Propaganda Control and Zimbabwe Private Mass Media

Propaganda  Control and Zimbabwe Private Mass Media 

Mass media is generally a system of communicating messages and symbols to the general populace. The overall function of Zimbabwe mass media like any other media is to entertain ,amuse, inform and entrench within the audience beliefs, values and codes of behaviour that will integrate them into the institutional structures of the larger society. Ability and determination to control the cognitive map and the pursuit of mass thought  control has dominated both the business sector and the political sphere. The strategy to attain this control has been based on the dexterity to narrowly and rigidly control the means of information by  making fabrications ,oversimplifications ,diversions and filtrations to influence public opinion.The objective is to control what the public think, hear ,read ,sing, watch and even dream.

Genesis of Morden Propaganda

Morden propaganda is actually a by  product of World War 1 created mainly by the British to lure USA into WW1. Gregory (1971) argues that after a series of  Wilson neutrality stance at the onset of WW1 declaring   “we are in no peril of being drawn into a European quarrel we will remain neutral in thought as well as in action” and even after the sinking of the Lusitania on 7 May 1915 urging patience by stating  “there is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight. There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right.” Furthermore 2 years into the war in 1916 Election  Keegan (1998) points out  that Wilson main campaign slogan and rallying cry was “He kept us out of war.” Under this consistent declaration of neutrality the USA was an ally to be won by warring alliances. USA  was a  potential strategic ally with a Caesarean principle capacity  to determine a victor therefore both the Allied and the Central had to lure this critical state on its side.In order to achieve this Britain  invented the propaganda system which entailed a great deal of circulation of fabricated stories about the atrocities of the Germans, the Huns. The circulation of fabricated stories and outright lies by Britain was escalated  when the Allied powers suffered a humiliating  battle defeat at the battle of Somme on 1 July 1916 where Coffmans (1968) mentions that 20 000 British Soldiers were killed and 40 000 others wounded in less than 24 hours. Britain became desperate to lure USA ,under these circumstances Chomsky (1997} states that Britain invented a “Propaganda Ministry” with the objective to “control the thought of the most intelligent members of the USA” who would “disseminate the propaganda they were concocting and convert Wilson neutrality and the general pacifistic USA population to a war time hysteria.”

The British propaganda experiment worked beautifully ,Wilson broke his 1916 campaign promise ,USA entered the War, Bryan the Secretary of State resigned in protest and the USA officially entered the war on 6 April 1917 after a 2 year massive bombardment of British propaganda. The USA political elite had been converted what was now left was to convert the nation from a pacifist to a war mongering mob.To convert the masses the USA copied pasted and enhanced the British propaganda tactic. Knock (1992)states that on 14 April 1917 ,8 days after the declaration of war Wilson established the Committee on Public information popularly known as the Creel Commission. The commission compromised of newsman ,photographers, journalists, artist and entertainers. It even created the famous movie “The Beast of Berlin” which gave its audience a fabricated  ,manipulated inaccurate propagandistic view  of WW1 depicting Berlin as the axis of evil. The purpose of the commission was explicit ,to “convert the population ,to influence public opinion ,to spread German hatred, to convey Allied War aims and above all weaken the morale of the enemy.” Like the British propaganda the Creel commission propaganda worked satisfactorily as men voluntarily  conscripted and even the  war conservation campaign of “meatless Tuesdays, wheatless Wednesday and porkless Saturdays” was widely accepted and everything that was German was equated with disloyalty. The USA congress was not left out of the hysteria of its own propaganda  as it passed the Espionage Act of 1917 that imposed 20 year imprisonment for anyone  “who tried to incite insubordination ,disloyalty or refusal of duty in the armed services” .The Sedition Act  was also enacted and it imposed punishment for “saying ,writing or printing anything disloyal, profane ,scurrilous or abusive about American form of government ,constitution, army or navy.” Under these two drastic acts which were an explicit violation of freedom of speech Tindall (2012) mentions Victor Berger a socialist congressman received a 20 year jail sentence for calling the War a capitalist conspiracy and Eugene Debs a 1916 Presidential Candidate was granted a 10 year jail sentence for encouraging draft resistance with Justice O.W.Holmes in his ruling stating  “Free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic.” 

The war propaganda achieved all its intended objectives and established a lesson that State propaganda when supported by intelligentsia and the business class without any deviation will yield intended results. The lesson were also implemented during the WW2 as  Michael (1994) also point that propaganda was also central in the revolution of army recruitment as women were encouraged to join the armed forces for the first time in history. In order increase women recruitment the USA government went on the propaganda recruiting campaign with the famous image of “Rosie the Riveter” which depicted a beautiful woman dressed in army uniform written beneath it “Do your part free a man for service.” Hartman (1982) mentions that “Rosie the Riveter” was central in motivation and  recruitment of  200 000 women during WW2.The same trick  of marketing a beautiful woman doing traditionally male activities was also used  by the tobacco industry to promote women smocking a decade later.

The successful experiment  of propaganda  in changing public attitudes and behaviour led to the birth of the  Public Relations Industry as influencing public opinion ceased to be a monopoly of the state. Private entities hooked the idea not only to increase market share or profits but also in dealing with   strikes and controversies. For instance in Gregory (1989) mentions that 1937 during the Steel Strike in western Pennsylvania the company tried a new propaganda way to deal with the strikers.The objective was to thwart the strike by  turning  the public against the strikers , presenting strikers as disruptive and harmful to both the public and the common interest. The common interest presented were the false harmonisation and relation between the “rich businessman and the housewife”. Creating an “us” and “them” mentality. The strategy worked perfectly to break the strike. It was later on called the “mohawk valley formula” as a scientific method of strike breaking repeated not only by companies but by states all over the globe.

Propaganda in Zimbabwe Private Mass Media 

Private media in Zimbabwe  is controlled by virtually one entity AMH making its owner Trevor Ncube the most successful  businessman in  private mass media through his company which controls almost all “non Herald” papers. However  like the ZimPapers AMH is  never independent nor “telling it like it is “ nor stating anything  “without fear or favour”, AMH prior 2018 was just the Herald of MDC. It was naturally so not only because it provided alternative propaganda but also because its main audience or customers are mainly middle class urban dwellers who are politically oppositional. The customers were just opposition supporters. However like any businessman Trevor Ncube and AMH main objective is   maximizing profits and market share, due to the economic situation this objective has proven to be difficult if not impossible. AMH has the least of audience , the least of advertisements ,incurs the highest cost in content creation and ends up having the most expensive paper in the market ,which is supposed to be bought by a poor audience within a “non existent “ middle class. This reality  had  trickle down effects , income from newspapers sales dwindled and income from adverts also decrease due to the paltry audience ,limited private organisations  and inability to access adverts from state institutions. This is why when you open an AMH paper you will see only 2 or 3 adverts. Being a political mouthpiece for  the  opposition for more than a decade  proved to be an unrewarding expensive investment as within the decade AMH main competitor ZIMPapers increased its profit and market share while AMH became stagnant . ZimPapers broadened to into broadcast to attaining Classic 263,PowerFm and introducing BMetro and HMetro among others within a decade

Though Trevor Ncube popularly says “I am not my newspapers” the structural fact remain , his newspapers are his welfare and it is just human nature that above all human beings seeks to maximise their personal interest. AMH as a business in post 2018 had to adjust within the evolving political and economic realities maintaining a strong constant objective of profitability and a shift in propaganda 

Under the guise of diversification and freedom of expression the gospel of frustration and hopelessness   was dominant within the AMH media particularly prior 2018.The objective of the private media propaganda was to arouse anger ,hate and hopelessness against the government as well as to de-pacify the masses in order to encourage  at best protest at worst riots. Above all AMH propaganda objective was to ensure that it is able extend and defend opposition political dominance within towns and cities. It is therefore not an accident that MDC  strongholds are also AMH audience stronghold. 

The process of private propaganda was enabled not by an isolated individual  determination of AMH but it was a system that included an amalgamation of opponents of the “state” these included  mainly political parties, civil  society , private business and foreign embassies. These groups united against the common enemy “the state”. These various groups forever want to drive the state towards their own ideological, political or legal ends and they used AMH to communicate their “noble” goals.For instance since 2000 MDC preached “Mugabe is old ill and unfit’’, western embassies declared “indigenisation is backward and anti-investment” civil societies like Farmers Union demanded their compensation. The intended audience  of this AMH was not only urban dwellers but also the international community and in influencing this audience AMH was largely successful, “Mugabe must Go” became a local and international demand.So successful was AMH propaganda that even ZANU-PF was converted and removed Mugabe because he was “Old ,ill and unfit” amended the Indigenisation Act because it was “Anti investment” and began to “compensate former white farmers.” Mutual interest  of multiple players shaped AMH propaganda and these  critically modelled on AMH Ownership ,Advertisement and Sourcing, any change in this would change AMH propaganda strategy. 

Firstly in Ownership, AMH is a media firm that is a large business that is owned and controlled by a wealthy man (T.Ncube) who have his own  political interest .By rationality his own political interest and political positions could not be destroyed or distracted by his own business, rather they would be promoted.Therefore Trevor Ncube as a man who was one of the  most crucial individual sponsor of the Morgan led MDC could not let his media company hurt or damage the MDC instead his company became a mouthpiece ,a propaganda initiative for the largest Zimbabwean opposition party. Thereby topics and news were filtered ,facts misrepresented ,stories fabricated for the purpose of presenting the government as evil, immoral and incompetent while presenting MDC as the saintly ,virtuous competent saviour.

AMH alliance with MDC brought a second advantage of sourcing crucial for propaganda. Sourcing is access to  newsmakers and “breaking news” As can be expected the AMH did not have sourcing advantage when it came to senior government officials as it had bad relations with the government, however it mitigated its sourcing losses by monopolising  sourcing on opposition political parties.AMH could not attack those who “gave them news” otherwise it would lose access on both sides.AMH  thus became the Herald of MDC as  the only reliable  source for MDC activities ,plans and strategies.By its inability to access to government sources  AMH  attained secondary sources on what was happening within the government through its access to foreign embassies. These embassies mainly western used their  vast resources  and networks to attain information and then distribute it to the private paper.

Advertisement has been the least controlling mechanism of AMH propaganda mainly because private sector business in Zimbabwe has always been small. However those who  advertise on AMH has always been protected by AMH. For instance during the 2018 elections when Econet released its clients data to ZANU-PF for digital campaigning AMH stopped “telling it like it is” ,”fear and favour” controlled the narrative. The paper would not seek to harm the interest  of its advertisers. Any switch in advertisement would result in a switch of images and narratives. Therefore in 2020 with the political crossover of T.Ncube and harmonisation of interest and areas of corporation between AMH and the State will lead to a flow of government funded adverts that AMH desperately needs . Ministries, Parastatals , State Universities, Authorities are likely to  begin advertising  in AMH with “full page congratulatory messages, birthday wishes ,obituaries” etc. This will make the government a serious client for AMH that can not be lost. In such a circumstance even long term  AMH government critics like Tafirenyika Mugove will transform to become hard core state apologist, for if former Zimpapers editors like  Kudzanai and Mathuthu could transform from  being state apologist to state critics after a fall of their economic fortunes surely the reverse can also be true for AMH editors and journalist. You just cannot bite the hand that feed you in these austerity mfencane times.AMH narrative, opinion, perception and image shall be controlled by its income.