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Ethnic Distance, Power and War: The Case of Croatian Students
Author(s) -
Malešević Siniša,
Uzelac Gordana
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
nations and nationalism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.655
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1469-8129
pISSN - 1354-5078
DOI - 10.1111/j.1354-5078.1997.00291.x
Subject(s) - ethnic group , bosnian , depiction , croatian , power (physics) , newspaper , ethnic cleansing , politics , government (linguistics) , sociology , gender studies , political science , media studies , law , linguistics , literature , art , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics
. This article examines dimensions of ethnic distance in two wartime surveys of university students in Croatia. The data from the surveys is interpreted together with the content analysis of the Croatian daily newspaper vjesnik. The article draws its central conclusion from the striking similarities between the media's depiction of various ethnic groups and the dimensions of ethnic distance towards these groups. In 1992 the prime targets of ethnic distance were Serbs and Montenegrins, while in 1993 Bosnian Moslems received similar attention. Since the majority of respondents had no war experience the authors conclude that the media's influence on popular attitudes was a crucial determinant of ethnic distance. Considering that most of the media is government‐controlled, it is argued that changes observed within these two years can be primarily attributed to the concrete political goals of power possessors.