The media and officials: A negative symbiosis during the Yugoslavia crisis of the 1990s

Abstract

In this article author gives analysis of paradigm enforced through western media on the crisis and disintegration of Yugoslavia. By the aid of comparative analysis mutual influence is demonstrated between official's pronouncements and media informing. Along with the deepening of crisis one could notice daily grow of accusation of Serbs in number written with aim to portray them as morally Evil. Therefore, Serbs for many officials were simply pigs and trash, or they were dumb-ass criminals, and at last they were the nation without law or any set of beliefs. Thereafter they were accused for terrorism and Nazism, with threats that they must be brought to their knees begging for mercy, and finally that Serbia deserves to be turned into dust and ashes. The role of all these accusations and threats was to justify disintegration of second Yugoslavia, and to minimize the role of western allies in this operation. In the very operation one could notice wide consensus between political and media elites in the West. Accusation of Serbs was question of prestige - and due to this fact some officials were rewarded with higher official positions while some journalists were given a remarkable prizes. .