O ALTERNATIVNOM UOKVIRAVANJU DOGAĐAJA U NOVINAMA

Abstract

In this paper the author combines two frame theories – framing in communicology (media studies) and (Fillmore’s) frame semantics – in order to show how one event – the protest of taxi drivers in the autumn of 2019 – is alternatively portrayed and written about in three different daily newspapers. From the undertaken analysis, it can be established which surface frameworks (Lakoff’s term) appeared in newspaper reports on the protests. If these surface frameworks are connected with Entman’s understanding of media frames and framing, then it can be stated that different media, i.e. dailies, also suggest different views of the represented event, i.e. they frame the protest differently, but they also contain some common features. After all, how does one write about a two-week taxi drivers’ protest? Is it really possible to repeat the same story every time, to state the same reasons that led to the protest, is it possible to avoid reporting on what was happening on the streets day by day? Of course, the answer is no. Thus, it was shown that in the Novosti daily paper oppressive-inhibitory frames (disenfranchisement of citizens, harassment, turning citizens into “hostages”, conflicts with fellow citizens, etc.) were dominant. In this newspaper the effects of the taxi drivers’ protest on the everyday life of (most) Belgradians were the focus of attention. Therefore, the citizens were given an important place in the reports, with the thematic role of patients in the texts or actors who suffer because of the protests. From this it can be concluded that in Novosti, more often than in other papers, owing to such delegitimizing framing, the protest was evaluated negatively. There were similar or identical frames in Politika as well, but also those frames that put the protests in the foreground and the reasons that led to them, and even the issue of responsibility / nonreaction of the state was recognized. Although delegitimization was evident here too, more understanding was shown for the protests (i.e. reasons for protesting), and the oversights and inadequate handling of the situation by the institutions were also pointed out. Finally, in the daily newspaper Danas, more often than in the two aforementioned newspapers, the protest frame itself appeared, with the conspicuous absence / suppression of the second participant – citizens (as victims of the taxi drivers’ protests), therefore, in a way, legitimizing the protests (affirmative framing), but also, in later reporting, with some types of inhibitory frames (which apparently appear in all three newspapers).