ABSTRACT

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

摘要

在政治学，青年研究，冲突研究和发展研究领域，青年的政治代理一直是许多理论辩论的主题。本文采用媒体研究的观点对津巴布韦青年政治机构的争论进行了讨论。这样做的动机来自人们的认识，即现代政治主要是大众媒介的政治。与此相关的是，青年与政治这一主题在津巴布韦媒体中得到了广泛的媒体报道。本文使用批判性政治经济学方法和定性框架分析，探索了两个有目的抽样的案例研究，这些案例研究说明了有关津巴布韦青年政治机构的争论。调查结果表明，青年机构的媒体框架回避了使年轻政治人物动起来并受其激励的实质性政策和公共利益问题。这种规范上不足的框架归因于津巴布韦政治言论的政治平行性和媒体两极化。