James Masters thesis

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Classification： Unit Code： 10033
Confidentiality： Student No.: 159421050302005
MASTER’S DEGREE THESIS
Title of thesis： A Study of the Role of Social Media on
Youth Political Participation in Zimbabwe
Student's official name： Tafadzwa James Nyakudanga
Supervisor： Geng Yiqun
Major： International Communication
Research Direction： New Media
School： Institute of Communication Studies
Submission Date 27 May 2016

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Statement of Master’s Degree Thesis Originality of CUC
Student
I declare the Master Degree Thesis submitted is the original
research outcome under the guidance of supervisor. The thesis
neither contain any content written or published by others
except notation and acknowledge, nor material used by
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Date： Y M D
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of China reserves the right of submission of thesis copies and
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Author’s Signature： Supervisor’s Signature：
Date：Y M D Date： Y M D

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Dedication
To my loving mother whose amazing hard work and unconditional love has made me
reach this stage in my life.
To my late father whose words of encouragement still ring in my ears even beyond his
grave.
To my late grandparents who showed me the true meaning of family, love and being a
Christian.
Special dedication to my late grandmother for always being my pillar of strength every
time I felt weak.

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Acknowledgements
Firstly, I would like to thank each and every individual who has made all this research
possible.
I would like to show my gratitude to my supervisor, Geng Yiqun. It is with her
constant supervision and assistance that I was able to complete this research paper. She
always pushed me to keep on digging and researching more so I can make this research
paper valid. Not enough words can show my appreciation to have her in my corner.
Thirdly, I would like to show appreciation to Communication University of China
and all its staff members especially from the Institute of Communication Studies for all
their reviews and comments towards this paper.
I would also like to acknowledge the two governments (Zimbabwe and China) for
this special cooperation that has made people like me a step closer to achieving their
dreams.
Would also want to express special gratitude to my fellow classmates who helped
me academically, socially and some spiritually. Special mention to my fellow country
mate, Simon Matingwini (PHD 1st
year), who took up the role of my personal tutor. Thank
you very much.
Last but definitely not least, would like to thank God Almighty for making
everything possible and for bringing the right people in my life to help me achieve my life
goals. I know this is only the beginning and you shall keep on blessing me more.
Thank you, Maita basa, Ngiyabonga!!!!!!!

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ABSTRACT
AStudy of the Role of Social Media onYouth Political Participation in
Zimbabwe
Tafadzwa James Nyakudanga, IMIC 2016
Communication University of China, Beijing
Supervisor: Geng Yiqun
Social media has been playing a fundamental role in people’s lives in recent years.
The relevance of social media in politics started being recognized in academic work in
2008 during the Obama campaign for his United States Presidential win. The main purpose
of this study was to analyze the role that social media plays in Zimbabwe in terms of youth
political participation. The Agenda Setting theory and the Uses and Gratification theory
were used to develop the theoretical framework to support and analyze the findings of this
study. Two different research techniques were used to collect the data, namely qualitative
and quantitative. Content analysis was used to gather and analyze data collected from a
Facebook group called Democracy Advocate Initiative (DAI) while interviews were used
to support the data from the content analysis. This study concludes that social media is used
to spread political information while engaging the youths to discuss and debate issues
affecting Zimbabwe, thus promoting youth political participation. However, it is noted that
social media is also being used abusively. In this sense, the thesis puts forwards suggestions
as to fair use of social media for the youths.
Keywords: social media, role, youth, political participation

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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements................................................................................................ iii
List of Tables ........................................................................................................ vii
List of Figures...................................................................................................... viii
1. Chapter one: Introduction ..................................................................................10
1.1 Background to the Study......................................................................10
1.1.1 Media and Politics in Zimbabwe ................................................11
1.1.1.1 Social Media Usage during 2013 Elections....................12
1.2 Significance of the Study.....................................................................13
1.3 Statement of the problem.....................................................................15
1.4 Purpose of the Study............................................................................16
2. Chapter Two: Literature review.........................................................................17
2.1 Key concepts...........................................................................................17
2.1.1 Social media................................................................................17
2.1.2 Social media in Zimbabwe..........................................................19
2.1.3 Youth...........................................................................................20
2.1.4 Political participation..................................................................21
2.2 Literature Review....................................................................................23
2.2.1 Research on social media in Zimbabwe......................................23
2.2.2 Research on youth political participation in Zimbabwe .............24
2.2.3 Research on the impact of social media on youth.......................27
2.2.4 Research on role of social media in political participation.........27
2.3 Research Questions.................................................................................28
3. Chapter Three: Theoretical Framework and Methodology ...............................29
3.1 Theoretical Framework...........................................................................29
3.1.1 Uses and Gratifications Theory ..................................................29
3.1.2 Agenda Setting Theory ...............................................................31
3.2 Methodology...........................................................................................34

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3.3 Sampling .................................................................................................35
3.3.1 Sampling of content analysis ......................................................35
3.3.2 Sampling of interviewees............................................................37
3.4 Data Collection Techniques....................................................................38
3.4.1 Content Analysis.........................................................................38
3.4.2 Online in-depth interviews..........................................................39
4. Chapter Four: Findings ......................................................................................40
4.1 Findings from the Content Analysis and Interviews...............................40
4.1.1 Content Analysis.........................................................................40
4.1.1.1 Posts generated................................................................42
4.1.1.2 Topics discussed .............................................................45
4.1.1.3 Comments per type of post .............................................48
4.1.1.4 ZPF launch......................................................................49
Chapter Five: Discussion and Conclusion.............................................................51
5.1 The Role of Social Media on Youth Political Participation ...................51
5.1.1 Easy spread of political information...........................................51
5.1.2 Freedom of expression................................................................53
5.1.3 Engages the youths more ............................................................55
5.2 Conclusion ..............................................................................................57
5.3 Limitations and Recommendations.........................................................58
Appendices.............................................................................................................59
Interview questions.......................................................................................59
Sample of answered interview......................................................................61
Glossary .................................................................................................................63
Bibliography ..........................................................................................................64
Vita …………………………………………………………………………….69

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List of Tables
Table 1: Social media usage in Zimbabwe ............................................................20
Table 2: Number of different types of posts on the launch of ZPF .......................49

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List of Figures
Figure 1: Core Concepts OF U&G Theory............................................................30
Figure 2: Theoretical Framework ..........................................................................34
Figure 3: Facebook posts between February and March 2016 ..............................42
Figure 4: An original post example .......................................................................44
Figure 5: A shared post example ...........................................................................45
Figure 6: Frequency of topics ................................................................................46
Figure 7: Comments distribution ...........................................................................48

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1. Chapter one: Introduction
This study is carried out to identify the role social media is playing on youth
political participation in Zimbabwe. In most developing countries, social media’s role in
important matters such as business and politics is still at the primary stage. However, it’s
playing an emerging role in ordinary people’s participation of national political life.
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Social media has been playing an essential role in people’s lives. Sometimes people
may not be aware of the impact of social media on them. Most scholars have debated on
how social media is being used to disconnect from the physical world, how children are
being impacted by it and a few other negative aspects of life it is promoting. Over the past
decade there has been quite significant attention given to the role of social media in politics
and social media is now a major topic in Africa.
In Africa, politics is mainly characterized by people especially men between the
ages of 50 to 80. The observation that people in established democracies are appearing to
shun traditional methods of political participation, such as voting and party membership
has attracted a great deal of recent scholarly attention. (Putnam 1993, 2000, Norris 2002,
Stoker 2006). There are a lot of dynamics involved in politics and scholars have now
realized that it is an area that needs to be researched on. This perceived shift away from
these formal types of political involvement is deemed to be particularly acute in the case
of young people who are often seen to be apathetic about or alienated from formal political
processes (Putnam, 2000, Sloam, 2007). Indeed this has led some observers to identify the
political disengagement of young people as a key element in the so-called “crisis” of
modern day liberal democracy (Russell, 2005).

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The relevance of social media in politics only started being noticed during the
Obama campaign for his Presidential win in 2008. Obama was the first presidential
candidate to effectively use social media as a major campaign strategy, and this made him
win the critical votes which led to his success. Politicians now adopt social media in
political communication in order to enhance their prestige and disseminate their political
opinions. Social media is now an essential communication tool for political parties.
1.1.1 Media and Politics in Zimbabwe
Like in most countries, the relationship between media and politics is usually very
close. It is generally considered that the more democratic a country is, the freer the media
is. The same could be said about Zimbabwe and its media system especially before the
emergence of new media. The media system is somewhat a bit “controversial” with the
main media outlets being accused of being biased towards the current president and his
ruling party (ZANU PF) and this is according to Wikipedia, which states that, “The
Herald is a government owned daily newspaper published in Harare, the capital
of Zimbabwe. The Herald has for some time been noted for its completely one-sided
reporting for the government of President Robert Mugabe and the Zanu-PF party, and its
demonisation of the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). It
often accuses the MDC of being agents of colonial powers. This has made the Zimbabwean
public a bit skeptical about what they read or hear in the news and it has caused a bad
relationship between some of the audience and the media.
However, since the emergence of social media, the situation seems to have changed
as Zimbabwean people feel like they can express their views on social media with freedom.
This can be portrayed in the 2013 elections.

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1.1.1.1 Social Media Usage during 2013 Elections
“Zimbabwe’s social media has had an ambiguous role in political events in the last
twelve months and particularly with the yet to end July 31 2013 harmonized electoral
period.” (Zhangazha, 2013). This means that the role of social media during that period
could not be defined as being progressive or otherwise as it was and still is a new
phenomenon in the political sphere. During the 2013 harmonized elections, social media
in Zimbabwe became one of the driving tools behind the campaigns of different parties and
organizations involved. Bugalo (2014) said, “During the build up to Zimbabwe’s July 2013
elections, citizen journalism grew exponentially, through the use of social media.” Citizen
journalism means the dissemination of news by the general public and usually this happens
over new media.
Social media was mainly used as a watchdog to monitor and inform the general
public during this period or something they now call “fifth estate”. There were two
characters that had a huge political following on Facebook and these were “Baba Jukwa”
and “Amai Jukwa”. Baba Jukwa was a self-proclaimed ZANU-PF party insider and online
character who joined Facebook in March 2013. By the time elections arrived, he had
amassed over 400 000 followers on his page and his timeline read, “Concerned father,
fighting nepotism and directly linking community with their Leaders, Government, MPs
and ministers”. Though there were controversial comments on the role of social media in
the political world, it could be concluded that social media provides platforms and forum
for political discussion, and involves more people in the election, which cannot be achieved
with traditional media. What has deserved more attention is that the youths are growing
more interested in political discussion.

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1.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study is being conducted to analyze the role that social media is playing on the
political sphere in Zimbabwe. It is basically acknowledging that social media is playing a
role but what is significant about this study is to indicate how social media has exerted
great influence on political life in the country.
In Zimbabwe, Internet access is something which is still in its early stages and it
was reported by Biriwasha (2011) that according to the World Bank only 12% of
Zimbabweans had some kind of Internet access and the majority of these were in the urban
areas. As mentioned above, the majority of the population are youths and who are also
known as “digital natives” or “screenagers”. This suggests that most of the social media
participants will be the young people.
Social media has become part of our lives and it can be seen as an extension of who
and what we are. It influences some of the bad and good aspects of our lives. All social
media platforms are providing the youth with opportunities to better their lives through
different initiatives and it is only how the youth use the information. That’s why we
consider social media as an important tool. It gives us recognition, relationships, resources
and referrals. It is also argued that social media has replaced some of the roles of traditional
institutions that were responsible for youth’ development such as schools, churches and
other societal, educational, political and financial institutions. Everyone is connected on
social media for different reasons such as entertainment, dissemination of news, politics
and maybe just to connect with friends and colleagues. In this study, the impact of social
media specifically Facebook in Zimbabwe will be analyzed to see how it promotes the
development of youths in political participation. It is hypothesized that social media plays
a big role in the youth’ political participation in Zimbabwe.
The youth have been chosen as object of the study because there are the most active
on social media platforms. The “screenagers” (Elmore, 2011) or “digital natives” (Gary,
2008) spend at least “eight hours a day” online (Drry, 2008). The youths have been chosen
as the age group to analyze because this period of life is usually seen as one of the most

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critical stages in one’s life as they are susceptible to certain behavioral changes.
Young people in Zimbabwe have played vital roles in democracy and
developmental issues. (Tamang, 2006). Facing a world in a vertiginous transformation,
the social and personal construction in Zimbabwe are closely related to each other. The
uplifting of democracy in Zimbabwe depends mostly on the participation of the
Zimbabwean people, especially the youth, to rebuild the country from the total devastation.
Participation on various social media is the practical action of exercising democracy. This
notion is supported by Tamang (2006) who asserts that democracy is a system of
government which is of the people, for the people and by the people. The underlying factor
here is active participation which means that the youth should be actively participative but
at the same time, properly guided and organized. In trying to democratize themselves and
exercise active participation in the building of a democratic society, the youth in Zimbabwe
are using social media as reliable platforms.
In Zimbabwe the majority of people have begun to use social media to express their
political views as compared to before when they only had to rely on the old traditional
media, such as newspapers, radio, and Television, etc. According to Bwoni, (2015)
“Facebook and Twitter are going to be hugely influential and will play a decisive role in
determining the outcome of the scuffle between the main political parties in the 2018
campaign.” The politicians, government officials and other relevant people have also
joined social media to participate and interact with each other and with the public.
Zimbabwean politics for the past decade have been characterized by widespread politically
orchestrated violence especially during election times. However, the political landscape
has changed and this can be partially credited to the role being played by social media.
Demographically, youth constitute the majority of the population in Zimbabwe.
Young people aged 15-29 years are a noticeable age group in urban areas in Zimbabwe.
The Ministry of Youth In Zimbabwe (2014) reported that, “Of the total population of 13
061 239, 77% consist of children and youth below 35 years of age. Youth aged 15-34 years
number 4 702 046 which constitutes 36% of the national population and those aged
between 15 -24 years are 20%. The youth aged 15-34 years constitute 56% of the

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economically active population”. According to Techzim (2013), “one interesting thing we
noticed is that the total number of Facebook users in Zimbabwe has been rising drastically
since April. Back then when we checked, the number was 700,000. Then when we checked
again in June, it was about 800,000. In early July that figure rose to 1,020,000.” A million
people exchanging ideas and political opinions, is something to take note of. If there are so
many social media subscribers in Zimbabwe, then the extent to which the social networking
site influences political activism should be investigated. Mushakavanhu (2014) suggests
that, “With a mobile penetration rate of 106 percent, more Zimbabweans now access
information and news via mobile gadgets. Data and Internet subscriptions are now in the
region of 5, 6 million. As a matter of fact, numbers don’t lie. More significantly 60 percent
of the Zimbabwean population is under the age of 40 and this is the most active age group
online and it is no exaggeration that political actors have to adapt or be wary.”
1.3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
In the past few years the Internet has been revolutionized by social media. People
have been using social networks like Twitter and Facebook to communicate and therefore
exchange ideas. These ideas are exchanged between people in completely different
countries and even at different times.
Social media is mostly accessed by the youths. These youths coincidentally, are
usually at the forefront of political demonstrations. The problem that arises is one of social
media contributing to social upheaval and chaos. The threat social media pose to society
should therefore be understood.
Young people between the ages of 15 and 25 constitute a fifth of the world’s
population (Enhancing Youth Political Participation, UNDP 2012), and yet they have
limited influence in national political institutions. The challenge of youth political
participation and engagement persists, and no democratic political system can claim to be
legitimate if youth is excluded and disengaged from democratic processes. This

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disengagement from traditional politics translates into the under-representation of youth as
a segment of society within the institutions of democracy and national parliaments.
Numbers of youth political participation has been declining but ever since the advent of
social media, there has been an increase but only on the social media as youths are not
being afforded the chance to transfer their online activities into traditional institutions.
1.4 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The main purpose of this study is to analyze the role that social media is playing in
Zimbabwe in terms of youth political participation. This study will analyze the past and
present situation of this issue and also predict how the youth in Zimbabwe can use social
media to be actively involved in national politics. This thesis will seek to fill in the gaps
that were left by previous scholars on the subject of social media and politics and will also
make youth be taken more serious as to their political participation via social media.

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2. Chapter Two: Literature review
2.1 KEY CONCEPTS
2.1.1 Social media
Social media networking according to Mhiripiri & Mutsvairo (2013) is usually a
form of leisure that sustains interpersonal communication amongst friends, relatives,
colleagues or people pursuing a common interest. Social media is also known as social
networking system/technology that has a short but very rich history. It has gone through
several transitions mainly because of the worldwide technological advancement and has
seen some great platforms being created. Some of these platforms include Facebook,
Myspace, Twitter, Orkut, Wechat and others and they all have different features but still
serving the same purpose, connecting people. The term “social media” refers to the wide
range of Internet-based and mobile services that allow users to participate in online
exchanges, contribute user-created content, or join online communities(Dewing, 2012). It
does not only refer to the most popular social media platforms we know such as Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram and others alike. Dewing (2012) suggests that there are different types
of social media and he lists them as follows:
o Blogs: short for “web log”, a blog is an online journal in which pages are
usually displayed in reverse chronological order. Blogs can be hosted for
free on websites such as WordPress, Tumblr and Blogger.
o Wikis: A wiki is a collective website where any participant is allowed to
modify any page or create a new page using a web browser. For example,
Wikipedia uses wiki technology.
o Social bookmarking: They allow users to organize and share links to

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websites. For example there is reddit and Digg.
o Social network sites: These have been defined as “web-based services that
allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a
bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a
connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those
made by others within the system. Among the most popular in Canada are
Facebook and LinkedIn.
o Status-update services: Also known as microblogging services, status-
update services such as Twitter allow people to share short updates about
people or events and to see updates created by others.
o Virtual world content: These sites offer game-like virtual environments in
which users interact. One example is the imaginary world constructed in
Second Life, in which users create avatars (a virtual representation of the
user) that interact with others.
o Media-sharing sites. These sites allow users to post videos or photographs.
Examples include YouTube and Instagram.
For the purposes of this study, the social media that will be analyzed will be social
networking sites and status-update services. These are the most common social media
platforms in Zimbabwe and mainly because of their attributes. Sites such as media sharing
will require a lot of bundles and with the current economic situation, they will prove to be
expensive but Facebook and Twitter are relatively cheaper since they are considerably
small especially for status updates.
Social media is not only popular because of the socialization aspects of it, but also
it has been change some of its functions over its course of existence (Alyssa & Nick, 2010).
When social media was introduced, all it could do was to make people interact with each

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other on a social level but now that has since changed with the development of it. It is now
being used in businesses, churches, schools, institution and organizations for
administration purposes and even financial transactions. This research paper will show
social media’s function in politics. For the purposes of this thesis, social media will be
defined as a means to not only socialize but to learn, teach and experience other aspects of
life without any physical connection. “Social media is the collective of online
communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-
sharing and collaboration. Websites and applications dedicated to forums, microblogging,
social networking, social bookmarking, social curation, and wikis are among the different
types of social media.” (Rouse, 2015)
2.1.2 Social media in Zimbabwe
Like in any other country, social media in Zimbabwe has gone through phases, but
one that has been more common is the digital divide. “The digital gap could explain why
youths have been more open to using social media. After all social media are easily
accessible from mobile gadgets that take some getting used to for the older generation. The
elite and the youths unfortunately do not constitute the bulk of the population in
Zimbabwe.” (Dube, 2013). Besides that, the fact that Zimbabwe is still a third world
country means that there are still some challenges that the country faces that might interfere
with the prevalence of social media. Amongst these problems, electricity or lack thereof is
a major concern in Zimbabwe. As it is well known, to be able to access social media one
must have a gadget that uses electricity for power, so most times people are logged out of
their social media profiles due to lack of electricity.
Below is a table that portrays how many users of different platforms are found in
Zimbabwe. The data below was provided by Social@Ogilvy (Law, 2015).

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Table 1: Social media usage in Zimbabwe
Social media platform Number of users
Facebook 870 000
Twitter 90 000
LinkedIn 337 000
Instagram 44 000
This table illustrates that although Facebook has the largest number of users in
Zimbabwe, it is not the only platform that users use to communicate, inform and share
information or news.
2.1.3 Youth
The United Nations, for statistical purposes, defines those persons between the ages
of 15 and 24 as youth without prejudice to other definitions by Member States (UNDESA,
2014). Of course, this definition of youth is hugely debated because sometimes it depends
with the demographics and also the context that one is being called a youth. In politics, for
example, the age group of youth differs and usually in most cases it is the age group
between 18 and 40. “Youth are often, depending on context and speaker, described in any
number of ways ranging from apathetic to politically conscious game changers (typically
referencing the so-called Arab Spring)”. (Nandingiri, 2013). Youth is a very critical period
as it was famously stated by Kim, 2010 when he said. “The youth of nowadays are a very
fluid group that easily goes with the flow and this is because of the technological
advancements in the world.” The other challenges that the youths go through is the identity
crisis and this is no different with the Zimbabwean youth. For example, Zimbabweans have
a lot of Western influence on its culture and the situation is not made any better by the use
of social media that breaks boundaries of personal communication between individuals in
Zimbabwe and those in Europe. In Zimbabwe, according to The National Youth Policy
(2003), youth are defined as persons between 15 and 30 years of age. This age range is

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stipulated in the Constitution of Zimbabwe and is also in line with the continental definition
of youth as defined in the African Youth Charter (15 to 35). (Nandingiri, 2013)
The concept of youth is not only defined by age but other scholars have argued that
it can also be defined as a social or political identity. In social sciences it is recognized that
defining youth by age group could be problematic. “Youth is seen as a socially constructed
category, because society has certain expectations of what adult roles and responsibilities
entail” (Honwana, 2011). He goes to add that, “Marriage, starting a family, having your
own home and a livelihood to support dependants are among the most commonly used
milestones that mark the transition into adulthood.” In the case of Zimbabwe, Wilkins
(2013) views youth as a political category. It is argued that with the increasing life
challenges, the youth now make their transition into adulthood at a much later stage now
than before. “Many African young people are in a situation of ‘waithood’: waiting for
adulthood” (Singerman, 2007). “It is a state of ‘prolonged delay’ to entry into adulthood”
(Sommers, 2011), “or a state of limbo” (Honwana, 2011). One of the main reasons behind
this “waithood” period has been unemployment. Youth between 15 and 24 years constitute
40 per cent of the workforce in African countries (World Bank, 2012). They are
disproportionately affected by unemployment, and when they do find work this is often in
unfavorable working conditions (Gupte et al., 2014).
2.1.4 Political participation
One of the other key terms that would be used a lot in this thesis will be youth
political participation. To start off, the author will give a definition and description of
political participation in general and then link it to youth political participation. The study
of political participation is often misunderstood and in this part of the thesis I will include
what other authors think of political participation.
When political participation is mentioned, there is one word that quickly comes into
people’s minds and that is voting. However, (Verba & Nie, 1972) says that, “there are

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various activities that can easily be associated with political participation such as party
activism, petition signing, demonstrating, liaising with officials and even just wearing
regalia of a political party. For example in Zimbabwe, the latter is very common amongst
the citizens. Verba & Nie (1972) put these activities into categories, conventional and non-
conventional participation. Activities such as voting or party activism are conventional
because it is conducted through official channels whereas demonstration and other
activities alike are considered to be non-conventional.
However, the continued relevance of this distinction has been questioned by more
recent studies of political involvement in established democracies. For instance, Norris
(2003) argues that, in recent decades, the ways that citizens choose to interact with politics
have changed significantly. These changes, she claims, are evident in the repertoires (types
of participation), agencies (the organizations through which citizens participate) and the
targets (who or what the participant aims to influence) of political participation. For Norris
and others (Van Deth, 2001) this has meant that the distinction between conventional and
unconventional participation has become increasingly blurred. In the past unconventional
participation was seen to be activity undertaken by a rebellious few against actions by the
state. Yet nowadays protest activities such as boycotting and demonstrating have become
much more widespread (Tarrow 1998, Putnam 2000) and have a much larger range of
potential targets which may include local businesses and international organizations as well
as seeking to influence public opinion and behavior (Norris 2002, 2003).
At the same time, the agencies of participation have also become much more
diverse. New technology, in particular, offers opportunities for communication and
organization which were unavailable a few decades ago. These developments have made
the call for a universal definition of political participation a bit difficult.
As discussed above in this thesis, not all activities in which citizens partake in are
directly related to political parties or elections. These activities can also aim to influence
the political decision-making. For this reason, I choose to employ a broader interpretation
of political participation which takes into account the fundamental changes in the
repertoires of political engagement and how this relates to the participation patterns of

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young people. Thus, I intentionally avoid categorization of activities as conventional or
unconventional or as part of political or civil society. Instead, an activity is included as
political participation if it aims to engender some type of political or behavioral change, is
focused towards the public domain and is voluntary. This includes the traditional forms of
political engagement, such as electoral participation and party membership but it is also
broad enough to include a wide range of informal forms of participation such as activity in
contentious politics and voluntary organizations. In employing such an inclusive
interpretation, my intention is to assess and analyze all types of activities that transpire on
social media that relate to political participation.
Ever since the US presidential elections where Obama took full advantage of the
social media to run his campaigns, a lot of attention has now been given to the relationship
between politics and social media. Few scholars have looked at the political participation
on social media especially in developing countries, such as Zimbabwe, but the researcher
of this thesis will acknowledge the existing literature on this topic.
2.2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.2.1 Research on social media in Zimbabwe
Social media has become the most influential tool/resource in the lives of most
Zimbabweans. Mzaca (2011) asserts that Facebook has become one of the most influential
factors in grass-roots socio-political mobilization worldwide. He adds on that “Due to the
fact that the Zimbabwean media was polarized, people often choose social media as their
reliable source of news.” In this statement, Mzaca (2011) is suggesting that because of how
the media system is in Zimbabwe, people no longer relied on it for credible information.
That’s why social media has been flooded by political news and debates. Political news
and debates dominate the Zimbabwean social media. Thus Zhangazha (2013) posits that
Zimbabwean social media has been playing an ambiguous role in political event in the last
12 months and particularly with the yet to end July 31 harmonized election period

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(referring to the 2013 period). From the above assertion it is clear that social media has the
power of bringing together individuals who share common goals and ideas. For example
the Baba Jukwa Facebook page brought together people who felt that there must be regime
change in Zimbabwe in the elections that were due to be held on July 31 2013.
Social media in Zimbabwe is also seen as platforms where people are free to
express their viewpoints without fear of intimidation or confrontation. Mzaca (2011) has
the view that Facebook is popular and essential as water, people speak out their minds
without physical intimidation or confrontation as people are given the platform for
uncensored views on socio-political issues. On the other hand Masuku (2013) supports the
view of freedom of expression of citizens, saying that social media offers an alternative
platform for expressions to citizens in situations where their free expressions are
suppressed.
In a research by Dlamini, Ncube and Muchemwa (2015), the use of social media
in universities was studied. They acknowledge that they have been many researches about
how university students misuse the technology and the danger it could pose to their
development. The research was conducted on one local Zimbabwean University, Solusi
University, and data was obtained through questionnaires using SPSS to analyze them. The
results showed that students had access to social media through computers and mobile
phones. When they sought to see for which purposes the students use the social media for
they found out that respondents usually used social media for beneficial causes, that is, for
academic and social communication. (Dlamini, Ncube & Muchemwa, 2015)
2.2.2 Research on youth political participation in Zimbabwe
The role of the youth has been something that has been talked and researched about
in Zimbabwean politics. Oberth Hodzi conducted a research on how the youth participation

25
or lack thereof during the 2013 Zimbabwean Harmonized elections. Hodzi explains the
youth in the world as being “ a distinct collective group, uniform in their grievances and
consensual in strategies to resolve them” (Hodzi, 2013). He then argues that the situation
is different with Zimbabwean young people, “act as individuals, loosely affiliated and
seeking personal rather than group benefits.” He proposed this argument by using the Self-
interest and perceived identity framework and used an example that “a young person may
decide to support a political party or election candidate not on the basis of what he or she
stands to gain (self-interest) if the candidate or political party wins the election but on the
immediate benefits that might be gained from support in the pre-election period.”
According to ZimStats (2012), the population of Zimbabwe is approximately 12
973 808 (ZimStats 2012). The adult population (18+ years of age) is about 6 647 779,
constituting 51.23% of the country’s total population. The youth (18-35 years) population
is around 3 572 987, which is 27.54% of the total population and 53.74% of the country’s
adult voting population. Based on these figures, the youth are a significant constituency for
national agenda-setting, electoral mobilization and political participation but as of the 2013
elections that was not the case. According to the Research and Advocacy Unit’s (RAU)
audit report on the 2013 voters’ roll, only 8.87% of youths in the age group 18-19 were
registered to vote; 19.55% of those between 20 and 24 and 51.69% of those between 25
and 29. According to the same report, the number of registered voters in the age group 30-
34 years exceeded the population in that age group by 6.12%: 106.12% were registered as
voters. Because of this, the youth (18-35) became the target of political party mobilization
campaigns and were being identified as “swing voters”. In other words, it means that the
youth were used as “pawns in a chess game” and most of them did not know.
The media and political analysts reiterated the significance of capturing the youth
vote, identifying them as the ultimate determinants of the victor in the July 2013 elections
(Fox News, 2013). This only shows the importance of the youth in the 2013 elections was
to only have their votes as they constitute a big number of the population. They were urged
to register to vote through different campaigns, such as media campaigns and Internet
based campaigns. Regardless of the structural challenges imposed on voter registration,

26
youth organizations and individual activists devised web-based platforms and made use of
social media to encourage the youth to register, check their names on the voters’ roll and
eventually go out and vote. For instance, a consortium of youth organizations launched a
first-time voters’ registration campaign. (Hodzi, 2013). To enhance their mobilization of
first time voters (mostly youths), political parties and youth organizations engaged in door-
to-door voter mobilization campaigns, which, in turn, were banned, this time by the
Zimbabwe Republic Police Officer Commanding Harare Sub-Region (Zhangazha 2013).
In terms of being engaged in formal politics, the youth participation was close to non-
existent except for a few cases were both main political parties had candidates running for
a seat in the parliament. In almost all major political parties in Zimbabwe the low-level
workers and volunteers tend to be the youth, while the leadership is dominated by older
people. In most cases the youth are confined to party youth leagues or their equivalents
(Hodzi, 2013). Kademaunga (2011) also adds on that youths have been alienated from
national politics as they are viewed as “an insignificant group in terms of decision making
processes. She further argues that all parties have youth wings as a strategy to keep them
content and describes this strategy as “exclusion by inclusion.”
During the 2013 elections there was a total of 6 youth candidates running for
National assembly seats from both major political parties but none of them made it into the
National Assembly. None of the Zanu-PF youth candidates who stood in urban areas and
none of the MDC-T youth candidates who stood in rural constituencies won a seat. In
reality, none of the parties seems interested in having young people as active participants
although they are happy to have their backing as voters, vigilantes and campaigners – an
attitude that is bound to limit the enthusiasm of young people for political participation
(ActionAid Denmark, 2013). The youth political participation is only deemed useful when
it comes to mobilization and mostly during the election periods otherwise when it comes
to decision making they are left out in the cold. This is mainly down to the issue that most
youths in Zimbabwe lack economic independence and will always depend on the others
for a helping hand. This research is useful for my study because social media is being used
for political participation and one does not need to have money to participate online. This

27
research paper will show that there are many ways to be involved and not just mobilizing
for political parties.
2.2.3 Research on the impact of social media on youth
A study was carried out in Bahawalpur in Jordan on the impact of social media on
the youth there. The study was design to analyzed the impact of social media on youth,
how social media is influencing on the youth in different aspects of social life, political
awareness, religious practices, educational learning, trends adopting, sports activities and
so on(Sim & Pop, 2014). In their study, they have acknowledged that social media has
become an integral part of our lives in all aspects, but what seems to be still ignored is to
what extent. Other objectives of their study were to analyze the influence and benefits of
social media on the youth and they carried out a descriptive study to get their desired
findings. They also discovered that majority of the students were using social media for
useless video sharing. This also helps my study that the role of social media cannot be
defined but rather it can only be analyzed to see how much positive and negative aspects it
is providing since it already suggests that social media already has a role it plays.
2.2.4 Research on role of social media in political participation
Chatora (2012) suggests that “social media have great potential for encouraging
collaborative political participation. Accessible social media platforms offer ordinary
citizens the opportunity to interact more directly and actively with their political systems.”
He argues that in as much as social media plays a role, it is the human passion that drives
social media. By this he means that if the people are not involved or interested in the issue,
they will not participate just because it is trending on social media. He uses two examples
to support his argument. The first example is Zambia which had a civil society driven
website which utilized Facebook and Twitter to encourage people to vote and report any

28
political related violence or crimes. There were tweets trending with the hash-tag
“#Zambiaelections” and were automatically linked to the Bantu Watch website. This
exercise alone enable Zambian citizens to be involved in the electoral participation and to
some extent even non Zambian citizens could also participate.
Another example he gives was in Nigeria where President Goodluck Jonathan
successfully utilized Facebook to engage with Nigerian citizens. “Jonathan even took the
unprecedented decision of announcing his presidential candidacy on Facebook.
(Essoungou, 2011) During the electoral process in Nigeria, other institutions also started
their own social media initiatives. Similarly, during the election, Nigerian mainstream
media struck a relationship with social media platforms that enhanced both citizens’
participation and professional journalistic practices. Journalists from various media
organizations engaged with citizens on Facebook and the citizens’ contributions informed
the journalists’ questions during interviews with political players in institutions such as
INEC.” (Chatora, 2012)
Chatora’s conclusion is that social media now has a big part to play in African
politics like it has been doing in other countries such as USA. It is being used as a
whistleblower, like the case of Zambia, and also being used as the main point of
information or a mouthpiece for a party or political figure, as in the case of Jonathan in the
Nigerian elections.
2.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The thesis will work with the following questions:
a. What are the roles that the youth in Zimbabwe are using social media in political
participation?
b. What political themes are the Zimbabwean youth discussing on social media?
c. What is the main motive behind youth online political participation?

29
3. Chapter Three: Theoretical Framework and Methodology
3.1 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The theoretical framework which functions as the basis of this study is located
within the Uses and Gratifications theory and Agenda Setting theory.
3.1.1 Uses and Gratifications Theory
Central to studies analyzing media adoption and use pattern is the basic concept of
the Uses and Gratifications approach, which states that people make an active and goal
directed choice between the different media that surround them, based on their needs and
the different gratifications these media provide them with (Katz et al., 1974). The Uses and
Gratifications theory will help the research of this paper because it suggests that
people/audience will choose the media that suit their needs. Usually these needs are
benefits or tools that help them to develop and this is what this research is aiming to
establish. The uses and gratifications approach (U&G), though an old media theory, is
presented as a theoretical lens and empirical means for studying how audiences engage
with new media. U&G provides a unique perspective on new media as it stresses the
relevance of media in the context of everyday life, examining uses, gratifications sought
and obtained, and media practices over time.
U&G is heavily criticized in this modern day communication studies as the media
landscape has been changing into that of new media or many to many unlike the one to
many that was prevalent a decade ago. From the definition given above, we can see that
Katz was explaining that individuals subscribe to certain media because it matches their
goals and sometimes even their socio-economic background. Thus, individuals are seen as
active participants in the media consumption process.
Below is an illustration of the theory obtained from America Pink (2014).

30
Figure 1: Core Concepts OF U&G Theory
Control is apparently now in the hands of the users of these new media. People are
now responsible for making content themselves that they can happily contribute to and gain
from. For example, one can start a discussion on Facebook and then have people contribute
by posting comments of their own to give different opinions to a certain topic. Shao (2010)
says humans basically use social media to fulfill needs.

31
However, in talking about social media usage by the youth for political
participation, the U&G theory will better explain why and how certain segments of the
population derive satisfaction from any type of role that the social media plays. .
3.1.2 Agenda Setting Theory
This theory was proposed in the 1970s by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw.
They define Agenda Setting Theory as “the mass media force attention to certain issues.
They build up public images of political figure. They are constantly presenting objects
suggesting what individuals in the mass should think about, know about, have feeling
about” (McCombs & Shaw, 1972). “Agenda setting theory changed the attention from what
to how media effects work at institutional and macro-social level.” (Matei and Mcdonald,
2010). This would make this theory more applicable in mass communication and for this
thesis it would seem relevant.
Agenda setting has evolved over time from an “issue salience” theory to a more
complex proposition with overlaps with priming/framing theory (Matei and Mcdonald,
2010). In the later elaborations, agenda setting emerged as multifaceted explanatory
mechanism, which takes into account the representation and content of the media coverage
as well as the corresponding audience attitudes about these issues. In this study, agenda
setting is a bit different from that of mass media as it suggests that also the correspondence
of the audiences or readers will be examined. This theory was first tested during the
American 1968 presidential campaign. McCombs and Shaw were at the center of the test
as they sought to examine the relationship between mass media and the public’s
perceptions of important voting issues. “Hypothesizing an “agenda-setting function of the
mass media,” McCombs and Shaw attempted to match individuals’ perceptions of key
voting issues to those issues given the most media attention.” (Matei and Mcdonald, 2010).
After analyzing the data, McCombs and Shaw discovered a very strong relationship
between the voters’ perceptions of salient issues and those issues discussed most by the
media.

32
There are a lot of arguments as to why agenda setting theory should not apply in
new media studies but this paper will justify it through this study. Nowadays a lot of
mainstream media has a relationship with new media (social media) so they get to even
share the stories between themselves. Thus, the mainstream media sets the agenda to be
discussed on social media and then social media sets the agenda for its users online. This
can also go the other way as we have seen something going viral on social media such that
the traditional media is forced to give attention to it. According to Messner and Distaso’s
(2008), traditional media regularly cite blogs as source material– and blogs largely rely on
traditional media for information as well. Clearly mass media and social media influence
each other, even benefit each other. For example, Twitter can give a good case of agenda
setting by the social media. Over the past half-decade there has been something popular
among all Twitter users and that was the hashtag option. Using the hashtag made a post or
subject easily found if one had to search for it and this would encourage some kind of
discussion or interaction. Thorndyke (2011) suggested that “Twitter uses “trending topics”
as a way to start mob conversations among its users. The most popular and frequently
tweeted phrases are archived so that users can see what conversations and information are
being shared in the virtual world. Twitter describes its trending topics by explaining:
“Twitter's Trending Topics algorithm identifies topics that are immediately
popular, rather than topics that have been popular for a while or on a daily
basis, to help people discover the "most breaking" news stories from across
the world.“(Twitter.com).
On the other hand, the Agenda Setting Theory states that the media consciously or
unconsciously create a particular image of reality to the society (Fourie, 2001). Davies
(2010) also argues that the agenda setting theory states that issues that receive prominent
attention on the national news become the topics that the viewing public considers to be
most important. For example, a story that makes headlines on news bulletins will be the
most debated and discussed story. In the case of Zimbabwe, politics is one of the most
featured issues on national television and thus it influences the discussions on social media.
Other scholars argue that the media is not that successful in influencing people’s thoughts

33
but rather gives them the ideas of their discussions, meaning they cannot construct their
own news. The theory implies a one directional flow of influence, which is from the media
to audience meaning audiences are passive. (Baran & Davis, 2010) argues that audiences
don’t simply passively take in and store bits of information in mental filing cabinets, they
actively process this information, reshape it, store only what serves culturally defined
needs. The social media sets agendas as it triggers events, for example, the presidential
elections in 2013 or when the President of Zimbabwe fell after ascending from the plane it
went viral on social media. This evoked some topics of discussion among social media
users.
Despite the fact that the theory is concerned with the role of the media in setting
the agenda for the people, it can be useful in this research as it shows the importance of the
social media in sending messages to the people (the theory sets topics for discussion to the
people). Information is a vital resource to be needed by the people.
The theoretical framework that this thesis shall be working with falls under these
two theories discussed above. Social media engages the youth because it suits the needs
and gratifies them while at the same time working within an agenda that has been set to
keep control of the kind of information they participate in.
The figure below explains the relationship between the two theories and how they
all lead to youth online political participation.

34
Figure 2: Theoretical Framework
3.2 METHODOLOGY
This part of the thesis focuses on the methodology that was used to collect and
analyze data. This entire research was conducted using two distinct techniques which are
quantitative and qualitative. Bryman (1988) argued for a “best of both worlds” approach
and suggested that qualitative and quantitative approaches should be combined. On the
other hand, Hughes (1997), warns that such “technicist solutions underestimate the politics
of legitimacy that are associated with choice of methods. In particular, quantitative
approaches have been seen as more scientific and `objective'”. Quantitative research
consists of those studies in which the data concerned can be analyzed in terms of numbers.
Since quantitative research involves numbers and statistics, it was employed as the main
Uses and
Gratification
Theory
Agenda
Setting
Theory
Youth online
political
participation

35
basis of this study. Data is to be collected and analyzed in a statistical way that will give
more accurate results in the findings of this study.
“Qualitative research usually involves close contact between the researcher and the
research participants which are interactive and developmental and allow for emergent
issues to be explored.” (Henn, 2006). Since this paper seeks to see how the youth are using
social media to participate in politics, it requires for an interaction to see the relationship
between the three (youth, social media and politics). Qualitative research is considered as
being more personal because it will be like viewing the events or situations through the
participants’ eyes. Content analysis of social media pages and groups is made the basis of
this research and then it is assisted by in depth interviews that were conducted
electronically. This helps the research get more data not just from the content analysis but
also by hearing from the people that generate the content in this User Generated Content
era.
3.3 SAMPLING
To give it a simple definition, sampling means to take a sample or samples for
analysis. However in research, there is a lot involved in sampling. A sample must be
enough to give the researcher the data they are looking for so they must follow a procedure.
A researcher has the audacity of choosing elements on which to concentrate on out of the
many at his or her disposal. A sample refers to a subset or portion of a population (Keyton,
2006). It is a representation of the whole or the entire population. In the course of the
research the inference drawn from the fraction is extended to the whole group (Raj, 1968).
In this study a sampling technique has been identified for the content analysis and also for
the interviews.
3.3.1 Sampling of content analysis
Before going into the sampling procedure, the researcher will explain why
Facebook was chosen as the platform to be used for research instead of other sites.

36
Facebook has been growing popularity in the whole world. Zimbabwe has been also one
country that has fully embraced the Facebook phenomena and even though they are still
behind in terms of technological infrastructure, the Internet penetration is growing.
According to WorldStats (2014) the Internet users in Zimbabwe are at least 47.5% which
is almost half of the entire country’s population. Of these 6 million Internet users, by
November 2015 at least 850 000 Zimbabweans had Facebook accounts with a penetration
rate of 6%, according to WorldStats.
The Facebook group that has been used in this study is called Democracy Advocate
Initiative. In their description of their group, they said,
“Welcome to DEMOCRACY ADVOCATE INITIATIVE group. This forum is the
online limb of the Democracy Advocate Initiative [DAI] Trust. This platform is for
germinating and cross fertilizing ideas that promote democracy, clean governance
and social cohesion. We aim to engender wholesome democracy through nurturing
active citizenship in Zimbabwe. It is the obligation of every citizen, we believe, to
struggle for a just, equal, and peaceful society for themselves and posterity. We are
a broad community of Zimbabweans of different ideological hues, tolerant to a
broad church of opinion and united by a shared vision of a democratic, peaceful
and prosperous Zimbabwe. We have group admins whose duty it is to enforce the
following page don'ts:
a) Obscene language.
b) Sexually explicit language, videos or images and adverts,
c) incendiary/hate speech”
This group has been picked out as the one to support this research because of its
characteristics. As mentioned in Chapter One, 60 percent of the Zimbabwean population is
under 40 and they are the most active online. It is an open group which means anyone can
request to join and with a membership of more than 50 000 Zimbabweans, it represents a
good percentage of the entire Facebook population of about 17%. From their description
also they showed that they do not promote any kind of biasness of that sort unlike other

37
pages or traditional forms of media. Out of all pages and groups, Democracy Advocacy
Initiative is the one that mainly covers the needs of the majority of the Zimbabweans. As
it is known in the Zimbabwean political history, most of the media coverage is given to the
ruling party, so this group tends not to show a bias towards a certain party and with the
group boasting a membership of just above 54 000, it serves as a good sample.
For the content analysis, the research will start from 1 January 2016 to 31 March
2016, a period of three months. This period was not special in any way with the exception
of the launch of a new political party which this research has also taken into account.
Political participation is an ongoing issue and should not be limited to a time period because
as described in Chapter Two, political participation entails a lot of aspects from voting to
demonstrations and everyday policy making debates. These two months were picked for
the convenience of this research because the data was easily available as it is shown in the
Limitations section. It was realized that the data would be a lot to analyse which could lead
to distorted information so each month has been sampled ten days. To make it uniform, the
researcher will take into account the first five days and last five days of each month to
collect data from and analyse. This is called systematic random sampling. Systematic
random sampling is the random sampling method that requires selecting samples based on
a system of intervals in a numbered population.
3.3.2 Sampling of interviewees
Random sampling was used to get participants for these online interviews. To
ensure that these participants would fall under the youth category, the interviewer had to
ask them their age before proceeding with the interviews. Also based on the statistics that
most active age group on social media were youths, the probability of having youths as
respondents was high. Random sampling is a technique that is used especially in
quantitative studies but can also be used in qualitative studies like in this instance. Users
were assessed on Facebook political groups and those who showed a form of participation.

38
Users were approached via email or Facebook message and were introduced to the research
and asked if they were willing to accept.
3.4 DATA COLLECTION TECHNIQUES
3.4.1 Content Analysis
This is the first method that was used to collect and analyze the data that will
contribute towards the findings of this thesis. Content analysis has been defined in different
ways and is easily linked with both quantitative and qualitative. “Content analysis is a
research technique for the systematic classification and description of communication
content according to certain usually predetermined categories.” (Wright, 1986). Content
analysis can measure human behavior and that is why it is the most common used research
methodologies in media and communication studies.
Treadwell (2011) defines it as “a quantitative, systematic, and objective technique
for describing the manifest content of communications.” This emphasizes that analyze
content must include several techniques for it to achieve the desired results. Treadwell
(2011) adds that content analysis does not show the effects on audiences but rather tells us
what is in the material that is being studied. For this paper, the content analysis will seek
to show us how social media has made the youths participate in politics by showing what
they are talking about in the social media platforms.
The content that has been analyzed comes from Facebook. A lot of platforms are
being used in Zimbabwe for political participation including Twitter, Whatsapp, YouTube
and other blogging sites. For this paper, Facebook was used because it has a larger database
and following in Zimbabwe. Whatsapp also has a lot of users in Zimbabwe and could have
been easily used in this research. Whatsapp and Facebook are easily the most used social
media applications in Zimbabwe but what makes Facebook more appropriate for this
research is how it links with other forms of media and its interactivity and thus it was
picked for this research.

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3.4.2 Online in-depth interviews
In order to answer the questions that this research has put forward, in-depth
interviews had to be conducted so as to get more insight on the participants’ behavior,
attitude and opinion on the issues discussed. Interviews are also widely used in qualitative
research as they obtain information that cannot be gained just by observation. It is probably
just easily explained as a “conversation between researcher and an informant.” Interviews
are used to “find out about people’s ideas, thoughts, opinions, attitudes, and what motivates
them.” This explanation justifies why interviews were used to answer some of the research
questions.
This paper adopted the open ended questions also known as in depth interviews
because it is the attitudes, opinions of the participants that was being sought. Although
interviews could not be conducted physically, electronic interviews were conducted
through social media and emails. These interviews were conducted between the researcher
and different participants who were picked out randomly from the social media
pages/groups. Participants were approached in the groups and were briefed about the nature
of the research and would volunteer to be part of the research. After agreeing, the
participant and researcher exchanged contact details (email addresses/ phone numbers) and
then the researcher would send the questions for the participant to answer.

40
4. Chapter Four: Findings
4.1 FINDINGS FROM THE CONTENT ANALYSIS AND INTERVIEWS
In this chapter, the data that was collected will be presented in a way that will make
the readers understand what the researcher is aiming to achieve. Furthermore, there will be
discussion which will be as a result of the data. Two research techniques were employed
in this paper and as mentioned above they cover both quantitative and qualitative analysis
in the form of content analysis and semi structured interviews.
4.1.1 Content Analysis
Content analysis was conducted on a specific Facebook group that deals with
Zimbabwean politics. The name of the group is Democracy Advocate Initiative (DAI) and
has a membership of more than 50 000 Zimbabweans. This group was chosen specifically
for its huge traffic in terms of content and for the purposes it was created for. On this
platform, Facebook users are able to send and publish their own posts, share multimedia
posts or share information from other media platforms such as online newspapers, social
media pages and also videos and audios from various sources. There is no limit as to how
many posts an individual or even the entire group can post a day and this is why the young
people enjoy these groups.
Any individual that is able to see the posts in the group can contribute by either
liking the posts or commenting on them. In this research, we only focused on the comments
as they would provide substantive evidence towards the findings of this research.
Comments most probably are people’s opinions and shared content. Both kinds of data are
collected for content analysis in the study.

41
Posts and comments were collected and put on word document to do the analysis.
The sampling method for these posts was that of the first 5 days and last 5 days of each
month from February to March, 2016. These dates were picked randomly and while there
is nothing specific about these dates, they were picked in a specific system. Although there
was no major political event between these two months in Zimbabwe, they were still
applicable to this study. The most talked about event in the past year and in the past several
months this year has been the run up to the 2018 elections where many are expecting it to
be the beginning of a new regime. This has resulted in new political parties being formed
and in this analysis we will include some data we collected during the launch of a new
party.
This party is called Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) and it is led by the former Vice
President of Zimbabwe, Joice Mujuru. Since Mujuru was part of the ruling party and was
booted out, this sparked a lot of controversy and debate and it was evident in some of the
posts we analyzed. As a fellow freedom fighter and prominent ruling party member, very
few people would have thought that she (Mujuru) will be expelled from the party and go
on to form her own party. Some consider her a sellout, fraud or just another greedy
politician. A lot of Facebook users took the opportunity to express their views on the issue
and to inform others. At the same time, some political parties, media organizations and
other relevant associations also used their social media pages to be involved and interact
with others.
All this data was collected from 1 February 2016 to 31 March 2016, using a
systematic sampling of collecting data from ten days of each month. So in total, twenty
days between these two months were used as the basis of our research.
After the data was collected on Facebook, interviews were conducted to support the
data that has been collected. A total of seventeen people were sent the interview questions
but only 10 respondents sent back their responses. The interviews started with a general
introduction of the researcher and the research and mentioned why they were picked to be
a participant. After that they were asked to mention their names and age, all of which was
optional. This self-introductory is important to show that they are in the age bracket the

42
research is focusing on. This procedure was followed up by seven interrelated questions
and they were all open ended questions. Participants had the choice to answer all questions
at one go or answer them individually. After all of them had responded, their answers were
compiled and analyzed to give more explanation on the youth political participation on
social media.
4.1.1.1 Posts generated
Below is the data that was collected from DAI posts between February 1 and March
31.
Figure 3: Facebook posts between February and March 2016
17
22 21 19
12
18 19
29
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Feb 1 - Feb 5 Feb 25- Feb 29 March 1- March 5 March 27- March 31
numberofposts
Dates
Number of Posts
Shared posts Original posts

43
This data above shows the number of posts that were politically related that the
researcher managed to get from the Facebook group during the course that has been
stipulated within the period of study. Since social media has managed to integrate other
media, the researcher noticed that there was a need to mention the types of posts by people.
The posts have been categorized as “original” and “shared”. Original refers to those posts
that were written in the writer’s own words whether commenting on a subject, raising a
new topic for discussion or some of them are just ideas/opinions they are seeking to share
with their fellow group members. There was a total of 78 posts in the 20 days that were
researched that were original.
On the other hand shared posts are almost the total opposite to the original posts.
Shared posts are those that the writer gets from other websites or platform and decides to
share with the group members. Other shared posts are from other Facebook pages such as
political party pages, since most parties have now resorted to social media to make
announcements. Others will share a news article and engage others in a debate on the topic.
The total number of shared posts was 79.
Examples of original and shared posts are shown below:

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Figure 4: An original post example
In the figure below, a Facebook user shared an article written about Mujuru (ZPF
President) from another website called www.pindula.co.zw. The user also put their own
comment/caption before sharing the article with the group. The article was about the new
political party and how it got to use the name Zimbabwe People First.

45
Figure 5: A shared post example
4.1.1.2 Topics discussed
During the data collection, I noticed there were a few words that kept on popping
in almost every posts and these showed what the majority of Zimbabwean youth that are
active online will be discussing on social media. The figure below will illustrate the topics
in the posts.

46
Figure 6: Frequency of topics
In the data presented above, it can be noticed that there were key topics that
contributed to the posts that have been selected. These topics came from both shared and
original posts and some were raised in the comments to counter argue or contribute to the
related topics in discussion. The researcher picked out five topics and they are ZANU PF,
Elections, Voting, Corruption and Employment. These topics are what most of the youth
on social media are talking about concerning political issues both in Zimbabwe.
ZANU PF is the current ruling party and has been in power since Zimbabwe
attained Independence in 1980. It has been heavily criticized for the way it receives media
coverage in Zimbabwe compared to other political parties such as MDC, their main rival.
21
24
18 18
1
5
7
9
3
2
5
3
6
9
2 20
4
2
3
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Feb 1- Feb 5 Feb 25- Feb 29 March 1- March 5 March 27- March 31
Topics
ZANU PF Elections Voting Corruption Employment

47
Zimbabwe’s media system is state owned and although they try to be fair, there still is a
sense of biasness. Thus why ZANU PF is mentioned a lot in this research and mainly they
were all negative posts. The data to show that most posts and comments were negative is
lacking because of the difficulty of the process to analayze and count the data. In counting,
ZANU PF was mentioned 56.25% in all posts combined, more than half of all the posts.
Elections were the second most talked about topic and they also are very sensitive
subjects in Zimbabwean politics. Most of the youth had a lot to share about the past
elections from more than a decade ago and the forthcoming elections in 2018. With a lot
of new political parties being formed and the worsening economic crisis and ageing
President, most of the youth are anticipating the forthcoming elections and this was shown
in their posts. They were mentioned 15.28%, including all posts that are both shared and
original.
Another topic that was also part of some discussions was corruption. Corruption
has rocked almost a lot of African governments. The government are always trying to
counter it with policies and laws, and this is something that the Zimbabwean youth have
also caught wind of and have joined in the international debate. This group has provided
them with a platform to discuss some of the issues concerning corruption. It was mentioned
13. 19% during the two months of February and March in 2016.
Elections and voting could be considered the same topic but after carefully reading
through some of the posts that involved both terms, it was thought best to analyse them
separately. Voting meant slightly different from elections and was used mainly as a plea to
each other by the youth to exercise their right to vote so as to help rebuild the country. It
was also used to conduct online polls as to see who would win between certain potential
presidential candidates, which obviously are different from the elections.
The last topic that will be discussed in this analysis is that of unemployment. The
unemployment rate is at an all-time high in the country and the most affected are the youth
especially those who are still fresh from University. They have taken advantage of the
different social platforms to discuss and express their anger or disappointment with how
the issue is being handled, and it was no different in this group (DAI). Although it wasn’t

48
mentioned as many times as the other topics, at 6.25% it also took its share on the group’s
discussions. In all the discussions that involved employment or lack of it, the youth were
advocating for a change in policies of the government so that this issue can be handled.
4.1.1.3 Comments per type of post
Figure 7: Comments distribution
In the above diagram, it shows how the comments were distributed per each
category of posts, that is shared or original posts. There was a total of almost 2000
comments from both categories but the original posts got more than 75% of all comments.
The exact figure is at 1876 (86%), which is an overwhelming response to just 78 posts
meaning on average each posts had 24 comments. This is testament to the fact how social
media has created a participatory culture among users especially the youth.
1876, 86%
305, 14%
Comments
Original posts Shared posts

49
They were not exactly ignoring the shared posts as they commented a total of 305
comments on 79 posts. They averaged close to 4 comments per individual post. This should
not suggest that they were not interested in the shared news by the other news websites
because what the data does not show is how many people read the news.
4.1.1.4 ZPF launch
After this, I then went on to use the existing data that I had collected on the launch
of the ZPF party. The party was launched on March 1 2016. I only used data that was
collected from that specific date. Since it was a live event, many used the platform to
broadcast live updates of what was happening at the launch. The difference between these
categories were that the live updates were in the present tense giving updates of what was
happening at the event. These were posted by people who claimed to be there at the venue
of the launch. The posts surrounding ZPF came in different categories which I had to put
them in. There were a total of 22 posts that were collected from DAI group on Facebook
but not all of them talked about the launch of this party. Below is (Table 1) showing how
those stories were categorized.
Table 2: Number of different types of posts on the launch of ZPF
Type of posts Number
Live update 2
Shared articles 5
Original posts 4
In total, there were 11 posts that talked specifically about ZPF on March 1 2016 on
the DAI group on Facebook, while talking about other parties (ZANU PF) and issues

50
(employment, corruption, elections) as shown in the above graphs. There were three
categories that the researcher identified during the data collection and they were, live
updates, shared articles and original posts. In live updates, this was when a reliable source
or party that was at the venue were posting live updates of what was happening at the
launch of this party. Facebook does not allow one post to have as many threads, it would
be different posts. This is probably the reason why there were only two posts. One live
update came from an interested individual who claimed to be supporting the new party,
while the other live update was from a news website. Reason why this category was picked
is before new media, people did not have access to live events happening in the country
especially those that did not have anything to do with the state media. In these posts, people
will be getting real time updates and usually unedited posts, something that traditional
media cannot boast about.
Secondly it was the shared articles and just like above, they were posts shared by
users from other websites and media platforms and the same applies with the original posts,
they were original opinions and ideas that were conveyed by the users. Each post
accumulated its own number of comments and while some were irrelevant because on
social media nothing is edited or censored so people can comment with whatever they want
to.

51
Chapter Five: Discussion and Conclusion
5.1 THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON YOUTH POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
This research paper has been centered on the topic of the role of social media in
youth political participation in Zimbabwe. A lot of studies have been presented and
summarized in the earlier sections to make the reader understand that this subject has been
researched on thus it is not a new phenomenon in Zimbabwean politics. Two theories also
have been used to design the framework in which the data collected were analyzed.
Therefore, this section will integrate the literature review, theories and data findings to
discuss the research questions that were asked above.
5.1.1 Easy spread of political information.
“I do not have to get out of my way to access social media, it is readily available
on my phone or desktop at work”, were the words of one respondent. Another one said,
“You now get political news real time not having to wait for tomorrow’s Herald or the 8pm
news bulletin.” The Zimbabwean youths are now getting information instantly and this
helps them participate in politics because they have all the information they need. During
the ZPF launch, we noticed there were two “live updates” posts and although the agenda
had been set, the traditional media could not control when the people would receive the
information. Frank Mutize says he accesses these pages at least once every hour and this
can be supported by how the number of social media users has drastically improved in
Zimbabwe over the last year. Because of these regular visits on such sites, people have
quick access to information.
Also traditional media have resorted to using social media to reach their audience
so even though they will publish the story later, they still post on their social media pages
and websites to attract readers. In our findings, the number of shared posts was slightly
bigger and most of the origin of these posts were newspaper websites.

52
Facebook as a social media platform is used to share information as much as to
create new information, mainly known as User Generated Content (UGC). It has grown in
size and numbers mainly because of its User Generated Content which a lot of people have
grown a liking to as shown in the literature review. As content analysis indicated, there was
a slight difference (one post) between original posts and shared posts but nevertheless this
proved that the youth create their own content on these social media groups especially on
Facebook. The number of comments both on the original posts and shared posts also
showed that a lot of people create their own content on DAI. All these comments are a type
of content because they are not constructed by Facebook or any other production and that
is why they are called User Generated Content. This is the big difference between
traditional media and new media and it has helped the youth to be involved politically as
they are now able to voice their concerns. In the interviews, all the participants admitted to
having contributed their own ideas to different sections of the social media platforms and
some even said they post regularly. One of the respondnets, Frank Mutize who is aged 26
said that he is an administrator of some pages and that requires him to regularly post content
but he also replies to some posts that he was interested in.
This finding is also supported by our theoretical framework, that of UGT and
Agenda Setting theory. As explained in the chapter above, this framework interprets that
the youth mainly use or participate in these issues because they suit their needs and desires.
Some of these needs include they personal, economic and political development. They are
not forced to participate but instead they are sort of guided on what to talk about as they
are the ones who really don’t set the agenda. This is supported by one of the interviewees
who said, “As a person who is living in the diaspora I depend on such pages for news. Most
of the news I read is usually via links I get from Facebook or Twitter.” This is to testify
that although people rely on social media for new information, they still get the actual
information from other traditional publications. Although traditional media are no longer
as splendid as they were years ago, they still play a vital role in controlling what is trending
and not trending. However, social media has given the audience the power to choose what
and how they listen or get new information. This is supported by the UGT and even one of

53
the interviewees, Sikhumbuzo, said “I mostly participate on issues to do with the future of
Zimbabwe considering its political environment. I’m interested in engaging in the welfare
of my fellow countrymen on issues that we will need to deal with as a nation for the
betterment of our future. Questions of succession within ZANU PF, establishment of
monarchs and the corruption remain front and center of the public spheres I contribute
to.” The participant has chosen to follow groups and pages that talk about issues that will
interest him while forgetting about other issues. In Zimbabwe, a major issue or topic that
interest a lot of people politically, is that of ZANU PF. This is clear by the frequency that
ZANU PF was a topic in most of the posts that were collected, and all interviewees
admitted to having interest in that. ZANU PF was mentioned a total of 56.25 % out of all
other four topics that were being discussed.
5.1.2 Freedom of expression
From the findings and analysis, it is proven that social media (in particular
Facebook) has a vital role to play in politics especially in Zimbabwe. The role of social
media on the youth political participation is a bit diverse according to our research findings.
It is providing platforms for the youth’s political participation. A lot of comments were
generated according to our findings and this shows how much of a platform social media
has become in terms of expressing own opinions and ideas. Before, in traditional media, it
was almost unheard of that people, especially the youths will be able to participate on
national issues and developments without any experience, socio-economic status or
affiliations with the ruling party. There are a lot of debates, discussions and news alerts on
social media that provide the platform for these youths to participate in.
From the interviews, respondents were asked, “In your own words could you
describe the role social media has played in the political landscape among the Zimbabwean
youth.” In their responses, 6 out of 10 respondents had answers suggesting that the freedom
of speech and lack of censorship that social media gives them has enabled them to
participate. One respondent said, “Social media gives me opportunity to give my views

54
unlike newspapers n TVs, also it give me (a chance) to understand and know what others
are thinking.” while another respondent said, “The editors powers have been curtailed by
social media”. This role that social media is playing is making political participation easier
for the youths because before social media, they argued that their voices could not be heard.
Our theoretical framework also helps to explain this because the participation is benefiting
the youths as they get to put their views out there without any censorship thus gratifying
them in return.
A lot of topics are discussed in the data findings and these show how much freedom
of expression the youths have been afforded. We discovered five topics namely, ZANU
PF, Corruption, Unemployment, Vote and Elections, which all led to the theme of regime
change. These topics were not easily discussed in the old media but because social media
has no censorship, they can be discussed by anyone now. One topic in particular (ZANU
PF), which is the ruling party and controls much of the country’s media, can only be
discussed in traditional media if it is promoting its values and objectives.
The interest shown by the youths is also partly because of the level of anonymity
that social media provides. Social media has played a role where it can protect the youths’
identity and allowing them to have a virtual identity which can make them speak out their
minds without any fear of any direct danger they could find themselves in. In one of the
interviews, the respondent (name withheld) said they use a different name on Facebook
just to make sure they are on the safe side and they enjoy participating anonymously.
Another participant, Andrew also said he has posted something asking a few
questions about the current leadership. An example of one of his posts is, “Can you trust
Tsvangirai with your vote?” and he also has contributed to the #Bring back our 15billion
which has rocked Zimbabwean politics after this research had already started. This also
can be supported by the Agenda setting theory because an agenda has been set in
Zimbabwean politics that every youth who is interested in national politics. Since ZANU
PF has been the ruling party since Independence, it has forced all media platforms to talk
about them and now with social media they get to comment about it also.

55
5.1.3 Engages the youths more
One of the main reasons why there has been a clear distinction between new media
and old media is the participatory culture. New media is very interactive and this is what
makes it rely more on UGC because that is how information is spread and it works with
many to many principle unlike the one to many principle of old media. All interviews that
I conducted seemed to echo that a lot of the youths are participating on Facebook because
of its interactivity and open access to information. Azon, one of the respondents, added
that “Traditional media are controlled by the system and no room for everyone. This is
contrary to social media. Social media is career open to talent. No discrimination and less
intimidation”
Another respondent, Tavonga, also added that “Through debates and dialogues as
well as opinion columns I have a better appreciation of the various political game players
as well as what they stand for.” All these responses are testaments to the fact that because
they have the ability to connect, communicate and inform their peers on these Facebook
platforms, youths of Zimbabwe are more involved. The number of comments also suggests
that they are more active on social media as compared to traditional media. Nixon, in his
interview with me referred to Facebook giving them (youths) the “voice” when he said
“The voice. I can post my comments on an issue instantly unlike in traditional media where
out of 13million Zimbabweans only 3 letters are selected under the heading Letters to the
editor.”
Social media has a lot of features different to traditional media and this is what
makes it get an edge over old media. The User Generated Content, which is part of the
Uses and Gratification Theory is the first feature that makes youths more interested in
participating. Uses and Gratification Theory in this thesis suggests that the youths partake
in these discussions because it benefits them politically by giving them new information
about their political interests and by so doing they contribute data and information. It was
evident in the number of original posts and comments that followed that the youths online
were interested in political issues because they were free to add on their content.

56
The youths’ political knowledge is growing because of the different channels of
communication that are presented by social media. They now have the ability to read up
on what is happening in other countries and compare it with their own national politics.
Maynard Manyowa (another respondent), goes on to say that he has his own political blogs
which comments on current political situations despite their origins. He gives an example
of New Political Forum 2.0 Khuluma Afrika where he shares his opinions, which is a
Facebook based page that discusses African politics although with the main emphasis on
South African politics.
Under the UGT, it suggests that an individual is not controlled by the information
they get but rather they control the information they get. This can be proved by how the
youths have been commenting on the DAI group. On the shared articles they did not post
many comments as much as they did on the original posts showing that the audience/reader
has the power to choose what to and not to comment on. Shared posts had less than 15%
of all comments, showing that the youths were choosing to participate more on the original
posts because they believed and trusted the information they were getting from there.

57
5.2 CONCLUSION
Based on the findings and analysis of the data, this study presents the role of social
media in youth political participation. Social media, and in this study, the case of Facebook,
is playing an integral part in making the youth participate in political activities in
Zimbabwe. They are being engaged in activism, awareness and key debates on policies
that have to do with Zimbabwe as evident in our findings. Several issues are discussed on
Facebook on a more national level. However, their participation in political issues is still
limited due to other factors that include lack of resources and adequate information. This
was also shown in the number of youth who were willing to take part in the interviews,
because they did not want to reveal the reasons why they use social media for political
reasons.
Although there are a lot of political parties, ZANU PF is still the most talked about
party in Zimbabwe. It is also part of the agenda setting theory that is set by the main media
players that influences the kind of content that flows on social media. This shows that social
media still cannot stand alone on its own and has to rely on traditional media for credibility
and also information gathering. There were a lot of shared articles from other news
websites also to show that new media still depend on other forms of media for information.
Although there were a lot of positive contributions coming from the use of social media
especially Facebook, it still promotes negative behaviors such as insulting and sometimes
inciting violence. In Zimbabwe, social media through Facebook is immensely contributing
towards political participation in the youth but there still is a long way for it to go for all
youths to grasp all the positive aspects of it.

58
5.3 LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
In the case of using Facebook, some of the data could not be collected because it
was not found anymore. Facebook has no feature of finding posts that were published
maybe a year ago in chronological order, hence the research had to work within two months
so that the research would be near accurate.
Such researches need maybe a lot of time gathering information so in future a
research like this should be conducted over a long period of time. For example, on the
amount of negative posts referring to ZANU PF, the researcher did not have enough time
to gather the data and make a comparison between the differences in the ZANU PF posts.
Another problem that this research faced was that of political biasness on this group
in question. Reasons why this group had been chosen was that it would represent all
political issues the same but upon studying it, later discovered that it was more focused on
the agenda of regime change than other political issues.
Next time a research like this must include different parties’ groups or platforms on
social media so that there can be easily investigated to find a more common cause amongst
them. My recommendations to the youths using social media to participate in political
issues are as follows:
a. They should be media literate and check facts before posting or
sharing something on their social media pages.
b. They should not only be active online, but also participate in social
life. They should be responsible for what they said.
c. They must not use social media to incite violence. They can use it
to educate, inform, mobilize and alert each other in a more civilized
manner.

59
Appendices
Appendix 1
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Hope this email finds you well. My name is Tafadzwa James Nyakudanga and I am
a Zimbabwean currently studying towards a master’s degree at Communication University
of China. My research topic is “A Study of the Role of Social Media on Youth Political
Participation in Zimbabwe.”
When I was analyzing the several politics related pages on Twitter and Facebook I
saw you are a member on one or some of the groups as a member/follower. Below are a
set of questions I would like to ask you to help with my research paper.
Name :
Age :
In-depth Interview questions
1. Could you identify which political groups and pages you visit on different social
media platforms?
2. How often do you visit these social media sites?
3. How do you contribute to these pages? Can you provide examples of the topics you
have contributed on?
4. Please explain the impact or new information you get from these pages and groups?
5. How has social media participation changed your political views? Please explain
this by giving an example.
6. Comparing to the traditional media, such as TV, broadcasting, newspapers, etc.,
what kind of changes do you think that social media has brought to your political
participation?

60
7. In your own words could you describe the role social media has played in the
political landscape among the Zimbabwean youth.

James Masters thesis

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