I had a chuckle this morning when I read a headline in The Herald, the State daily. “President still tops – Surveyâ€, screamed the headline. At first sight, I was intrigued because I assumed there was a new survey that had recently been published reflecting the latest public opinion on Zimbabwe’s political leaders. When I finished reading the story, I was both astonished and disappointed. It was no more than an old and recycled story being presented as news, giving a somewhat misleading impression that it was part of a continuous survey which had just recently confirmed that Mugabe was still at the top.
A passer-by casually reading the newspaper headline would probably be deceived into thinking that the headline is about a new survey. Except that when they read the content, they would realise, like I did, that what is referred to as a “latest†survey is in fact by polling standards, a very old and out-dated  Afrobarometer Survey carried out two years ago in 2014 – long before very the fundamental political developments that have happened on the Zimbabwean political landscape in the last 2 years.
What is worse, this is not actually the first time that The Herald has reported on this particular survey, although this is not immediately apparent from the story. The truth is that The Herald and other state media have reported on the same survey at least three times before during 2015, each time portraying similar headlines.
The first was on May 7th 2015, with the headline, “President’ support surges: Afrobarometerâ€. Being the first report on the Survey, one can understand the excitement it portrayed. At the time, The Herald described Afrobarometer as “a South Africa-based pro-MDC-T think tankâ€. This is to be contrasted with the description in the latest report which employs more neutral and somewhat approving terms such as “an international think tank†and “a pan-African research networkâ€. It seems Afrobarometer has undergone a revolutionary metamorphosis in the eyes of State media – thanks to the positive vibes over President Mugabe in the surveys.
The second was on June 26th 2015, with the headline, “MPOI reaffirms President’s leadâ€. MPOI is the Mass Public Opinion Institute, a local think-tank which worked with Afrobarometer in the 2014 poll. The report used the same survey data.
The third was on August 27th 2015 with the headline, “President has public trust: Afrobarometerâ€. Again it was based on the same survey data drawn from the 2014 poll.
The common denominator in all three stories and analysis is that they were based on exactly the same Afrobarometer survey carried out in 2014. However, after the first story, the headlines and content gave misleading impressions that they communicating something new. The same applies to today’s report. By saying “President still tops – Survey†it gives a misleading impression that there is a latest in a pattern of surveys which is confirming Mugabe’s popularity in March 2016, when in fact it is actually reporting about the same 2014 survey that has been published before! There is nothing new
It’s classic propaganda: tell something often enough and even if it is doubtful, eventually people will end up believing it.
But The Herald have only taken advantage of opportunities presented by the polling organisations, whose approach to releasing the results of their 2014 is at best intriguing. The same results, confirming what was first released in 2015, have been released in drip fashion, at different locations and times. They probably have a good explanation for this approach, but one of the consequences is that it has become fodder for cheap propaganda. Far from being helpful, the Survey results have become a source of intrigue and to some extent misleading given that they can’t possibly be said to be an accurate reflection of 2016 public opinion, and yet they are still being presented as the “latest†poll.
The Herald’s justification in this case is probably that they were merely reporting on a press release by one of Afrobarometer’s partners, the Institute of Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) another South African based organisation. The IJR’s website carries a press release dated 25th February 2016, bearing news of the same 2014 survey. Even if The Herald say they were reporting a press release by the IJR, it seems odd that they would suddenly latch on a to a press release that is nearly 3 weeks old – the press release was on 25th February and the story was published on March 15: nineteen days later!
Still The Herald cannot pretend that they did not know that they have already published the Survey results before. They knew they were repeating a story they have published at least three times before.
So why has it been necessary to repeat this old story?
The answer lies in the realm of propaganda. President Mugabe has hit a sticky wicket in the last couple of weeks. The Indian fiasco came hard on the heels of the diamond-related $15 billion dollar loss confession. If there was a method in the $15 billion loss disclosure, perhaps to entrap rivals, then it backfired spectacularly as it showed him up as inept and negligent. People are blaming him as leader for the country’s huge losses. The trip to India was a disaster from the beginning but when he ended up in Singapore, an already bad situation got worse.
It is against this context that the bizarre headline and repetition of an old story based on a 3 week-old press release can be understood. The Herald’s headline and story is no more than a sweetener in two weeks of lemons. It is a diversion from these negative stories. It is designed to bring in the feel-good factor. It’s like they went all-out to look for a positive story to dilute the recent negative publicity and this was the best they could come up with – which in itself shows the paucity of good news within the establishment. It’s scratching the bottom of the barrel.
In short, it’s sunshine journalism – telling the positive, even if it’s now too old and so behind events as to be utterly misleading and unreliable as a measure of current public opinion.
Then again it’s classic propaganda which the world’s most infamous propagandist, Joseph Goebbels would probably approve of: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it …†the Nazi Germany chief of propaganda once said. The Afrobarometer Survey of 2014 can hardly be regarded as a reliable reflection of the most current public opinion in light of the significant developments since it was carried out. Yet The Herald happily describes the 2014 poll as the “latest†as if it were the most up-to-date, which it obviously isn’t. But their audience is not to know that.
The thing is that those manning the propaganda section for the ruling party know their audience well and are happy to serve them these insipid dishes as news. They are those who only read the banner at the street corner which says “President Mugabe still tops – survey†or peep across the seat to read the headlines on the fellow passenger’s copy. They are those who ask the neighbour what the paper is saying and rely on what they are told, usually informed by the headline. They are the crowd that may not even remember that the same story or similar headline has been published before – sometimes, twice or three times before! They might not have read it then or even if they did, they have probably forgotten. This audience is not going to analyse nor is it going to read analysis on social media.
This huge mass of innocent and often gullible readers is the target of propaganda. They might not even pay attention to the story but it will register in the mind, and planting the seed of disinformation in this manner is the very purpose and aim of the propaganda machine.
When students of propaganda study the use of propaganda in state media, this series of reporting on the Afrobarometer Survey over the last 2 years would be an interesting case study.
It is interesting though, that Afrobarometer has gained so much favour from the Zanu PF establishment in recent times as an “international†and “pan-African think-tankâ€, a mile away from when it was described as a Western-funded organisation and pro-MDC-T. One must wonder what would happen should Afrobarometer in future return a set of survey results that would be highly unfavourable to Mugabe and Zanu PF – they might just regain their status as a Western-funded organisation and a pro-MDC-T think tank!
Wamagaisa
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