Within 24 hours, I had become inundated with so much “news” pertaining to the events that were purportedly taking place in Zimbabwe this last week that it left my head spinning.
BY CHIPO MASARA
It all started when the news broke on different social media platforms — mostly Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp — on Tuesday afternoon that numerous army tanks coming from different directions were descending on Harare. That was less than a day after Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander General Constantino Chiwenga had issued a statement that was viewed by many as a direct challenge on President Robert Mugabe to rein in the G40 faction fronted by his wife — a group the president is believed to have supported in embarrassing and chucking out former vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Thereafter, things started to get a little crazy. First, I got “news” coming in different versions from those I call “self-appointed social media reporters” that in fact, Chiwenga and his army had taken over the State House and placed Mugabe and his wife under what looked like house arrest, and had taken full control of all government business — effectively placing the country under martial law. Meanwhile, in other social media “news”, the army had made a list of those that it would put under arrest for yet unnamed crimes, with a “report” that Ignatius Chombo — recently made Finance minister after Mugabe executed a Cabinet reshuffle — had been violently arrested and his security personnel killed after they had attempted to stand up to the army.
The most far-fetched “report” was to follow on WhatsApp in the early morning hours, with some “insiders” claiming that in fact, Mugabe had died and the army had driven in to “stabilise and contain the situation” and keep the country calm as it transitioned. By the time Wednesday morning came, it was not very clear what to expect and I could not wait to read what the NewsDay newspaper had to say to get a better perspective of things. It is my belief that NewsDay is the best source of daily news in the country as it has for years persevered to adhere to ethical journalism — giving the people verified news in the most truthful manner presently available in the country.
But even after I finished reading NewsDay, I found myself going back to read people’s tweets, Facebook posts and WhatsApp messages — again leaving me feeling unsure of what the actual situation could be, as new developments seemed to be taking place each second. Someone posted on Twitter: “It’s being said [Zanu PF youth league chairman Kudzanai] Chipanga is now in military custody and they have been making him read his speech over and over for the last 2 hours. Every time he finishes [reading] it, they applaud him.” While I had no idea how much of truth was in that report, it was a development that would have made sense considering that the said Chipanga was the same man that had riled the army in the first place, after — in an apparent challenge to Chiwenga and by extension the army — he issued a statement telling the army the youths were ready to go to war in defence of Mugabe. And before I could process it, yet another Twitter user wrote: “Just seen Chipanga under military custody, he is not the same man.” It turned out there was some truth to the claims as Chipanga is indeed in military custody, as Wednesday’s NewsDay verified, and has since issued a very humble apology to the military.
After reading a Tweet purportedly posted by Mnangagwa under the Twitter handle @ED Mnangagwa that read: “Zimbabweans stay calm & remain tuned to national news. I’m back in the country &will be quite busy over the next few days. My communication with you will now be via formal broadcasting channels so I’m unlikely to use the Twitter handle. Thank you all for the support & solidarity”, I decided I had had enough of social media for one day.
It is now undeniable that social media has ushered in a new era and it is no longer business as usual in the media industry. While traditionally, the generality would loyally await the publication of their favourite newspaper to get their daily or weekly dose of what would be going on around the world, today they have access to a lot of news sources — all accessible at a simple click of a button on their smartphones. While that at face value might appear like a good thing because readers deserve to have a choice of what they read and thereafter should be left to make up their own minds about what to believe — something social media has allowed — the same platforms have given rise to the coming through of seriously fake news.
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The latest development in the country has brought to the fore the good and bad of social media. Either because of the excitement that emanated from the fact that the country looks set to see the back of the Mugabes, or the fear of missing out as the plot unfolds, many on social media seem to be in a hurry to be “the ones that break the story”. That has seen the spreading at a large scale of unverified news and half-truths, leaving the country with a populace inundated with so much information— leaving them unsure of what the actual truth is.
Unfortunately, even some of those that appeared to be credible news agencies are picking up on the unverified news reports on social media and broadcasting them on their channels as truth.
While Zimbabweans — even those in the diaspora — would naturally want to know every development in the country as soon as it happens, it is prudent that everyone makes an effort to learn how to filter out fake news from the truth. That can be done by singling out reliable sources of news that would have proven over time to only publish what they would have verified to be provable truth. Sense dictates that in this era of “self-appointed social media reporters”, one needs not take everything posted on social media as truth. Lack of media literacy makes people vulnerable to getting duped by “fake news” — which can have real consequences as most such “news” is designed to induce strong emotions.
l Feedback at cmasara@standard. co.zw/ [email protected]
