Tonči Valentić Mentor

UNIVERZA V LJUBLJANI FAKULTETA ZA DRUŽBENE VEDE Tonči Valentić Mentor: red. prof. dr. Mitja Velikonja Media Construction of Balkanism in Croatia after 1995 Medijska konstrukcija Balkana na Hrvaškem po letu 1995 Doktorska disertacija Ljubljana, 2015 1 FOREWORD This doctoral dissertation stemmed from a desire to research the media construction of Balkanism in Croatia at the end of the twentieth and early twenty-first century. It is about so-called Balkanism discourse that can be seen from different positions depending on who perpetuates it and in what way. Roughly one can say that the Balkanism discourse comes from „outside“ and „inside“ - the „outside“ refers to representations of „Balkans“, primarily from the perspective of „the West“ (specifically „Europe“), and the „inside“ refers to representation of „Balkans“ from their own perspective, i.e. from the perspective of the very inhabitants of the Balkans. Discourse representation in the form of the above mentioned „Europe“ and „the Balkans“ are nested as part of the propaganda machinery since long time ago, that is, from the moment when it was necessary to start to create an atmosphere that will suit the approaching to the European Union, as well as to create an entire ideology with the aim of convincing people „why Europe?“, „why the EU?“. Resignation is manifested both in accepting this self-scorn attitude and in yet another empty phrase which was often repeated that „there is no alternative“. The key area of this research represent a way in which the concept of Balkanism is used in the context of its media usage and in which way one can recognize the patterns of symbolic formation of national identity. The basic intention is to point out the existence of certain stereotypical patterns that represent the constant media use of Balkanism and Europeanism. I want to thank everyone who completed and enriched my understanding related to the above problem areas and thus directly made a contribution in terms of creating this thesis, which, I sincerely believe, will enrich scientific, research material of the respective academic areas and encourage further similar studies. Zagreb, April 2015. mr.sc. Tonči Valentić 2 3 SUMMARY This doctoral dissertation represents analysis of the media construction of Balkanism in Croatia at the end of the twentieth and early twenty-first century. It is about so-called Balkanism discourse that can be seen from different positions depending on who perpetuates it and in what way. Roughly one can say that the Balkanism discourse comes from „outside“ and „inside“ - the „outside“ one refers to representations of „Balkans“, primarily from the perspective of „the West“ (specifically „Europe“), and the „inside“ one refers to representation of „Balkans“ from their own perspective i.e. from the perspective of the very inhabitants of the Balkans. Key area of research represent a way in which the concept of Balkanism is used in the context of its media usage and in which way can one recognize the patterns of symbolic formation of national identity. The basic intention is to point out the existence of certain stereotypical patterns that represent the constant media use of Balkanism and Europeanism. In this analysis it is proved that discourse about the Balkans is largely present in the media in Croatia in the last twenty years and has influenced the direction of political and social events. In doing so, three periods can be distinguish where this discourse underwent changes: first was the period around 1999 when the collective memory of the socialist period was suppressed at the expense of the official rhetoric of the Central European and Mediterranean roots of Croatian culture and society, the term „Balkans” back then was identified with the concept of socialism and Yugonostalgia and „Europe“ with the notion of civility. Since 2000, the media rhetoric of the term Balkanism is no longer perceived as something purely negative, and around 2007 it takes some positive, primarily ethnographic connotations. However, I believe that the ideological matrix of „Balkanism“ is still very present when it comes to constructing the symbolic identity, and that this problem has not been sufficiently explored in recent works in the field of sociology. The intention of this thesis is to show that political and social matrix is still heavily influenced by the media discourse of „Europeanness“ and „Balkanism“, and that at the same time, just like before, is still using the same discursive mechanisms. In this sense, the power elites consciously accept the stereotypes imposed by the West, reproducing and imposing collective patterns of ethnic and cultural identification which could be described as „post-colonial“. There is no expressed semantic shift in media rhetoric in critical times, but it must be stated that in the early stages of research (1999-2006) showed a higher concentration of discourse on the Balkans, but by the number of published articles Also, there is the precise period in which these terms are used and exclude others like „Balkan“, „Southeast Europe“, „Western Balkans“. All of them are used at different times at the beginning and in the end of the study, provided that the term „Balkan“ was used more in the periods of first years of research (1999-2004), In a great extent, media research can be very fruitful for the analysis of socio-cultural changes in Croatian society, especially in the period from 1999-2009. Surely that there is some discrepancy between the sociological and ethnographic research on the origin of Balkans and the European civilization circles and media texts which, for example, put Croatia under the roof, others feel that it only partly belongs to the Balkans, a third believe that Croatia has never belonged to space which is referred to either as the Balkans, the Western Balkans or Southeastern Europe, but it’s always been in Central Europe. An independent media (in our example Nacional) were also infused with the rhetoric of the Balkans and colonial forms but admittedly to a lesser 4 extent. Key words and terms that are used by the media to describe the Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav experience in the context of opposition Balkans=socialism and primitivism, Europe=capitalism and the development of the „arrogance“, „non- civilization,“ „vulgarity“ „savagery,“ „barbarism“ etc. with the Balkan side, while Europe occurs in the context of „progress“, „civilization“, „development“, etc. Finally, the basic goal of this study showed that substantially, news discourse about the Balkans is based on stereotypes and on the fact that there is no causal relationship in expressed impressions of such rhetoric in the break-in periods of political and social events. Quite opposite, it was mostly constant throughout the period – up until Croatian accession to European Union. I sincerely believe that this doctoral dissertation made within comparative perspective is not mere academic or scientific analysis, but will be important because it will gain wider social significance through further, deeper examining of the basic structure of media discourse and its possible impact on national and symbolic identification. It is my hope that it can indeed constitute a good basis for another prospective study in that field based on the results of this research. Keywords: Balkan, balkanism, discourse, identity, media 5 POVZETEK Pričujoča doktorska disertacija se ukvarja s strukturo medijskega diskurza o Balkanu na Hrvaškem v obdobju po letu 1995. Raziskava se osredotoča na način uporabe koncepta balkanizma v medijskem poročanju in na način, na katerega prepoznamo vzorce simbolnega oblikovanja nacionalne identitete. Osnovni namen disertacije je izpostaviti obstoj določenih stereotipnih vzorcev, ki so stalnica pri medijski uporabi balkanizma in evropeizma. Delo bo temeljilo na analizi različnih diskurzov o Balkanu, na katerih temelji in se preoblikuje družbena identiteta in s pomočjo katerih bom analiziral dogajanje na Hrvaškem od leta 1995 naprej. V preteklosti sta se uradna politična ideologija in zgodovinopisje namreč izogibala umestitvi Hrvaške v balkansko regijo; izpostavljala sta raje njeno sredozemsko in srednjeevropsko identiteto. Ker je prej omenjeno obdobje zelo dolgo, bo analiza omejena na tri glavne enote, v katerih je mogoče prepoznati obrat medijske reprezentacije Balkana v negativno oblikovanje identitete: raziskal bom medijsko retoriko v obdobjih od let 1995 in 1999/2000 – v katerih lahko zaznamo spremembo politične usmeritve in zaton avtoritarnega režima – vse do leta 2007, ko so pristopna pogajanja Hrvaške za članstvo v Evropski uniji postala bolj intenzivna, vključno z letom 2013, ko se je Hrvaška pridružila EU. Prepričan sem, da je v teh obdobjih jasno razvidna medijska sprememba balkanizma kot kategorije retorike, ki jo je usmerjala politika. Raziskava je sestavljena iz teoretičnega in empriričnega dela. V teoretičnem delu bom podrobno obravnaval zgoraj omenjene teme in kritično analiziral omenjene teorije. Empirični del sestavlja analiza zbranih podatkov o tem, na kakšne načine je balkanizem v medijih predstavljen kot oblika konstrukcije nacionalne, etnične in družbene idenititete Hrvatov (balkanska, srednjeevropska, sredozemska itn). Podatki bodo zbrani na naslednji način: analiza vsebine in diskurzivna analiza različnih hrvaških medijev od leta 1995/1999 do danes oziroma analiza uporabe pojmov Evropa in Balkan v politični retoriki. Osredotočal se bom predvsem na tiskane medije v tem obdobju: dnevnike (Večernji list, Slobodna Dalmacija, Jutarnji list) in tednik

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