Dominant representations of girls and women on Radio Zimbabwe

This paper uses textual analysis to discuss the dominant ways girls and women were constituted on the state-owned radio station, Radio Zimbabwe between March and April 2011. The bulk of existing research has focused on representations of women in news content published by the print media. Not much attention has been paid to radio despite the medium being the most popular means of communication in Africa. Also, missing in current research is a focus on how girls are depicted in the media. A key finding in this study is that Radio Zimbabwe framed ‘good’ girls in wooing encounters as passive. As a girl, being forthright was not always celebrated on the station. Another major finding is that women were pigeonholed into roles of mothers and nurturers. Whilst the dominant accounts positioned girls and women in aforementioned ways, the narratives were not always homogeneous. On the dating programme, Ida Anokudawo, female listeners traversed mainstream ideas by writing into the programme seeking partners. The spirit woman, Mbuya Nehanda, also disrupted conventional notions that framed women as predominantly caregivers who belonged in the home. Nehanda was portrayed as an inspirational leader of the First and Second Chimurenga in Zimbabwe.