Example communications dissertation topic 8:

Contrasting the news prioritisation agenda and its effect on presidential image making: A case study of Robert Mugabe.

Using contemporary and archive footage from both the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), this comparative dissertation evaluates journalistic priorities in the shaping of news and the effects that it can have on the projected images of leaders. Contrasting therefore incidences such as Peter Tatchell’s attempted arrest of Mugabe in October 1999 with the President’s (much vaunted by ZBC) rallying cry of 2008, in which he declared that he would ‘never, never, never, never surrender… Zimbabwe is mine’, this dissertation seeks not only to comment on how journalistic priorities may be influenced by their own agendas and preconceptions but how these also tie into larger institutionalised issues of power and strategy within the news industry.

Suggested initial topic reading:

• Chari, T. (2010). ‘Salience and silence: Representation of the Zimbabwean crisis in the local press’, African Identities, Vol. 8(2), pp. 131-150.
• Wahldahl, R. (2005). ‘Mediated political cleavages: Zimbabwe’s 2000 election seen through the media’, Critical Arts: South-North Cultural and Media Studies, Vol. 19(1/2), pp. 61-73.
• Willems, W. (2005). ‘Remnants of Empire? British media reporting on Zimbabwe’, Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, November, pp. 91-108.