The interface between western and indigenous signs in Zanu-PF advertisements for July 2013 elections

Political contestation in Zimbabwe post-2000 has been largely acrimonious. In the electoral domain of the epoch, political advertising, has been one of the key tools through which this contestation took place. However, these advertisements have been barely studied and those that have made an attempt...

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Main Author: Chibuwe, Albert
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Communicatio South African Journal for Communication Theory and Research 2020
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Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02500167.2018.1551235
http://hdl.handle.net/11408/3842
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author Chibuwe, Albert
author_facet Chibuwe, Albert
author_sort Chibuwe, Albert
collection DSpace
description Political contestation in Zimbabwe post-2000 has been largely acrimonious. In the electoral domain of the epoch, political advertising, has been one of the key tools through which this contestation took place. However, these advertisements have been barely studied and those that have made an attempt to study them did not examine them from advertising theory and/or sign theory perspective. The study argues that locating the analysis of political advertisements in advertising theory and sign theory presents an opportunity to gain insights into how political products gain sign value, exchange value and utility value. The study deploys advertising theory and sign theory to examine the value that selected indigenous and Western signs used by the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) invest in the political products: ZANU-PF and Mugabe. By interrogating four purposively selected signs in ZANU-PF advertisements for the July 2013 elections, I seek to establish how political products are produced as signs and signs as political products. The selected signs are subjected to semiotic analysis. The findings show that ZANU-PF's use of these valorised Western and indigenous, often contradictory, signs is designed to appeal to votes on the basis that it is a democratic, divine anointed, Christian and African-oriented party.
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spelling ir-11408-38422022-06-27T13:49:06Z The interface between western and indigenous signs in Zanu-PF advertisements for July 2013 elections Chibuwe, Albert Gushungo Mugabe Zimbabwe ZANU PF election Political contestation in Zimbabwe post-2000 has been largely acrimonious. In the electoral domain of the epoch, political advertising, has been one of the key tools through which this contestation took place. However, these advertisements have been barely studied and those that have made an attempt to study them did not examine them from advertising theory and/or sign theory perspective. The study argues that locating the analysis of political advertisements in advertising theory and sign theory presents an opportunity to gain insights into how political products gain sign value, exchange value and utility value. The study deploys advertising theory and sign theory to examine the value that selected indigenous and Western signs used by the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) invest in the political products: ZANU-PF and Mugabe. By interrogating four purposively selected signs in ZANU-PF advertisements for the July 2013 elections, I seek to establish how political products are produced as signs and signs as political products. The selected signs are subjected to semiotic analysis. The findings show that ZANU-PF's use of these valorised Western and indigenous, often contradictory, signs is designed to appeal to votes on the basis that it is a democratic, divine anointed, Christian and African-oriented party. 2020-10-22T11:19:24Z 2020-10-22T11:19:24Z 2019 Article 0250-0167 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02500167.2018.1551235 http://hdl.handle.net/11408/3842 en Vol.44 , Issue 3; open Communicatio South African Journal for Communication Theory and Research
spellingShingle Gushungo
Mugabe
Zimbabwe
ZANU PF
election
Chibuwe, Albert
The interface between western and indigenous signs in Zanu-PF advertisements for July 2013 elections
title The interface between western and indigenous signs in Zanu-PF advertisements for July 2013 elections
title_full The interface between western and indigenous signs in Zanu-PF advertisements for July 2013 elections
title_fullStr The interface between western and indigenous signs in Zanu-PF advertisements for July 2013 elections
title_full_unstemmed The interface between western and indigenous signs in Zanu-PF advertisements for July 2013 elections
title_short The interface between western and indigenous signs in Zanu-PF advertisements for July 2013 elections
title_sort interface between western and indigenous signs in zanu-pf advertisements for july 2013 elections
topic Gushungo
Mugabe
Zimbabwe
ZANU PF
election
url https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02500167.2018.1551235
http://hdl.handle.net/11408/3842
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