Nostalgia for greater Serbia: media coverage of Radovan Karadžic’s arrest

Zala Volcic; Karmen Erjavec

Nostalgia for greater Serbia: media coverage of Radovan Karadžic’s arrest

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review

Abstract

The arrest of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžiæ in July 2008 triggered
wide-spread international interest and provided the opportunity for the Serbian
public and its media to reflect upon the role of Serbia in the Yugoslav wars of the
1990s. Karadžiæ was a Bosnian-Serb president of the self-proclaimed Serbian
republic within Bosnia and Herzegovina, and was indicted for genocide and crimes
against humanity in 1995. On the basis of critical discourse analysis, we argue that
Television Serbia, while covering Karadžiæ's arrest, constructed a nationalistic
discourse by invoking nostalgia for Greater Serbia in ways that suppressed or
concealed any connection between Karadžiæ specifically, the Serbs in general, and
especially the current government with war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina. At
the same time this discourse celebrated Serbia as a superior nation as it progressed
toward inclusion in the European Union.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	24-46
Number of pages	23
Journal	Journal of Global Mass Communication
Volume	2
Issue number	1/2
Publication status	Published - 2009
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

nostalgia
nationalism
poetry
Serbia
television
recontextualization
war criminal

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Cite this

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abstract = "The arrest of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karad{\v z}i{\ae} in July 2008 triggeredwide-spread international interest and provided the opportunity for the Serbianpublic and its media to reflect upon the role of Serbia in the Yugoslav wars of the1990s. Karad{\v z}i{\ae} was a Bosnian-Serb president of the self-proclaimed Serbianrepublic within Bosnia and Herzegovina, and was indicted for genocide and crimesagainst humanity in 1995. On the basis of critical discourse analysis, we argue thatTelevision Serbia, while covering Karad{\v z}i{\ae}'s arrest, constructed a nationalisticdiscourse by invoking nostalgia for Greater Serbia in ways that suppressed orconcealed any connection between Karad{\v z}i{\ae} specifically, the Serbs in general, andespecially the current government with war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Atthe same time this discourse celebrated Serbia as a superior nation as it progressedtoward inclusion in the European Union. ",

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