The Zimbabwean media discourse has lately been shrouded in controversy, scapegoating and blame mongering.
As the curtains came down on the year 2025, the dim reality of the waning fortunes of the media sector found expression in public discourse albeit in both informed and misinformed manners.
In some circumstances, the dialogues were hyper sensational.
Typically, in any issue that goes viral — the scramble in the public discourse is often clouded by a stardom syndrome of who can heighten the stakes and get the most attention.
Nevermind that the influencer attention comes at the cost of real people — professionals, business people and stakeholders that are supposed to make a living through the viability of the sector.
From an advocacy point of view, it is positive that the concerns put to the fore by a firebrand journalist union leader has generated the necessary national attention.
The first step in addressing this otherwise complex global and persistent media challenge is to acknowledge the obvious - there is an existential media challenge.
What is needed is the next step - defining the problem.
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A proper diagnosis of the challenges confronting the media - particularly independent or privately owned media, will inform strategic solutions.
Most of the contributions I have encountered thus far - save for the response by the permanent Secretary in the Information Ministry Nick Mangwana and a few others, have largely been pointing fingers and blaming the 'victims'.
And this is not to exonerate the media from the critics of audiences - themselves the ultimate investors in media products.
But this is to try and get media stakeholders to a position where there can be more nuanced thought leadership on recreating value in news.
News values are universal much as ethics and standards.
To try and redefine these to pursue audiences in spaces that are not only fast paced, but anti-intellectual is to concede the death of the news media sector.
Those that are persuaded to believe that news media has died are unfortunately the ones making the loudest noise.
It is probably those that can never pay for news media content - no matter the quality of the reports.
The ones that interact with content with a view not to engage but to respond.
Then there are those of us that believe in the news media and believe there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Those of us who believe that the survival of the news media, including the media that gives a platform to alternative political views and to government critics - is hinged on citizens constitutional rights.
And no state and government should take pride in the death of any media - not least on account of jobs creation and contribution to the economy but more importantly on the lifeblood of our democracy.
To be fair, the news media has barring the challenges produced news reports that otherwise would have gone untold or interpreted the same.
The digital migration and convergence debate has also been misplaced.
Largely it has been discussed out of the contextual reality that most of these digital platforms are not Zimbabwean and there's little to leverage the monetisation if the Zimbabwean story is to be told from the local lenses.
The debate also negates that at a policy level convergence is yet to be fully embraced.
A case in point being how a media organisation has to bear dual costs of accreditation to the Zimbabwe Media Commission and the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe if they are to fully converge.
If the media are to innovate, perhaps they may need to conform to the postal and telecommunication regulator.
Talking of regulation, the same media that is expected to produce quality information and be profitable has a lingering threat of criminal liability on account of restrictive laws.
Insult laws, criminalisation of falsehoods and defacto criminal defamation provisions in our statutes should be reformed.
Creating value in news is a whole chain and reconnecting with media audiences is going to require a multi-tier and multi-stakeholder approach to address.
The call by the permanent secretary for a sectorial meeting of minds should be embraced and inform the 2026 media agenda.
There is a baseline that could inform these media sustainability and policy dialogues, whose momentum must be maintained.
2026 can only be a happy new year to the extent that we are going to address the media challenges with urgency and in how the sector is going to recreate value of news.
*Nigel Nyamutumbu is a media development practitioner serving as the coordinator of a network of journalistic professional associations and media support organizations the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe (MAZ). He can be contacted on [email protected] or +263 772 501 557
