Audiences as Agents of Collective Memory – Implications for Press Criticism and Journalism Boundaries

ABSTRACT

Through textual analysis of Facebook comments on the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation’s (ZBC) page, ZBC-TV News Online and Twitter hashtag, #RIPJudithMakwanya, the study explores how ordinary people remembered the station’s veteran broadcaster upon her death in 2019. This was combined with interviews to understand journalists’ reactions to the commentary. The study argues that digital platforms now allow press criticism on a public forum, enabling citizens to form their own interpretive communities and police each other. However, political economy factors undermine press criticism’s effectiveness in shaping journalism.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Dr Valerie Belair-Gagnon for nudging me to think critically about the contribution I wanted to make with this project. I also thank my advisor Dr Matt Carlson who introduced me to press criticism which also shaped this project in many ways. I also thank my friend Terence Antonio for assisting with interviews during data gathering for this study.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Special thanks also go to my Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication (HSJMC) for a 2020 Summer Research Fellowship funded through the Haeberle fellowship that helped with conducting interviews for this study; Summer Research Fellowship.

Notes on contributors

Danford Zirugo

Danford Zirugo is a PhD student in Journalism and Mass Communication at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. Danford also holds an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master of Arts (MA) Degree in Journalism, Media and Globalization from Aarhus University (Denmark) and City, University of London.