MIDLANDS STATE UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE

DEPARTMENT OF MEDIA AND SOCIETY STUDIES

Framing of Henrietta Rushwaya’s gold smuggling scandal in the Herald and Newsday

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

BY

ANESU TONDE

R184694C

SUPERVISED BY DR L NCUBE
CHAPTER ONE

1.1 Introduction

This research seeks to find out how The Herald and NewsDay frame the case of gold
smuggling by Henrietta Rushwaya, in the context of their daily reportage and news content.
The assumption is that, the media no longer perform their social responsibility role of
informing educating and entertaining impartial of any outside influences, but are rather
aligned to either the ruling party ZANU PF and those aligned to it, or are aligned to the
opposition parties. The study therefore takes a comparative approach into the daily reportage
of concerning the above mentioned case by the two major daily newspapers, that is the
Herald, which is state controlled and the NewsDay, which is independent of the state.

1.2 Background of study

Scholars have asserted that every reality is a construction (Foucault, 1980; Hall, 1997). This
study is grounded in the framing theory of the media and systematically explores how The
Herald and Newsday newspapers framed and represented the case of gold smuggling by
Henrietta Rushwaya, in the context of their daily reportage and news content. The media have
been at the centre of mediating this case from the time Henrietta Rushwaya was arrested at
the Robert Mugabe International Airport for attempting to smuggle gold out of the country.
This study is interested in exploring the frames used by two selected newspapers to cover this
case.

Framing of ZANU PF officials and those linked to the ruling party in The Herald and
Newsday in the previous studies established that there is no break from the past in terms of
the pro-ZANU PF and anti-ZANU-PF discourse in media framing (Chibuwe 2017). Waldahl
(2004) also asserts that the ruling party ZANU PF was now in full control of the state
apparatus and with the loyal support of the media they also controlled the processes of public
opinion formation in the country. Framing of the ZANU-PF officials and loyalists such as
Henrietta Rushwaya by the Herald usually portray them positively and as active partners in
politics keeping it live and visible, whereas in the Newsday they are portrayed as corrupt
leaders, thugs and whenever there is a case of violence, they will be blamed mostly. In the
previous studies the state media’s pro-ZANU PF and anti-opposition stance and the private
press’s anti-ZANU PF and pro-Opposition stance are well documented (Chibuwe, 2016).
Given that loyalist stance in media coverage by The Herald and Newsday, it becomes necessary
for this study to explore how they portrayed, imaged and framed Henrietta Rushwaya’s gold
smuggling case. The framing theory, according to McCombs and Shaw (1972), is that journalists
deliberately and unwittingly determine the frames to use in news articles, hence the need for a
comparative analysis of Newsday and The Herald, to ascertain how the two newspapers are
reliable in framing political cases. The Herald is one of two daily publications by Zimpapers,
a publicly owned but state controlled publisher. Newsday is a daily publication belonging to
Alpha Media Holdings, majority owned by Trevor Ncube.

1.3 Problem Statement

The media no longer perform their social responsibility role of informing educating and
entertaining impartial of any outside influences. Contrary to their role as the as watchdogs of
society by holding to account those who are in positions of influence for the good of society,
the media rather tend to take sides when reporting political stories (Ranger, 2005). Henrietta
Rushwaya, who is linked to the government and even to the President of Zimbabwe
Emmerson Mnangagwa, has been arrested for attempting to smuggle gold out of the country.
The Herald and Newsday had been key in framing that story and this study takes a
comparative analysis of their framing to determine the reliability of the Zimbabwean print
media.

1.4 Research Objectives

 To explore the portrayal of Henrietta Rushwaya by Newsday and The Herald in

reporting her gold smuggling scandal.
 To explain the similarities and differences in the framing of Henrietta Rushwaya’s
gold smuggling scandal by Newsday and The Herald.
 To explore the forces behind the framing of Henrietta Rushwaya’s gold smuggling
scandal by Newsday and The Herald.

1.5 Research Questions

 How is Henrietta Rushwaya portrayed by Newsday and The Herald in reporting her
gold smuggling scandal?
  What are the similarities and differences in the framing of Henrietta Rushwaya’s gold
smuggling scandal by Newsday and The Herald?
 What are the forces behind the framing of Henrietta Rushwaya’s gold smuggling
scandal by Newsday and The Herald?

1.6 Significance of research

The issue of media capture and/or alignment to a certain section of the society is a historic
problem across the world and in Zimbabwe in particular. Stories of corruption, looting of
public funds, and other cases involving politicians and government officials have always
been framed differently by different media houses, private and state controlled. As a result,
the assumption is that the media is no longer playing its role in presenting the stories and
public opinions without bias. Therefore this study is significant in clearing the air on that
assumption and in determining the reliability of the two daily newspapers, Herald and
Newsday. Furthermore, available literature is dominantly framed from history and human
rights discourse and not media studies. Thus, this study fills that gap by analysing the two
mostly circulated dailies in Zimbabwe.

1.7 Delimitations

The study analyses articles from The Herald and Newsday newspapers on how they reported
the gold smuggling case by Henrietta Rushwaya from the period stretching from 26 October
2020 the day she was arrested at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport to date.
The selection of The Herald and Newsday newspapers ahead of other publications in
Zimbabwe is because, The Herald which is publicly owned but state controlled daily
newspaper has the largest circulation in Zimbabwe. The Newsday which is privately owned
trails behind The Herald. The coverage of events in Zimbabwe by the two dailies is
widespread (ZAMPS 2015).

1.8 Limitations of the study

The study is limited to the coverage of only two daily papers, The Herald and Newsday.
Other daily and weekly newspapers were not considered in this study and as such this may
result in a bias since their views were not considered. Therefore the findings of the study
cannot be taken as a reflection of the whole media perspective in the country but are specific
to The Herald and Newsday newspapers in the period in question.

LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Introduction

In this chapter, the researcher his placed study within the context of related scholarly work. It
also includes theories on which this study is premised. A literature review is a discussion of
all the published work in a subject related area. While it can be a summary of sources on a
certain subject, more often, it takes a critical, evaluative approach, showing the relationship
between the various writings and how they relate to your own work.

Framing: News as a construction of reality

Framing, often used interchangeably with ‘representation,’ refers to the way in which news
media resort to particular interpretive structures to set particular events within their broader
context. A frame in communication or a media frame refers to the words, images, phrases,
and presentation styles that a speaker or a media outlet uses when relaying information about
an issue or event to an audience (Gamson & Modigliani, 1987, 1989). The chosen frame
reveals what the speaker sees as relevant to the topic at hand (Chong, Druckman, 2007). This
theory has been chosen in studying the way The Daily News and The Newsday covered the
ZANU PF succession wars. The essence of framing is ‘selection to prioritize some facts,
images, or developments over others, thereby unconsciously promoting one particular
interpretation of events’ (Norris, Kern and Just 2003:11). Entman (1993:52) says framing is
the idea of making some issues more salient than others in order for “problem definition,
causal interpretation, moral evaluation and/or treatment recommendation for the item
described.” Entman (1953:53) adds that ‘framing essentially involves selection and salience.
To frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a
communicating text’. This will help the researcher theorize The Newsday and Daily News
coverage of the internal ZANU PF strife as the study looks at the stories carried by the two
papers.

Apart from the stories covered and how they were covered, I also looked for stories and story
angles that were ignored by either of the two papers, though they ought to be covered since
they would have been in the public interest. This is because frames work through selective
amnesia or remembrance (Edelman 1963:32). Exclusion of interpretations by frames is as
significant to outcomes as inclusion (Entman (1993). Frames call attention to some aspects of
reality while obscuring other elements, which might lead audiences to have different
reactions (Entman, 1989, 1993; Riker, 1986). The selective exclusion of other stories is
relevant to the study and is likely to give out information needed in this investigation.
Framing consists of selection, back grounding, foregrounding and highlighting issues to leave
the reader with what to think about a problem, its causes and possible solutions. The study
takes into cognisance the issues used as backgrounds, fore grounded and highlighted by the
two papers in the coverage of the factionalism in ZANU PF from January to December 2017.
Issues to note are frame building and frame setting (Scheufele 1999) of the stories sampled.
Edelman (1963:32) says frames work through selective amnesia or remembrance; ‘The
character, causes, and consequences of any phenomenon become radically different as
changes are made in what is prominently displayed, what is repressed and especially in how
observations are classified. . . . The social world is . . . a kaleidoscope of potential realities,
any of which can be readily evoked by altering the ways in which observations are framed
and categorized.” The framing of ZANU PF squabbles can also best be described by the
intentional omissions made on either faction by the two papers. These errors (of omission or
commision) have a net effect on the readers of either papers as Entman (1993) observed that
exclusion of interpretations by frames is as significant to outcomes as inclusion.

By calling attention to some aspects of reality while obscuring other elements, this leads
audiences of The Newsday and The Daily News to have different reactions (Entman, 1989;
Riker, 1986) to the Lacoste Faction and the G40 camp. A dominant meaning is put so through
reinforcement through texts as well as legitimizing or de-legitimizing it so that readers do not
get a balanced and objective analysis of the situation. This study looks at how The Newsday
and The Daily News solicited for different views from selected ‘sources’ and ‘analysts’ and
which ‘picture frame’ was employed by the two dailies concerning the internal fights in
ZANU PF.

Framing crisis in Zimbabwe

The Zimbabwean media has had a crisis of framing (Chuma 2005) during different historical
epochs like the violent and controversial land redistribution program, the 2000 referendum
and 2002 elections; the 2008 violence-ridden elections as well as the 2007-2008 era of
runaway inflation. This is because of the political, economic, technological and professional
challenges that continue to dog journalism. The independently owned media had a ‘crisis of
perspective’ (Chuma 2007) and the terrain of debate about the historical developments was
‘bifurcated.’ The same applied to the 2017 economic crisis where there were cash shortages.
It was difficult to distinguish between press freedom and advocacy reporting or public
relations (Chari (2010). As such, the media develop into lame dogs for powerful elites.
Berger (1998: 605) correctly asserts that ‘rather than [being] . . . a free floating “watchdog”,
[the media are] located in a nexus of relations, and like the state, [they] . . . are dominated by
more powerful partners’. This view is also shared by Tettey (2001:22): “In reality, their
(media) views and claims are tainted by narrow ethnic or political trappings, quite at variance
with the interest of the nation which they tout as their motivation and call to service.” And the
journalists, worryingly so, have resigned to fate, seeing such challenges as the new ‘normal’,
and finding it natural that they have to adjust their professional roles to suit the new
environment (Mano 2005).

This claim is corroborated by Ronning and Kupe (2005: 138); “The African media carry
contradictions which have roots in the colonial period, when newspapers and broadcasting
mainly served the needs of the colonial administrators” While alluding to competition among
television channels that breeds rivalry, Bantz (1999, 139)’s findings also mirror the situation
between newspapers: ‘This conflict is intensified by business norms that often characterize
the competition between organizations as warfare (the prevalence of military and war
metaphors in organizations has often been commented on…). In addition to the professional
competition between reporters, news competition may escalate into interorganizational
conflict where the television stations compete for stories, news workers, prestige, and ratings
as well as advertisers’ dollars.’

However, the blame also goes to the editors. It is also the case that editors ‘may arbitrarily
rewrite reporters’ stories and delete crucial facts without telling the reporter, and yet still
attach the reporter’s by-line to the now unrecognisable product’ (Media Professionalism and
Ethics 2002, xii). This, as observed by Curran (2002:225) ‘obliterates critical scrutiny of
either public or private power’. Part of the framing dilemma that gives rise to contesting and
contrasting discourses is because the media space in Zimbabwe is a hotly contested space by
different interest groups and individuals. Mabweazara (2011:100) argues that the mainstream
press in Zimbabwe “remains a central and vibrant platform for the struggle for control of
public discourse between the opposition and the incumbent elite.” As such, the media in
Zimbabwe-the private media included-tended to have selective amnesia when it comes to
matters that they feel angers groups that they are aligned to. This intentional error of
commission should not be understated, and should be taken at the same level as selectively
trashing one interest group over the other.

Foucault (1978:27) argues that silence cannot be overlooked in discourse analysis: “Silence
itself – the things one declines to say, or is forbidden to name, the discretion that is required
between different speakers – is less the absolute limit of discourse, the other side from which
it is separated by a strict boundary, than an element that functions alongside the things said,
with them and in relation to them within overall strategies.” What the two papers, The
Newsday and Daily News intentionally omitted and failed to cover concerning a certain
faction they were inclined to, is of equal importance to this study, just like what was covered,
as Van Dijk (1991:114) observed that the analysis of the ‘unsaid’ is sometimes more
revealing than the analysis of the said. Other scholars like Chari (2009); Stone (2007);
Raftopoulos (2005); Kupe (2005); Ranger (2005) and Willems (2004) converge that media
frames on the Zimbabwean crisis are influenced by power relations between media and other
social institutions. The scholars further argue that there has been ‘competing journalisms’
regarding the Zimbabwean economic crisis. 22 While this study observes that there is a crisis
of framing and crisis of perspective in the Zimbabwean press, however, it attributes the
dilemma to polarization, disaggregated audiences, technological and economic pressures and
the tight production routines in understaffed newsrooms.

Relationship between journalists and sources

The study of news sources and their relationship with news organisations is absolutely central
to the discussion of the 'big questions' that should be at the heart of any consideration of news
journalism (Manning 2001:1). This is because such a relationship will shape the nature of the
news product churned out by The Newsday and The Daily News in the period under study.
The relationship between journalists and sources is a symbiotic one as either needs the other:
journalists need politicians as sources of news, while the politicians need the media for
political marketing and conveying their messages. However, journalists need to be wary of
being used by politicians and have to cross check with other independent sources before
publishing information given to them (Baron, 2018). Politicians, even though they may not
the final gate-keepers of what gets published, influence the final news product (Davis 2007).
This is because political sources, who include spin doctors, have knowledge of news
production as Davis (2007) further notes, that allies and rival politicians 'leak stories' and 'fly
kites' to undermine opponents, test ideas and push new policies in pre-spun strategies. Thus,
the leaks are selective. The same scholar posited that all politicians want to influence
journalists.

Leaks to the Zimbabwean private media, though selective, gave a glimpse into corruption and
the spendthrift lives of the ruling elite. Such leaks, though selective, would not have found
their way to the private media if it was not for factionalism in the ruling party. These leaks,
though, were authorised, selected leaks from one faction. Schorr (1997) says there are
authorised and unauthorised or unplanned leaks. Of which the latter are done in an honest
manner, for no motive or benefit and not to settle scores. Be that as it may, however, these
leaks helped to sell the two privately owned papers and Zimbabweans got to know for the
first time how the ruling elite was living large on taxpayers money at a time when the
majority were wallowing in poverty. A good example is the Salarygate scandal, where
government officials at loss-making parastatals were milking them in huge sums of salaries
and allowances. Overally, the whole ZANU PF system-not just one faction-was exposed
because either of the two papers under study were given different leaks by the two factions.
The Newsday was given leaks by one faction, while the other faction also leaked files of their
rivals to The Daily News. So democracy thrived through the exposures. Voters will then
make informed choices based on the lifestyles of and the governance system done by their
leaders. This could not have been achieved if it was not for the familial relations between
journalists and sources in Zimbabwe. Though observers and critics say private media
journalists warmed up to ZANU PF and such a relationship was not healthy for democracy,
Gans (1979) and Gitlin (1980) say the ability of the press to sustain a healthy democracy is
anchored on informing and educating citizens to make informed political choices.

Manning (2001:2) also observed that such a role is dependent on journalists 'maintaining a
professional code which placed public before party or personal interest'. So the end may
justify the means if the public were the biggest beneficiaries. Even though critiques of
embedded journalism say the press may not write something critical of their sources-and in
the Zimbabwean case the private media was not going to criticize a faction in ZANU PF that
leaked stories to them, I would argue that it is a strategic way of source creation and
sustenance. Nobody would want to kill a goose that lays the golden egg! Journalists
embedded with sources have to create and earn trust and confidentiality among their sources
if they are to get more exclusive leaks and stories. Instead of asking 'how do the powerful
influence the media’, we should ask, 'where do media communication and culture relate to
sites and processes of power' (Davis 2007). It would therefore be a misplaced argument to
say that politicians may control the media simply because journalists are embedded with
them since such a relationship changes with time. The media may wake up one day and turn
against the politicians, and the other way round.

Journalists, like politicians, do not have permanent friends and enemies, but they have
permanent interests. Reporters are there to record change-the rise and fall of powerful men
and women (Reeves 1997:101). While questions of objectivity always come to the fore, the
term itself is subjective. What constitutes objectivity? And objective to who? Shoemaker and
Reese (1991) noted that there is no objective observer of reality. Therefore, objectivity is
subjective. The private media in Zimbabwe did not change the stories-they just trashed a rival
faction-depending on which they are aligned to, but they maintained objectivity, balance and
fairness-otherwise they could have been sued to their last socks. There are also questions of
accessibility of the media; transparency of news communication process; political
engagement; political public relations; how information can be deployed and controlled
within the private media when the issue of journalists and sources comes to the fore.

Manning (2001:1) questions if all news sources 'enjoy the same degree of access and the
same quality and the same ability to communicate their perspectives, or encode their
preferred agendas. The powerful and wealthy in society may enjoy some advantages. ''The
interests of wealthy media proprietors and manipulative spin doctors working on behalf of
political elites are images now familiar to the public. One important issue to consider, then..is
whether or not the less powerful are significantly disadvantaged in the scramble to secure
access to the news media (Manning 2001:1) This will have an important bearing upon the
question of just how diverse are the perspectives and interpretive frameworks that are
presented through the news media'' (ibid). Even though the scholar above says that some
sources are not given enough space in the media, however, journalists are in the business of
news, and the best newsworthy idea and source will get more space than the other. It is a
contest of ideas and space in the media, and the best should win the space-which is what
democracy is all about. One explanation for the media’s propensity towards the ‘majority’
perspective is the commercial imperatives underpinning media operations. In this case,
‘majority’ does not necessarily denote numerical superiority per se (in fact, it is possible to
have ‘majority’ views being embraced by a numerically inferior section of the population)
but the issue of power in society.
Political and corporate hierarchies are likely to have their views constitute the dominant
media frames Chuma (2002:7) (see also Herman and Chomsky 1988; 2002). Media decisions
to mainstream certain perspectives are made simultaneously with decisions to ‘cut’ other
issues, perhaps less ‘dominant’ views on the agenda.Internal and external factors of the
organization like the editorial policy, deadlines, niche market and political persuasion and
inclination, advertisers and audience preferences also have a direct bearing on which frames
are adopted by different newspapers (Chitagu 2016: 40). MISA Zimbabwe noted that the
private media and the state media has been ‘captured by factionalists and they were reporting
from a factional lens of their prefered handlers’; “You do not need rocket science to
determine which faction the media and their journalists are bidding for. In all this,
Zimbabweans remain poorer with regards to information on issues that affect their daily
struggles”-Daily News, July 30, 2017 “While it is an exciting story, succession must be on
accountable and transparent, people-centered leadership and people centered not those
already privileged” (Mukundu, 2017). Challenges within the media industry itself impacted
on the nature of reporting. Sustainability challenges within the media, particularly the print
media sector limited Zimbabwe media’s ability to innovate in the face of challenges posed by
new media. Even more worrisome are reports around media capture, particularly in light of
ZANU PF factional fights that led to the military intervention in November. This capture
greatly affected professional and ethical conduct that led to the relative failure of the media to
tell the Zimbabwean story outside the factional politics. While events in 2017 can be blamed
for professional and ethical glitches, these challenges date back to the last decade and a half
in Zimbabwe’s media history, where professional and ethical gaps in media reporting have
been noted (MMPZ 2018:2-3).

The media’s credibility and integrity is being questioned in the wake of reports and
allegations of media capture, corruption and deteriorating ethical standards…..the media
should at all times, defend the principles of freedom of expression in the honest collection
and dissemination of news and the right to fair comment and criticism (MISA Zim 2017).
While the dominant belief is that politicians use the press for their own means, or that the
relationship is mutually beneficial, I present a different perspective on the interface between
journalists and public officials. My point of departure emanates from the fact that the
Zimbabwean private media houses, The Daily News and The Newsday, could have been the
biggest winners from leaning on different ZANU PF factions. Although Schoor (1997:132)
believes politicians use the media and that ‘journalists’ successes are really somebody else’s
successes in using them’, however, the successes of the ZANU PF factions in using the media
are not evident in the Zimbabwean case study. This is because the war to succeed ageing
President Robert Mugabe was in the end, not determined or influenced by the press, but by
the gun, when the Lacoste faction staged a bloodless coup in November 2017, forcing
Mugabe to resign and be replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Theoretical Framework

The framing theory

The study deploys the framing theory. The theory looks at the role of the mass media in
selecting, organizing and emphasizing some aspects of reality while excluding others (De
Vreese 2001). A media frame refers to words, images, phrases and presentation styles that a
speaker (e.g. a politician, a media outlet) uses when relaying information about an issue or
event to an audience (Druckman, 2001, Gamson and Modiglian, 1987). The chosen frame,
according to the scholars reveals what the speaker sees as relevant to the topic at hand and
this is critical in public opinion formation processes. This study explores how the media
framed the Henrietta Rushwaya, in the case where she was arrested on charges of attempting
to smuggle gold to Dubai. Goffman (1996) argues that frames are persistent, enduring and re-
occurring and the mass media use frames to develop story patterns over time to create a
certain thinking to consumers of mass media products. The emerging board of literature on
research on three models that are framing, agenda setting and priming has signalled the latest
paradigm shift in the political communication research (Scheufele and Tewksbury 2007). In
view of Rushwaya’s gold smuggling saga, the framing theory is critical to unpack the role of
the media in framing those political and government officials, those who are linked to them,
as well as other powerful members of the society.

Framing is often used synonymously with representation and refers to ways in which news
resort to particular interpretive structures to set particular events within their broader context
McCombs and Shaw (1972). The essence of framing is selecting to prioritise and give
prominence to some facts or developments over others, thereby unconsciously promoting one
particular interpretation of events to suit certain agendas (Norris, Kern and Just, 2003). The
scholars argue that the media operate on the basis of framing in which journalists place some
events and issues into specific categories defined in part by how they have covered them in
the past and a range of factors that include the media’s editorial policy. Gitlin (1980) argues
that frames are composed of little tacit theories about what exists, what happens and what
matters. Although they are largely unspoken and unacknowledged, media frames organise
discourses which allow journalists and media organisations to handle complex events in a
systematic fashion consistent with defined editorial policies of a particular media house. The
mass media are also prominent in framing the contestations between the “us” and “them”
attitude (Maguire & Poulton, 1999). Hegel and Lacan also argue that whatever the markers of
social differentiation that shape the meaning of "us" and "them," whether they are racial,
geographic, ethnic, economic or ideological, there is always the danger that they will become
the basis for a self affirmation that depends upon the denigration of the other group or people.
It is against this background that this study is critically interrogating the way the Henrietta
Rushwaya’s gold smuggling story was portrayed, framed and represented by The Herald and
Newsday newspapers from the 26th of October 2020 when she was arrested.

RESEARCH METHODS AND METHODOLOGY

Introduction

This chapter is centred on research methods and methodology of the study. It presents and
discusses research approach, unit of analysis, sampling approach, methods of data gathering
and methods of data analysis, interviews and methods of data presentation. Ethical
considerations are also looked at in carrying out the research methods and methodology.

Methodology

Methodology is described as a series of choices which includes the design, setting, sample,
methodological limitations, data collection and analysis process in a research (Burns and
Grove 2003). Mouton (1996) also describes methodology as the means or method of doing
something. The research methodology can be quantitative or qualitative. At times a mixed
method approach, combining both qualitative and quantitative can be undertaken in carrying
out the study. This study, however, deploys a qualitative research approach to establish how
The Herald and Newsday newspapers framed, Henrietta Rushwaya’s gold smuggling scandal.
Qualitative research is a systematic set of beliefs and accompanying methods that provide a
nature of reality (Lincoln and Guba as cited by Savenye and Robinson, 2003). The study
utilises a qualitative approach in an attempt to unpack frames used by The Herald and
Newsday newspapers on portrayal representing of gold smuggling scandal by Henrietta
Rushwaya.
Bryman (2012) points out that qualitative research methodology is an approach which usually
emphasizes words, feelings and perceptions in the collection and analysis of data. A
qualitative research approach assists the researcher to obtain rich data. In this study, the
researcher finds qualitative research to be the most appropriate technique in undertaking the
research work. While there are different designs falling under the qualitative research
approach that is the interpretive, constructivism and phenomenological, this study chooses
the interpretive approach. The decision to choose a specific methodology should be based on
its suitability to answer the research questions (Bryman, 1988). The approach, answers why
and how the case of Henrietta Rushwaya’s gold smuggling was covered by The Herald and
Newsday newspapers during the period under review. Qualitative research is appropriate
since the study is mainly based on content and discourse analysis as well as interviews of
reporters who covered the gold smuggling case. This qualitative approach in data gathering
and analysis increases depth and accuracy of the research work.

Population of the study

A population refers to the whole group of people or source of information in which the study
is conducted. It is from this collective group that a representative part is selected as research
participants (Bryman, 2012) .In this study, the researcher purposively selects stories from
Newsday newspapers. After thoroughly scrutinising all the selected stories, the researcher
will chose stories which are more suitable for the study in terms of how well they relate to
Henrietta Rushwaya’s gold smuggling scandal. As for The Herald, an equal number of
Henrietta Rushwaya stories is also purposively selected and after reading all of them, the
most relevant ones will be chosen. Pictures will also be selected for analysis in this study
from both newspapers. Stories, opinions, editorial comments and letters to the editor
appearing in both newspapers articulate the basis of this study because they link with the
research questions.

Sampling Techniques

Sampling is central in any research in humanities and science fields. Sampling is the act,
process, or technique of selecting a suitable sample, or a representative part of a population
for the purpose of determining parameters or characteristics of the whole population
(Blumberg, 2005; Latham, 2007). There are two approaches to sampling namely probability
and non-probability sampling (Tashakkari and Teddlie, 2003). Since the research approach is
qualitative, non-probability sampling technique is appropriate in this study. Non probability
sampling is a sampling method where the samples gathered in a procedure do not give all
people chances of being selected (Castello, 2009). This sampling approach is commonly used
in qualitative research studies. In essence, non probability sampling allows the researcher to
calculate the nature and extent of any biases and to ascertain what variation in the estimate
(Aaker 2001). Systematic random sampling is used in selecting newspapers that carried
stories of about Henrietta Rushwaya’s gold smuggling scandal. Purposive sampling becomes
useful in selecting newspaper articles which are deemed as critical in the coverage of
Rushways’s gold smuggling case.

Data collection methods

This study uses qualitative methods in collection, analysis and presentation of data. This
method is also referred to as triangulation. According to Borg and Gall (1989), triangulation
refers to the strategy of using several different kinds of data collection tools such as texts,
interviews and content analysis to gather information for a research project. In this study, data
will be gathered through interviews of both journalists who wrote stories about housing
demolitions and their editors to capture their views. Archival research will also be undertaken
for content and discourse analysis for articles in The Herald and Newsday newspapers. Data
gathering is vital for this study as information collected is meant to give to a broader
understanding of the theoretical framework (Bernard, 2002). Archival research to gather data
forthis study will be done by visiting the National Archives of Zimbabwe and the library of
the Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ) to conduct qualitative content and
critical discourse analysis on newspaper articles published by the two daily newspapers on
Henrietta Rushwaya’s gold smuggling scandal in the period under study. Archival research is
the process of locating, evaluating, systematic interpretation and analysis of information
found in archives (Fairclough and Wodak 1997).The purposefully selected stories from
archives and the library will be analysed and scrutinised to identify differences and
similarities of stories covered in the newspapers.

Data analysis

This study focuses on qualitative content analysis, semiotic analysis and critical discourse
analysis in data gathering. Data analysis is a procedure that involves investigative, cleaning
and interpreting data in line with the nature of the study. This study makes use of content
analysis and critical discourse analysis. This approach is the assembling, cleaning and
examining of the data (Plonsky and Waller, 2005).
Qualitative Content Analysis

This study largely utilizes the qualitative content analysis to analyze stories from The Herald
and Newsday newspapers on how Henrietta Rushwaya’s gold smuggling scandal was framed
during the period under study. Qualitative content analyses, assesses situations, meanings and
nuances presumed to be recognizable by human factors (Krippendorf, 2004). Therefore
qualitative content analysis seeks to unpack hidden meaning contained in the texts. This
research looks at the text, ownership, control and the hidden meanings in newspaper articles
published by both The Herald and Newsday newspapers during the time under study. The
researcher makes use of qualitative content analysis that involves penetrating the deeper
layers of a message. Content analysis is vital for this study because it displayed assorted texts
to the construction, imaging and framing of the gold smuggling scandal by Rushwaya.

Critical discourse analysis

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a concept that looks at the act of speech or language as
power resource that is connected to ideology and socio-cultural change Bryman (2012).
Bryman (2012) explains how the Foucauldian theories to the exercise of power and discourse
through the framing of disciplinary practices as a consequence in individual subjectivity.
Critical discourse analysis refers to written texts and is also used in connection with audio
visual which attempts to assess the meaning of language in media (Gunter, 2000). This study
therefore sees the use of speech or language by The Herald and Newsday newspapers in the
coverage of Henrietta Rushwaya’s gold smuggling scandal as an exercise of power to
influence the public to think in a certain way.
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