The public sphere world wide has always being an aerena for open debates and discussions for topical issues varying fom political, social and economical. However in the Zimbabwean context, this is turning out to be a different scenario. Journalists are considered to be the mouth pieces of the world, are they free to express themselves. Are their voices heard and the varoius freedoms considered??
Freedom of expression has always been limited in Zimbabwe with the enacting of the various Media laws which have seen journalists restricted when reporting on current news.
Editorial policies are said to be the major handicaps for the flow of news with agendas being set by top officials in high ranks in the media and government offices. What comes out in the media has to be in line with such policies.
So really the coming of internet has allowed, the public to be able to voice their opinions via blogs and other social media networks i.e. facebook. the cyber world has given the public a participatory role in shaping news at the same time robbing journalists their role of covering information gaps. An example of how social media is fast covering the information gaps are the various Masasi pages on facebook. as i was perusing facebook the other time i came across a page "masasi epamuchato" where people will deliberate on a topic and such issues bring out people`s views.
so journalists have indeed lost the role of public sphere managers.
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