Abstract

The Zimbabwean land reform programme’s inception and impact have been studied from various disciplinary perspectives chronicling and profiling its negatives and positives. However, very few discourse-linguistic studies have been carried out on this topic, even though the media is evaluative in its reporting of relevant news. The media’s digestion and subjectivity in news reporting is well documented, making objectivity in news reporting a “myth.” The dichotomisation of news reporting is evident in state and private newspapers. This study is an appraisal and controversy analysis of negation and affirmation discourse realised in private and state print media in Zimbabwe. Though it is known that the private media is a mouthpiece of opposition political parties, evaluations of negation discourse on the Zimbabwean land reform programme have not been carried out. The study appraises the use of negation discourse in the Zimbabwean independent print media and questions whether the media’s projections are controversial and/or myths.

摘要

从各种学科角度研究了津巴布韦土地改革计划的开始和影响，并编列了其消极和积极因素。但是，尽管媒体对相关新闻的报道具有评价性，但针对这一主题进行的话语-语言研究却很少。媒体对新闻报道的消化和主观性有据可查，使新闻报道的客观性成为“神话”。在国有和私人报纸中，新闻报道的二分法很明显。这项研究是对在津巴布韦的私人和国家印刷媒体中实现的否定和肯定性话语的评价和争议性分析。虽然众所周知，私人媒体是反对党的喉舌，关于津巴布韦土地改革计划的否定话语评估尚未进行。该研究评估了在津巴布韦独立印刷媒体中否定性话语的使用，并质疑了媒体的预测是否具有争议性和/或神话性。