Abstract Policies and/or constitutional provisions are a cornerstone for the development of a country. Varied language-related policies and constitutional acts have been crafted and/or amended in an effort to redress the language inequalities in Zimbabwe. The enactment of the new constitution in 2013 saw 16 languages accorded the status of officially recognised language. The media’s role in publicising these constitutional provisions, and ‘digesting’ them for the heterogeneous audience, is vital for the development of the country. The article argues that subjectivities in the news reporting of a country’s enactment of a new language policy are detrimental to the implementation, realisation and overall acceptance of the policy. The article employs the appraisal theoretical framework to examine the print media’s evaluations of the Zimbabwean government’s constitution. Major focus is on the print media appraisals of the Zimbabwean constitutional provisions and their implementation. Utilising the qualitative research paradigm, news reports from Zimbabwe’s print media are purposively sampled. A discourse-analytic design is employed. The research concludes that even though they are other factors, the Zimbabwean print media, both independent and government, positively appreciated [+ve appreciation] the country’s constitutional language provisions for the development of previously marginalised languages.

中文翻译：

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“改变游戏规则的人或另一个假人”：媒体对政府政策的评估

摘要政策和/或宪法规定是一个国家发展的基石。为了纠正津巴布韦的语言不平等现象，制定和/或修订了各种与语言有关的政策和宪法。2013年颁布的新宪法使16种语言获得了官方认可的语言地位。媒体在宣传这些宪法规定并“消化”异类受众中所扮演的角色对于国家的发展至关重要。该文章认为，一国制定新语言政策的新闻报道的主观性不利于该政策的实施，实现和整体接受。本文采用评估理论框架来考察印刷媒体对津巴布韦政府宪法的评价。主要重点是对津巴布韦宪法条款的印刷媒体评估及其实施。利用定性研究范式，对津巴布韦印刷媒体的新闻报道进行有目的的抽样。使用话语分析设计。该研究得出的结论是，尽管是其他因素，但津巴布韦的印刷媒体，无论是独立的还是政府的，都积极赞赏[+ ve赞赏]该国为发展先前被边缘化的语言而制定的宪法语言条款。利用定性研究范式，对津巴布韦印刷媒体的新闻报道进行有目的的抽样。使用话语分析设计。该研究得出的结论是，尽管是其他因素，但津巴布韦的印刷媒体，无论是独立的还是政府的，都积极赞赏[+ ve赞赏]该国的宪法语言规定，以发展先前被边缘化的语言。利用定性研究范式，对津巴布韦印刷媒体的新闻报道进行有目的的抽样。使用话语分析设计。该研究得出的结论是，尽管是其他因素，但津巴布韦的印刷媒体，无论是独立的还是政府的，都积极赞赏[+ ve赞赏]该国的宪法语言规定，以发展先前被边缘化的语言。