‘Game changer or another dummy’: Media appraisals of government policies

Policies and/or constitutional provisions are a cornerstone for the development of a country. Varied language-related policies and constitutional acts have been crafted and/or amended in an effort to redress the language inequalities in Zimbabwe. The enactment of the new constitution in 2013 saw 16...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Jakaza, Ernest
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Routledge 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2989/16073614.2019.1617174
http://hdl.handle.net/11408/4366
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1779905665620246528
author Jakaza, Ernest
author_facet Jakaza, Ernest
author_sort Jakaza, Ernest
collection DSpace
description Policies and/or constitutional provisions are a cornerstone for the development of a country. Varied language-related policies and constitutional acts have been crafted and/or amended in an effort to redress the language inequalities in Zimbabwe. The enactment of the new constitution in 2013 saw 16 languages accorded the status of officially recognised language. The media’s role in publicising these constitutional provisions, and ‘digesting’ them for the heterogeneous audience, is vital for the development of the country. The article argues that subjectivities in the news reporting of a country’s enactment of a new language policy are detrimental to the implementation, realisation and overall acceptance of the policy. The article employs the appraisal theoretical framework to examine the print media’s evaluations of the Zimbabwean government’s constitution. Major focus is on the print media appraisals of the Zimbabwean constitutional provisions and their implementation. Utilising the qualitative research paradigm, news reports from Zimbabwe’s print media are purposively sampled. A discourse-analytic design is employed. The research concludes that even though they are other factors, the Zimbabwean print media, both independent and government, positively appreciated [+ve appreciation] the country’s constitutional language provisions for the development of previously marginalised languages.
format Article
id ir-11408-4366
institution My University
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher Routledge
record_format dspace
spelling ir-11408-43662022-06-27T13:49:06Z ‘Game changer or another dummy’: Media appraisals of government policies Jakaza, Ernest Media appraisals government policies Policies and/or constitutional provisions are a cornerstone for the development of a country. Varied language-related policies and constitutional acts have been crafted and/or amended in an effort to redress the language inequalities in Zimbabwe. The enactment of the new constitution in 2013 saw 16 languages accorded the status of officially recognised language. The media’s role in publicising these constitutional provisions, and ‘digesting’ them for the heterogeneous audience, is vital for the development of the country. The article argues that subjectivities in the news reporting of a country’s enactment of a new language policy are detrimental to the implementation, realisation and overall acceptance of the policy. The article employs the appraisal theoretical framework to examine the print media’s evaluations of the Zimbabwean government’s constitution. Major focus is on the print media appraisals of the Zimbabwean constitutional provisions and their implementation. Utilising the qualitative research paradigm, news reports from Zimbabwe’s print media are purposively sampled. A discourse-analytic design is employed. The research concludes that even though they are other factors, the Zimbabwean print media, both independent and government, positively appreciated [+ve appreciation] the country’s constitutional language provisions for the development of previously marginalised languages. 2021-06-04T10:44:35Z 2021-06-04T10:44:35Z 2019 Article 1727-9461 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2989/16073614.2019.1617174 http://hdl.handle.net/11408/4366 en Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies;Vol.37 ; Issue 2 : p.119-129 open Routledge
spellingShingle Media appraisals
government policies
Jakaza, Ernest
‘Game changer or another dummy’: Media appraisals of government policies
title ‘Game changer or another dummy’: Media appraisals of government policies
title_full ‘Game changer or another dummy’: Media appraisals of government policies
title_fullStr ‘Game changer or another dummy’: Media appraisals of government policies
title_full_unstemmed ‘Game changer or another dummy’: Media appraisals of government policies
title_short ‘Game changer or another dummy’: Media appraisals of government policies
title_sort ‘game changer or another dummy’: media appraisals of government policies
topic Media appraisals
government policies
url https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2989/16073614.2019.1617174
http://hdl.handle.net/11408/4366
work_keys_str_mv AT jakazaernest gamechangeroranotherdummymediaappraisalsofgovernmentpolicies