Rediscovering the Mediterranean Characteristics of the Croatian Media System

Abstract

The article presents the analysis of the Croatian post-socialist media system within the comparative framework of Hallin and Mancini’s approach. The media system and the political system are analyzed with the cluster of variables, interpreting the development of the media market, political parallelism, journalistic professionalism, and the role of the state in relation to the existing theoretical framework. The paper demonstrates a perfect fit with the Mediterranean polarized pluralist model of media system, and argues that the Croatian case disproves the proposition that Hallin and Mancini’s model cannot be applied to new democracies in post-communist Europe. The communist period in Croatia provided nuance to an already existing framework of media system, while the post-communist transition after 1990 and ensuing democracy continue to exhibit the historically determined relationships between politics and the media. The article argues in conclusion that ignorance of the true nature of media systems and social and political frameworks that shape them are the reason for the failed internationally assisted democratization processes and successful implementation of foreign media regulation models.

Media Coverage of Different Scientific Disciplines in the Croatian Daily Press

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Attribution of global ethical norms: Perceptions of journalistic independence and integrity in Serbia, Macedonia and Croatia

“…A Freedom House (2015) report states that both journalists and news editors are aware that their owners are connected to different lobbies and interest groups. Journalists of both public and private media complain of the persistent governmental influence on their work as well as of economic insecurities, which influence the journalists’ willingness to disown the journalistic code and author texts ordered by their editors (Peruško, 2013). Research points out that Croatian journalists have been censored by their editors, have admitted to self-censorship and that they lack common professional standards (Švob-Đokić et al, 2011).…”

Media in Croatia: from freedom fighters to tabloid avengers

“…The third juncture marks the transition from socialism to democracy and has been the subject of most of scholarly work on media systems in Eastern Europe (cf. Dobek-Ostrowska 2015Hallin and Mancini 2013;Herrero et al 2017;Peruško 2013Peruško , 2016. The last juncture is not a temporal phase but rather a series of global communication-related changes and convergences that stretch across different times and cover a wide range of processes, from the emergence of the new media technologies to the most recent changes covered by the concepts of digitalization, mediatization (cf.…”