Newsday and the Herald's Inclusion of Disabled People in the Use of Digital Media in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Several studies have been conducted on social inequalities. Despite highlighting inequalities between the rich and poor, researchers often overlook the fact that disabled people in Africa are marginalised more than their counterparts elsewhere. Using critical discourse analysis (CDA) as a theory and data analysis method, this study sought to answer two questions: (1) What is reported about the inclusion of disabled people in using digital media? (2) How is it reported? Twenty-two articles were purposively sampled: 15 from Newsday and 7 from The Herald published between 20 November 2017 and 24 September 2022. Findings indicate that the two papers exposed marginalisation of disabled people in an educative and informative way and had erudite analysis from disabled columnists. This was successful because the papers relied on the disabled community as sources of information and contributors of published material. The papers also engaged stakeholders such as corporates, government and civil society organisations. It is recommended that other newspapers and many forms of mass communication provide a representation of people with different forms of disabilities. Future studies could seek the views of disabled communities about their presentation in the digital media through disabled writers and providers of information.

Citation

Roya, W. and Ngcobo, S. (2023), "Newsday and the Herald's Inclusion of Disabled People in the Use of Digital Media in Zimbabwe", Dralega, C.A. (Ed.) Digitisation, AI and Algorithms in African Journalism and Media Contexts, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 69-85. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80455-135-620231005