Mediated contestations about the political agency of youth in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The political agency of youth has been the subject of much theoretical debate within the domains of political science, youth studies, conflict studies and development studies. This paper adopts a media studies perspective to contestations about the political agency of Zimbabwean youth. Motivation for doing so derives from the recognition that modern politics is predominantly a mass-mediated politics. Relatedly, the subject of youth and politics has received extensive media coverage in Zimbabwean media. Using the critical political economy approach and qualitative frame analysis, the paper explores two purposively sampled case studies that illustrate the contestations about the political agency of Zimbabwean youth. Findings reveal that media framings of youth agency sidestep the substantive policy and public interest issues that animate and motivate young politicians. Such normatively deficient framing is attributable to the political parallelism and media polarisation that characterises Zimbabwean political discourse.