ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how indigenous digital audio stories bring forward the intersections between media, psychology and political behaviour. Using selected podcasts from COVID-19 Podcasts Series produced in minority languages isiNdebele, Kalanga and Nambya by the Centre for Innovation and Technology (CITE) as cases in point, the chapter examines how the tone, background music and discussions in the podcasts contribute to the emotional state of Bulawayo audiences in Zimbabwe. It further examines how this emotional state generates political agency and the desire to protest. To meet its objectives, this qualitative chapter adopts an audience reception trajectory using two focus group discussions and interviews with purposively selected participants to collect empirical data. The study is informed by the subaltern public sphere theory and reception theory. It concludes that the COVID-19 Podcasts Series evoke emotions of stress and anger directed at the political malfeasance in Zimbabwe. However, despite being stressed and angered, audiences’ emotions fail to spark political agency in the audiences. This is a result of the socio-political setting that audiences find themselves in which do not allow subalterns to politically express their disgruntlement directed at the state apparatus that muzzle civilians with counter hegemonic ideas.
