The coverage of crises such as the global health pandemic, COVID-19, is to a large extent guided by national interest, journalistic culture, and editorial policies of media outlets. This chapter argues that the state-controlled newspaper, The Herald, in Zimbabwe deployed constructive journalism as an approach to report COVID-19. Constructive journalism is about injecting positive angles into news reports whilst abiding by the core news values of accuracy, impartiality, and balance. The findings reveal that constructive journalism elements of solutions orientation, future orientation, and explanation and contextualisation were frequently deployed by The Herald to advance a safe nation narrative whose objective was to prevent public hysteria in the face of a deadly COVID-19 outbreak in the country. The chapter concludes that the deployment of constructive journalism in less developed countries like Zimbabwe to inspire hope through positive psychology in the face of global crises does not always yield the intended outcomes.
Ethiopia is one of the very few African countries where the local language press is in the mainstream. Amharic-language newspapers are dominant. This article examines the extent of the dominance of the Amharic press and the factors responsible for this. It also looks at language politics in the country and activism for linguistic human rights, particularly in the media domain. A combination of literature reviews and document analyses was used to obtain data for the study. The Amharic language enjoys a privileged position compared to other indigenous languages of Ethiopia and English. Amharic is the second most widely spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic. It is the official working language of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and several regional states within the federal system. It is also the official language of the military and the Downloaded by [New York University] at 02:40 22 June 2015 72 Abiodun Salawu and Asemahagn Aseres Language Policy, Idealogies, PowerEthiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. Although it is only indigenous to about 23 per cent of the population, its official status sees it being spoken nationwide. Interestingly, Afan Oromo, a Cushitic language, is indigenous to 33.80 per cent of the population, and thus can be regarded as the largest indigenous language in Ethiopia. While the wide dissemination of local language media in Ethiopia can be explained by the historical fact that the country was never colonised, the emergence of Amharic as the de facto language of the nation and the media is what interests these authors. This study discovered that the dominance of Amharic is due to the language policies of successive Ethiopian regimes down the ages which privileged it over other indigenous languages.
Water conservation efforts have become increasingly important as spiralling population figures and snowballing economic development continue to pile pressure on fresh water resources across the world. In South Africa there are a number of water conservation initiatives to ensure optimal use of dwindling water resources. But not all citizens, particularly in rural communities, consider water conservation a social priority. The apathy has been attributed to the failure of current conservation communication to galvanise people in a way that they come to regard conserving water as a critical factor in achieving sustainable water use. The water conservation efforts rely heavily on persuasive communication, which encourages rural residents to take on new behaviours adjudged beneficial by the promoting agencies, often without seeking their commitment and understanding or appreciating the sociocultural dynamics underpinning their water use behaviour. This study used the participatory action approach to explore the effectiveness of indigenous media in engaging and mobilising rural residents on water conservation initiatives. Given its grassroots nature and interpersonal attributes, indigenous media provide a communication approach with the potential to negotiate the issues around water conservation.
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