Code of Conduct for Media by the Voluntary Media Council, Zimbabwe. Photo: IMS

Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter play an important role in maintaining and reconnecting social networks online. During a recent visit to Zimbabwe, IMS explored the use of Twitter and Facebook as a means of receiving news and as a communication tool for the media environment both inside and outside the country 

Most use it every day. With the large numbers of Zimbabweans migrating abroad in the past decade due to President Mugabe’s politics, Facebook has become an increasingly important tool for Zimbabwen migrants "allowing us to reconnect to relatives, to people you grew up with that you know you will not see for 10 years or more, because of the situation in Zimbabwe. Families have spread out all over the world."

Connecting people

 - Reconnecting is the most important part, says Thabo Kunene, journalist working for Radio Voice of the People.

He further highlights that in general Zimbabweans find Facebook easier than Twitter, but that slowly more and more Zimbabweans are finding their way to Twitter as well. About both communication tools Thabo Kunene adds:

- I use them as inspiration and for updates on events and what’s going on inside Zimbabwe and in the Diaspora. As a journalist it is also an information-gathering tool for phone numbers etc.

He uses the Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s office, Gordon Moyo, as an example.  

- He [Moyo] provides updates on what’s happening in the government, governmental events, papers etc. This access to information has brokered openness that in an online manner facilitates the right to information.

ICT tools key to future Zimbabwen media sector

Acting Director of the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ), Ms. Abimail Gamanya’s experiences are similar, noting that she – as the general trend indicates - uses Facebook more than Twitter to maintain her network from the School of Journalism and connect with participants from the trainings conducted by VMCZ.

- Highway Africa, an online forum and annual conference hosting Africa’s debates on journalism and new media, has really been an engine in this development. In general, I find that freelance journalists are more ahead in the field of IT than stationary newsrooms. There is a need for media institutions to educate not only their members, but also themselves in the field of ICT to be ready for the future and take advantage of the easy and inexpensive ways ICT can strengthen the media sector in Zimbabwe, she says.

Breaching the gap

The ongoing use of networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter not only plays the ‘traditional role’ of connecting people, but also serves as a powerful access point to global trends and information for the Zimbabwean media community. These tools also lessen the divide between the Zimbabwean Diaspora and Zimbabweans living inside the country by connecting them, thus helping to ease the difficulties faced by a struggling nation.