Delimitation of the Study

It is important to spell out boundaries in as much as the scope of this research is concerned.

The political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe, popularly known as Zimbabwe’s Crisis, unfolded in the year 2000 with the advent of the oftentimes violent land reform programme and violent parliamentary elections that took place in the same year. Therefore, the period of

study chosen for this study is between 2000 and 2017. The year 2000 was chosen for the beginning of the study due to its importance in as much Zimbabwe’s political crisis and the accompanying media publicity is concerned. In the year 2000, the opposition MDC which had been formed in 1999 contested the 2000 parliamentary election which resulted in massive violence as cited by Makumbe (2000; 2002; 2009). Also, it is during the year 2000 that the violent land reform programme which claimed lives of several white commercial farmers and some of their workers was launched.

Due to the above-mentioned events, there was significant international media attention on Zimbabwe and numerous pictures depicting violence appeared on the international media, as observed by Ndlela (2005). Some of the iconic images selected for this study can be traced back to the year 2000, hence, its selection as the beginning of the study. The period of study ends in the year 2017 because it is the period when former President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, was unceremoniously removed from power through a military coup that was supported by Zimbabwean from across the political divide. Therefore, the year 2017 marked the end of the Mugabe era and gave a “new complexion” to the country’s politics and the media coverage thereof.

This study did not focus on all pictures associated with Zimbabwe’s Crisis. Instead, it focused on “iconic pictures.” However, the study did not totally relegate other pictures associated with the country’s crisis, as the iconic images under study cannot be divorced from the larger group of pictures that depict Zimbabwe’s Crisis. In terms of their definition, Sturken and Cartwright (2009:36) view iconic images as those images that carry great symbolic meaning in relation to certain events. History reveals that each historical epoch has its own exceptional images which could be deemed iconic. The American civil rights movement, Apartheid in South Africa, Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle, the 9/11 attacks, US Apollo 11’s moon landing, the Cuban Revolution and the Holocaust are a few examples of periods which produced notable and distinct images. As will be shown in the next chapter, not all iconic images are at the same level due to the fact that levels of iconicity are determined by cultural, historical, racial, political persuasions etc.

In terms of iconic images, Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis is not an exception. There are several images associated with Zimbabwe’s Crisis that could be deemed iconic.

Accordingly, this study focused on eight still pictures and two videos which are deemed iconic.

The criterion that was used to select iconic pictures in question was premised on the essential characteristics associated with iconic images and these include; symbolism, time factor, ability to arouse emotions and public outcry, rarity and the capacity to go viral, among other essential features. The concept of iconic images and their characteristics thereof is discussed later in this thesis. Respondents were also asked to list pictorial images that depict Zimbabwe’s Crisis which they deemed iconic. Accordingly, the respondents’ list largely tallied with the researcher’s list which based iconicity of the pictures under study on the key characteristics of iconic images.

The above-mentioned iconic pictures chosen for this study were drawn from four international television (news) stations: Aljazeera English, BBC, CNN and France 24 English. The study attempted to geographically spread the international media houses in question, hence, one from the Middle East (Aljazeera English), one from North America (CNN) and two from Europe (BBC and France 24 English). The geographical spreading of the media houses was done in a bid to avoid bias and what Ngozi (2009) terms “the danger of a single story.” Also, the afore-mentioned news stations were chosen due to their widespread, consistent and persistent coverage of Zimbabwe’s Crisis over the years. It is also worth mentioning that this study only focused on television pictures. Therefore, newspapers and social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter, are beyond its scope.

The study did not choose any news station from Africa because it sought an “outsider perspective,” hence the choosing of EU officials as respondents. The principal reason why the study sought the perspective of the EU officials about the pictorial pictures in question is due to the importance of the European bloc to Zimbabwe in the context of political and economic cooperation. Since 2000, the relationship between the EU and Zimbabwe has been deteriorating due to the latter’s poor record of human rights and the breakdown of the rule of law. Therefore, such a background of cooperation and relatively strained relations raised curiosity about how officials from the EU interpret pictorial images depicting Zimbabwe’s Crisis.

Respondents from this study were drawn from the European Parliament (Brussels), EU Commission (Brussels) and the European Delegation to Zimbabwe (Harare). These three institutions of the EU were chosen because of accessibility reasons. Members of the European Parliament that were interviewed in Brussels were from the following parties; Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats), Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, European Conservatives and Reformists Group,

Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance and Confederal Group of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left.

Although some of the data gathered for this study revealed the impact of pictures in question on its consumers (EU officials), it was not the purpose of this study to seek to measure such an impact. The focus of this study was heavily tilted towards the iconic pictures selected for this study compared to the verbal, rhetorical and statistical study of Zimbabwe’s Crisis as this has received adequate scholarly attention over the years. However, the pictures depicting the country’s crisis have been marginalised, hence, this study’s bias towards them.