Intersections of Citizen Journalism, Social Media Watchdogism, and Citizen Surveillance of the State and Political Elites in Zimbabwe's 2023 Elections

Abstract

The August 2023 elections in Zimbabwe, just like the previous 2013 and 2018 elections, were characterized by extensive use of social media for political journalism purposes. Specifically, Twitter, WhatsApp, and YouTube have been widely used by citizens to report party presidential and parliamentary candidates’ election campaigns. The ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) parties and their presidential and parliamentary candidates’ campaign reportage are the main focus here. Whereas there is much scholarship on political journalism, social media and political communication, and social media and citizen journalism in Zimbabwe, there is a dearth of scholarship that theorizes the intersections of citizen journalism, the watchdog role of social media and citizens’ use of social media to conduct surveillance on the state, political candidates and/or political elites in electoral contexts. The current article thus seeks to fill that void by deploying the concepts of citizen journalism, (social) media watchdogism and (citizen) surveillance to interrogate how citizens utilized social media as a journalistic tool in the run up and aftermath of the 2023 electoral campaign. Data was gathered through archival research and virtual ethnography whilst findings were analyzed through thematic analysis.