REPORTING OF CROATIAN DAILY NEWSPAPERS ON 2011 ANTIGOVERNMENT PROTESTS

Text topic: Studies

Text author: Mato Brautović

Mass media are vital for the success of protests. The content analysis of Croatian daily newspapers that reported of the antigovernment protests shows that the key role played the old media, and not Facebook and Twitter as it was in the cases of Moldavia, Iran, Egypt or Tunis. It was mostly the outcome of a different geographical structure of population and the freedom of press, which exists in Croatia and does not in the mentioned Arab countries. The daily newspapers extensively reported of the protests, in the same time announcing and encouraging them. When the quantity of reports declined and the manner of reporting changed (after the protests were held), the interest of protesters for further protests also declined. The analyzed daily newspapers, except for Jutarnji list, prefered protesters actively reporting and giving relevant data about the protest, future activities, and efforts to recruit and mobilize protesters.