley and Nichols (1987) observe, message restriction generates an environment in which
underground communication strategies are nurtured. A society’s lack of openness is
according to Soley the surest predictor that clandestine media will appear, whether the non-
democratic government is a military junta, communist or capitalist. Alternative publications
according to Atton (2002: 12) deal with the opinions of small minorities, expresses ideas
hostile to widely held beliefs and espouses views or deals with subjects not given regular
coverage by publications generally available at news agents. It can also be argued that these
alternative media can be a response to the disenfranchisement of the powerless by the
powerful sectors of the community, be they the majority or the minority. People respond by
creating their own communicative spaces that free them from ideological domination of one
group of people by another.
The emergence of diasporic media spaces in both Rhodesia and Zimbabwe was a direct
response to a move to create communication and facilitate a dialogical space in a restrictive
information environment that was created by both regimes. This communication is designed
to help its participants to make sense of their situation, and to come up with ways to solve the
challenges imposed by the restrictive environment. As Wachanga (2007) argues, when the
communication environment becomes restrictive, information and message propagating
mechanics are accordingly adjusted with the aim of achieving effective communication. The
response to restrictive communication space helps the community embark on an ideological
war which has a potential to win the hearts and minds of the people more effectively than any
57 3.8. Background of clandestine (diasporic) radio broadcasts in Zimbabwe
Broadcasting from the diaspora is not a new phenomenon in Zimbabwe. As Mosia et al (1994) and Windrich (1981) outline, the disenfranchised black community used to
clandestinely listen toradio stations operated by freedom fighters who politicised the natives
to resist domination by the colonial regime during the war of liberation. These radio stations,
namely The Voice of The Revolution (VOR) and Voice of Zimbabwe (VOZ) gave the natives
an alternative political voice to that of the colonial powers, thereby affording the masses an
opportunity to engage intellectually in the fight against white domination. As a direct
response to media control there is evidence that even as early as the late 1958, blacks in
Rhodesia established diasporic media to produce and share political information they could
not share using state controlled media. These diasporic media institutions were established
by people who are now in government. During their fight for independence they operated
outside the sanctioning government. These media which were domiciled outside the then
Rhodesia formed an integral part of the information warfare arsenal used by Robert Mugabe’s ZANU party and Joshua Nkomo’s ZAPU to win the hearts and the minds of the
people in the war that led to the democratic elections of 1980 which brought Robert Mugabe
to power and a change from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe (see Chapter 5). Information was at the
centre of the fight for majority rule. The liberation fighters depended more on message
propagation to win the war as they had fewer sophisticated weapons than the Smith regime.
They depended on clandestine media to propagate information that countered state propaganda to boost the masses’ support for the war. These media were operating in
restricted environments using poorly resourced facilities, yet they managed to reach the
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After attaining independence, ironically the liberators immediately created the same
restrictive environment they were fighting against. Ian Smith’s laws were not amended, but expressly adopted by Mugabe’s government to suppress dissenting voices. Rønning and
Kupe (2000) express concern about the fact that Zimbabwe’s communicative space has been
severely restricted since the beginning of the political and economic crises in 2000. They
argue that the government of Zimbabwe made efforts to control access to information in
order to control the minds of the electorate and to influence public opinion abroad. They
allude to how the government has maintained a tight control on the airwaves while the print
media sector is largely dominated by ZimPapers a dominant state-controlled entity
comprising at the time of writing between 2010-2013, two national dailies The Herald and
The Chronicle, two national weeklies, The Sunday Mail and The Sunday News and some
provincial newspapers like The Manica Post. The restrictive legal environment has ensured
that no new private media are allowed entry into both sectors, especially after harsh lessons
from the banned Daily News and the short lived private broadcasting experiments with
Munhumutapa African Broadcasting Corporation (MABC), Joy TV and LDM1 (Moyo, D.
2008). After ascending to power and gaining dominance, Mugabe immediately became
unsympathetic to freedom of expression. He became viewed by many media practitioners as a
tyrant who has become insensitive to the voices of the people he is supposed to have
liberated. This has led to the establishment of Zimbabwean media outside the country where Mugabe’s powers are limited. The suppression of oppositional voices in the country has led
to the emergence of media outlets that are unlicensed, and that are critical of Mugabe’s
government (see Moyo, D. 2005). As was indicated in Chapter Two, they provide an
alternative and often critical voice to the Mugabe regime which continues to criminalise
opposing views labelling them as voices of the former colonial master who wants to turn
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For Wasburn (1992), the chief purpose of clandestine radio stations is to oppose a
government, which is portrayed, either explicitly or implicitly, as oppressive, or to alter
radically the status quo using information warfare. This information empowers the voter to
make informed decisions without any coercive force applied to them. As Habermas (2011:
212) puts it, the voter who is provided with a certain degree of knowledge and critical
capacity might take an interested part in public discussions so that he might help discover
what can serve as the standard for the right and just political action in a rational form. The
general knowledge and critical capacity are facilitated by a vibrant media that operate in a
free environment. In the absence of such public spaces on which the population can express
their views without fear people tend to create oppositional media from diasporic
environments where they can freely counter the dominant ideologies that are imposed on the
masses by the status quo.
This serves to confirm that people have a natural desire to be free from any oppressive
mechanisms applied by those in power (see Chapter One) hence their desire to exchange
information that can have an impact on the way their issues are handled by those in power.
With a vibrant communication network, it becomes possible for people to achieve their goals
of influencing governance and participating in political activities without duress. In the
absence of information outlets that empower citizens, people will create alternative public
spheres from diasporic contexts where they can freely articulate their views. The availability
of advanced communication technology makes it possible for people to have an active
60 3.9. The role of the internet and citizen journalism in the democratisation process The implementation of democracy has been problematic in both Rhodesia and Zimbabwe
with the governments maintaining control over the communication space in order to be able
to use it for hegemonic purposes. Having shown how there has always been some form of
resistance to state domination with the help of alternative communication platforms,
Kuhlmann (2010) and Moyo, L (2012) observe that in the internet era, there has been a surge
in the use of electronic communication technologies used by citizens, which have an ability
to create and exchange information, thereby delivering an environment where the
government is put in a position where it is not the sole producer of discourse. Due to lack of
an active participation of independent print media in Zimbabwe during this research, online
publications according to Kuhlmann (2010) serve as a critical source of information. The
emergence of online digital technologies is enabling them to expand such communication
activities on a global scale thereby enabling individuals in diasporic environments to sustain
intercontinental networks. The aggregate impact of cross-border contact among individuals
using means such as email, telegraph, telephone, facsimile, and digital technologies, has been
substantial among members of diasporic communities spread over several continents
(Karim,1998). On-line media allow easier access and are non-linear, largely non-hierarchical,
and relatively cheap (Karim, Smeltzer & Loucheur, 1998).
Talking about digital online media technologies that have given power to citizens to share
information, Chester (2007) sees the world as being on the eve of the emergence of the most
powerful media and communication system ever developed. He sees a flood of compelling
video images propelled by the interactivity of the internet as being developed through digital
TVs, PCs, cell phones, digital video recorders, iPods, and countless mobile devices. These
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it at home, work or play. We will have access, if we can afford it, to an ever expanding array
of news, entertainment and communication from around the world.
Without the internet and mobile phone technologies the citizens would not have been able to
effectively engage in media activities to counter state hegemony through diasporic media.
Such media are according to Atton (2004: 26) radical in the sense that they are opposed to
hierarchical, elite centred notions of journalism. He sees online journalism projects as an
attempt to place the power into the hands of those who are more intimately involved in those
stories. As Blaug & Schwarzmantel (2000) observe, users of the internet technology
communicate on a many –to –many reciprocal basis. Their communication transcends nation-
state boundaries. People enjoy free speech in an environment where they can express their
opinion with limited state censorship. They may join virtual communities of common
interests. They may produce and share information which is not subject to official review or
sanction. They are able to use the internet to challenge official and professional perspectives.
The emancipatory potential of the internet helps users to adopt both local and global identities
with a chance for an equal engagement in domestic and world affairs using online
communication.
According to Karim et al, (1998) diasporic groups are making extensive use of on-line services. These world-wide networks are allowing for relatively easy connections for
members of communities residing in various continents. As opposed to the broadcast model
of communication which, apart from offering little access to minority groups, is linear,
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easier access and are non-linear, largely non-hierarchical, and relatively cheap. They enable
the activities of alternative media projects which are a resistance to the hierarchical structures
of mainstream news organisations. Hamilton (2000) considers these to be non-professional,
non-profit making and non-institutionalized, something which make it possible for citizens to
use online services to contribute to content that matters to them instead of relying on
professional journalists who report to the editors who are themselves accountable to their media corporations’ editorial policies. News according to Chalaby (2000: 34) in Atton
(2004: 26 is no longer the preserve of journalistic organisations arguing that internet
technology allows news sources to communicate directly with the audiences. Technology has
become an enabler for innovative human processes which are consciously created to facilitate
an exchange of ideas among citizens.
According to Harcup (2003: 236) the non-professional nature of alternative media is its
defining principle and should be regarded as a strength rather than a weakness. He argues
idealistically, perhaps that collectively, people who may be both consumers and producers of
news can subvert dominant discourses in the mainstream media. Whilst this view may be
somewhat optimistic, according to Lievrouw (2011), there is merit in his claim that the real
value of alternative journalism is in its ability to contest ideological spaces in the media
where ideas circulate and opinions are formed. This can be viewed as another strategy for
challenging the hegemony by demonstrating that there are alternative ways of seeing the
world and other stories to be told, (p372).
Enzensberger (1976) believes in a politically emancipatory use of media characterised by
interactivity between audiences and creators, collective production and a connection with
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the use of what Hamilton (2000) refers to as technologies of freedom. Most of these
technologies are internet based and widely available in the communities.
Digital technologies increasingly link producers and audiences across national boundaries,
and as these audiences start new conversations between those who move and those who stay,
we find a growing number of diasporic public spheres (Appadurai, 1996: 22). As some
Zimbabweans got displaced and others remained, there has been a range of media activity
which facilitates the instantaneous exchange of messages between Zimbabweans around the
globe. This has created new publishing spaces that potentially allow anyone to become a
producer of news that gives them power to represent themselves in a way that offers
challenges to the Zimbabwean government.
Chester (2007) predicted that when the internet facilitated communication technologies
became fully operational much media programming will be personalised, selected by us with
the help of increasingly sophisticated, but largely invisible, technologies that will sense or
know our interests, dislikes and habits. Evidence shows that information about our travel in
cyberspace and real space is being collected and stored, most often without our awareness,
(see www.bannersbroker.com). Such data are the basis of computerised profiles that generate
using Flash, commercial pitches honed to precisely fit our psychology and behaviour. Whilst
this could be considered as overstated, it is interesting to note that during this research geo
targeting and contextual targeting in information dissemination is being facilitated by the
profiling that takes place whenever one is logged on cyberspace technology source (see
bannersbroker.com). Two people in a room can log on the same site on their laptops at the
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therefore targeted by different advertisers. This ensures that information goes to the right
recipient who will most likely find it useful to them.
Digital democracy in theory can give power to the people by arming them with liberating ICT
technology. In this highly idealised view, the internet becomes an electronic forum
comprising a vast network of liberated and equal citizens of the world capable of debating all
facets of their existence without fear of control from the national sovereign authorities
(Barlow, 1996 quoted in Blaug and Schwarzmantel (2000: 554). According to Downing in
Atton (2004: 27) the deployment of new communication technologies offers new social
movements pre-figurative methods of organising in particular through radicalisation of
production to a degree not seen in previous manifestations of social movement ideas. These
are the media which are described by Atton (2004: 28) as ‘the voice of the voiceless’.
Digital technology is a facilitator of democracy which can only thrive if information is made
available to citizens (Chari, 2009). As noted by Belsey & Chadwick (1992: 3) the
dissemination of information requires the media to act as a catalyst for social action. The sort
of alternative democratic participation and involvement that is required in social action is
impossible without information and access to information is limited without innovative media
technology. The internet has fundamentally transformed the practice of journalism in Africa
including restrictive countries like Zimbabwe, thereby bringing enormous opportunities for
the media practitioners (Chari, (2009). The internet technology has facilitated the creation of
diasporic websites which have the ability to establish an interactive environment between the
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interact with and respond to mainstream media by creating a dialogical environment in which
a more dynamic and participatory approach to information gathering and dissemination is
made possible. This diasporic media activity acts in a way that shapes the coverage of issues
the political environment in Zimbabwe does not allow media to address from inside the
country. Operating off shore using the internet enabled technologies is offering a viable
alternative that facilitates the just in time (JIT) engagement with the populace who are
enabled to deliberate instantaneously on issues that affect them. These alternative media
employ methods of production and distribution, allied to an activist philosophy of creating
information for action, timeously and rapidly. As such, they can deal with social issues as
they emerge (Atton, 2002: 12). They are able to publish stories before the authorities muzzle
them or manipulate them to achieve their political ambitions. The use of this technology
seems to be empowering the citizens and deepening the democratic culture of a nation by
making information dissemination not the sole preserve of the status quo.
Mano & Willems (2008) add that apartfrom the role of the internet in linking up members of
diasporic communities, it should also be considered as a space in which different diasporic