(Un)covering Karadžić: a Case Study on Media (Re)production of National Ideologies through War Crimes Coverage in the Former Yugoslavia

The case of the former Yugoslav states provides a powerful example of an arena in which the mass media continue to play a crucial role in creating and representing (ethno) national identities. (Ethno) national identities retain important ideological functions in the region. When during the end of the 1980s and 1990s, the nationalisms of all the republics of the former Yugoslavia escalated, each community first re-activated or re-created its national media in order to reinforce and re-invent a sense of national identity and difference. This collection is an attempt to offer some explorations of the role played by nationalism in media coverage in three countries: Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Serbia. Broadly, we are interested in exploring how the traumatic past of the Yugoslav wars has been represented in the media and how media representations of contemporary political processes relate to the traumatic past. Specifically, we focus on media representations of the highly publicized war crime trials. For media outlets and political institutions alike, coverage of the trials of the crimes committed during the Yugoslav wars is an important way of demonstrating that, at least symbolically, there has been a break with the former regimes. The point is not only to judge the perpetrators of the crimes, but to transform the overall political paradigm. Thus, it is crucial to explore how the war trials are represented in the media, and how the trauma they represent has been incorporated into public memory. Are there historical consequences to how a society deals with the memories of war trauma? What is the role of the media in forming memories? What are the communication patterns of the media in covering the war trials? What can be done to address the dilemmas of memory that are likely to shape the future in the former Yugoslav region? The focus on the above questions is motivated by the broader goal of contributing to the study of changes in the structures and relations of media, journalism, nation, ethnicity, memory, power, and reconciliation after the Yugoslav wars. The project’s goal is to draw upon the work of scholarship in the region in order to reflect a range of perspectives and intellectual traditions in the former Yugoslavia. Each of the five chapters represents an original methodological approach to exploring the following questions: a) What are the patterns of representation of war crime trials which reveal ideological positioning of the media? b) Do media reproduce the ethno-national fragmentation of the audience? c) Are some media/some countries more inclined to reproduce national ideologies than others? d) Is it possible to establish whether different types of media ownership and regulation coincide with different patterns of nationalist discourse in the media? For example, do media owned by foreign corporations differ in this respect from domestically owned media organizations? e) What is the relationship between the ideology of ethno-national elites and media reporting? f) What is the role of the commodification of news and information in reporting on war crime trials? g) How do the forms of nationalist discourse presented in routine media coverage of domestic events differ from forms of nationalist discourse present in the media coverage of exceptional events such as major war crime trials?

前南斯拉夫诸国的案例为我们提供了极具说服力的研究范本：在此区域内，大众传媒始终在塑造与表征族裔民族身份（ethno-national identities）的进程中发挥着核心作用。族裔民族身份在该地区仍承载着关键的意识形态功能。

20世纪80年代末至90年代，前南斯拉夫各共和国的民族主义情绪持续升温，各社群率先重新激活或重塑自身的民族媒体，以此强化并再造民族身份与群体差异的认知。

本数据集旨在探索克罗地亚、波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那以及塞尔维亚三国中，民族主义在媒体报道中所扮演的角色。总体而言，我们旨在探究南斯拉夫战争的创伤过往如何通过媒体进行表征，以及当代政治进程的媒体表征与这段创伤过往存在何种关联。具体而言，我们的研究聚焦于广受社会关注的战争罪审判的媒体表征。

无论是媒体机构还是政治机构，报道南斯拉夫战争期间所涉罪行的审判，都是彰显至少在象征层面上与前政权实现切割的重要路径。此举的目的不仅在于审判罪行的实施者，更在于重塑整体的政治范式。因此，探究战争罪审判在媒体中的表征方式，以及其所承载的创伤如何被纳入公共记忆，具有重要意义。

一个社会应对战争创伤记忆的方式，是否会产生历史层面的后续影响？媒体在记忆塑造中扮演着何种角色？媒体报道战争罪审判的传播模式具有哪些特征？我们应当如何应对可能塑造前南斯拉夫地区未来的记忆困境？

上述研究问题的提出，背后依托更宏大的目标：助力学界开展南斯拉夫战争后媒体、新闻业、民族、族裔、记忆、权力与和解的结构与关系变迁研究。本项目旨在依托该地区的学术研究成果，以呈现前南斯拉夫地区的多元学术视角与思想传统。

全书共五章，每一章均采用原创性方法论路径，围绕以下问题展开探究：
a) 能够揭示媒体意识形态定位的战争罪审判表征模式具有哪些特征？
b) 媒体是否在复制受众群体的族裔民族碎片化格局？
c) 是否存在部分媒体/部分国家比其他媒体/国家更倾向于复刻民族主义意识形态？
d) 能否证实不同类型的媒体所有制与监管模式，会与媒体中不同形态的民族主义话语相契合？例如，外资控股的媒体与本土媒体机构在这一方面是否存在差异？
e) 族裔民族精英的意识形态与媒体报道之间存在何种关联？
f) 新闻与信息的商品化在战争罪审判报道中发挥着何种作用？
g) 媒体在日常国内事件报道中呈现的民族主义话语形态，与在重大战争罪审判这类特殊事件的媒体报道中所呈现的民族主义话语形态，二者存在何种差异？