“Whoever Dies Righteously, Lives Forever”: Religious Content of Commemorations in Croatian News Media

Abstract

The main purpose of the present research was to determine the extent to which Croatian news media report on religious content at commemorations and on other characteristics of commemorative events. Commemorations can be understood either as a component aimed at consolidating national identity or as a component of dark tourism. Using quantitative content analysis, we first coded all archived and publicly available online articles (f = 363) from Croatian news media/newspapers. For statistical analysis purposes, we used cross tabulations and binary logistic regression. We found that reporting on religious rituals at commemorations does not depend on the medium (newspaper, newspaper publisher) and that the medium does not influence the frequency of reporting. Likewise, reporting on the inclusion of religious rituals in commemorations is not related to reporting on other features of these events. Hence, on the one hand, media practices do not take full advantage of certain assumptions offered by the Catholic religion in relation to memory and are, on the other hand, more in line with the threats that religion can pose in postconflict multicultural settings.