Branding in the Post-truth News era: A Social Media Hegemony in Zimbabwe Tourism Brand Equity Modelling.

The study was premised on understanding the basis of Zimbabwe tourism brand ascendancy particularly looking at the role of social media in improving positive publicity in a world dominated by post news falsification. This was achieved through comparing social media and other types of media namely traditional and digital on the effect to Brand Equity Variables. The brand equity variables comprised of brand awareness, brand image, perceived brand quality, brand loyalty and brand association. The study applied a sequential mixed methods by starting with a qualitative research design followed by a quantitative. Indepth interviews were used to obtain qualitative data and a survey questionnaire for quantitative data. The results from a qualitative research helped in coming up with the most used types of media in a tourism destination as: Magazine, Electronic, WhatsApp, Twitter, LinkedIn, Newspaper, Radio, Television, Facebook, Website, Blogs, Instagram, Google and Portal. A survey was further done in order to group them under three main categories which are Social Media, Traditional Media and Digital Media. The results showed that Social Media comprise of WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn: Traditional Media was discovered to have Magazine, Television, Radio and Newspaper. Digital Media was comprised of Electronic Boards, Website, Google, Blogs and Portal. A further survey was done in order to understand the relationship between each group of media and the brand equity variables. This then aided in producing a model for destination branding linking Social Media and Brand Equity Variables; Traditional Media and Brand Equity Variables; and Digital Media and Brand Equity Variables. The study therefore recommended that destination marketers should work in partnership with various media providers throughout the whole process of destination brand development since it might influence the crafting and framing news so as to attract potential tourists