This article explores changing political communication and marketing trends
in Zimbabwe when presidential candidates used Facebook to reach out,
largely to the youth and urban voters, during the 2018 election campaign.
Recent studies have identified the power of social media as a platform on
which politicians portray images that convince the electorate to vote for
them. These images can be created through the photographs, video footage
and texts that politicians post on their Facebook pages. The study employed a
qualitative approach to establish the role played by political imagery used by
contesting parties and candidates in the campaign period ahead of the 2018
elections in Zimbabwe, in particular the frontrunners and larger political
parties. MDC-Alliance presidential candidate Nelson Chamisa and ZanuPF candidate Emmerson Mnangagwa were both serious contenders for the
presidency. The analysis sheds light on the implications of image-making
and modern political trends in Zimbabwe and how Facebook manages to
reach out to the targeted electorate.