ZESN Report on the 31 July 2013 Harmonised Elections This partisan reporting was clearly demonstrated in reporting the campaign period. In trying to bolster their preferred candidate’s popularity, some of the media engaged in a contest of attendance figures at rallies. While the public media always projected ZANU PF rallies as having attracted massively huge crowds, some sections of the private media dismissed these figures on the basis that many of those had been forced to attend events. They then projected attendance at MDC-T events as voluntary and a testament of the party’s popularity. Table 8 Qualitative analysis of political party campaign stories in all state-owned media48 91% 89% Negative Neutral Positive 53% 40% 33% 27% 9% 23% 23% 11% 0% 0% ZANU PF MDC-T MDC-N Other parties Of the 278 stories the state owned media carried on ZANU PF, 253 (91 per cent) were positive. The remaining 25 (9 per cent) were neutral. One hundred and twelve (89 per cent) of the 126 stories they carried on the MDC-T were negative, while 14 (11 per cent) were neutral. Six of the 15 reports on the MDC-N were neutral, while five (33 per cent) were negative. The remaining four (27 per cent) were positive. Nine (53 per cent) of the 17 reports on other parties were positive, while four (24 per cent) were negative. The remaining four were neutral. The neutral reports on the MDC-N and other parties were about the parties’ direct campaign activities. Notably, these parties, particularly the ZDP and UMD, received positive publicity when they were reported expressing support for Mugabe and his party, or 48 MMPZ Analysis of the Media 46 | P a g e