THREAD: Zimbabwean journalism is dated and needs a major facelift.

Some easy and notable improvements could be:

1) Not EVERY front page of a newspaper needs to be politics and not EVERY lead story has to be negative. There are plenty positive stories about.

2) Why are we writing stories like it’s the 90s?
Gone are the days there long, twisting sentences and technical lingo is necessary for an article.

Shorten the sentences, tighten up your style, be concise and to the point.

Do newspapers want to appeal to the general public?

3) It’s time to move our focus away from papers and towards online publications.

And this isn’t done by just putting the same stuff we normally see in the papers.

Be more interactive, give us more human interest, photo galleries, quizzes, movie reviews.

Endless possibilities.

4) Our papers shouldn’t die out, they should be BETTER!

Now is the time to upgrade publishing technology, be more inventive and invest in staff training to help our journalists and graphic designers reach world class levels.

Compare today’s Daily News with UK’s Daily Mirror.

5) it’s unacceptable that this is the standard of our newspapers.

It doesn’t take a million dollars or a rocket scientist to move with the times and to change our newspapers for the better.

Is there anyone who disagrees with me?

6 (1/2) ) It’s time to tell the stories that matter.

A timely example? The effects of COVID-19 on our country.

We deserve to know more than the basic statistics provided by the government.

We deserve to know how Covid has affected the poor, how it’s affecting small...

6 (2/2)) Businesses and the families of those affected. 6 people have died but what are the consequences of their deaths?

How will the life of a Zimbabwean change post Covid?

What are the stories that our frontline workers face when it comes to Covid?

We need to know more!

7) Where are our investigative journalists?

With the exception of @elias_mambo @daddyhope and @Mathuthu (who are EXCELLENT journalists) the investigative scene is close to non existent.

We need to know more!

8) I want to end this thread by saying big up to the journalist and media-startups that are doing their best to impprove the media situation in our country and tell the stories that need to be told.

They are:
@zimlive
@ZimMorning_Post
@newswireZW

Oh and I must also mention @263Chat who has been there from day one.

They aren’t perfect but I know they are a team of professionals desperate to bring positive change to our media! Onwards and upwards we can hope.

9) Funding: I perhaps should address the funding line.

Of course it’s not always the case that news organisations are backed by wealthy individuals and thus, quality and quantity can be affected.

There’s no easy way out of this, but are there ways we can improve?