Opinion / Columnist
Social media - A vehicle for change
03 Mar 2022 at 23:03hrs | Views
The social media has made it easy to connect to our family members, political leaders, friends and relatives on a real-time basis.
With social media, people have managed to share pictures, live streaming, recorded videos and communicate with their close ones. This has strengthened relationships and it has brought families together in a way that was not possible.
Social media if well natured and managed is likely to be a vehicle for change for the marginalised and also to keep opposition parties afloat and connected to the mainstream social media grid.
The strongest opposition political party Citizens Coalition for Change should extensively use the social media to sell its story and brand to the electorate as the state media door is closed for them.
There was an outcry from other news publications that the leader of Citizens Coalition for Change Advocate Nelson Chamisa has barred the state media such as The Herald and Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation at his rallies. Such complaints are genuine but the current state media is serving the revolutionary party and ignoring other political players.
His decision is right considering that he won't even get airtime or space from government controlled media.
The reporting and coverage of the so called public broadcasting institutions both print and electronic in Zimbabwe is so pathetic and biased towards the ruling party. It does not positively cover the opposition but only target what suits their narrative and spin what could have been said in a very bad state.
Nearly 75% of the local content broadcasted on the only ZTV channel in the country is full of Zanu-PF propaganda stories and does not engage other stakeholders.
The state media has been overtaken by the social media by far and it has struggled to impact on cohesive and strong propaganda narrative.
In most cases it has been constantly undressed by social media which has always been on top of the situation when breaking news.
The social media has been countering some excessive government propaganda by providing evidence through photos and videos.
The social media has managed to build knowledge quickly and disseminates it widely then enabled faster and broader communication amongst citizens.
Very few people are now following the state media and it has lost both revenue and viewership due to poor content production and a lot of people have substituted it with social media.
Email - konileonard606@gmail.com Twitter - @Leokoni +27616868508
With social media, people have managed to share pictures, live streaming, recorded videos and communicate with their close ones. This has strengthened relationships and it has brought families together in a way that was not possible.
Social media if well natured and managed is likely to be a vehicle for change for the marginalised and also to keep opposition parties afloat and connected to the mainstream social media grid.
The strongest opposition political party Citizens Coalition for Change should extensively use the social media to sell its story and brand to the electorate as the state media door is closed for them.
There was an outcry from other news publications that the leader of Citizens Coalition for Change Advocate Nelson Chamisa has barred the state media such as The Herald and Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation at his rallies. Such complaints are genuine but the current state media is serving the revolutionary party and ignoring other political players.
His decision is right considering that he won't even get airtime or space from government controlled media.
The reporting and coverage of the so called public broadcasting institutions both print and electronic in Zimbabwe is so pathetic and biased towards the ruling party. It does not positively cover the opposition but only target what suits their narrative and spin what could have been said in a very bad state.
The state media has been overtaken by the social media by far and it has struggled to impact on cohesive and strong propaganda narrative.
In most cases it has been constantly undressed by social media which has always been on top of the situation when breaking news.
The social media has been countering some excessive government propaganda by providing evidence through photos and videos.
The social media has managed to build knowledge quickly and disseminates it widely then enabled faster and broader communication amongst citizens.
Very few people are now following the state media and it has lost both revenue and viewership due to poor content production and a lot of people have substituted it with social media.
Email - konileonard606@gmail.com Twitter - @Leokoni +27616868508
Source - Leonard Koni
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