Media reporting on violence against women in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

This paper aims to present research findings on the reporting of two print media in Bosnia and Herzegovina on violence against women. Qualitative-quantitative analysis of the content of the two daily papers Nezavisne novine and Dnevni avaz during February 2019 was used to analyze the responsibility of the media in reporting on violence against women. The aim of the research was twofold: to examine the compliance of journalistic practice with the codes and laws of ethical conduct of media professionals and to examine whether the media emphasize violence against women in the family and community as a personal or as a social problem. The results of the quantitative analysis show a larger number of articles on violence against women in the community, while family violence against women remains in the personal domain, although it is most prevalent in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The results of the qualitative analysis indicate that the media do not deal with violence from an analytical point of view. Instead, the media deal with the reckless and unethical stereotyping of the female victim, as well as the situational portrayal of violence against women, i.e. only after the violent act. The research findings confirm the findings of much more extensive and comprehensive studies conducted so far in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which indicate that the expansion of sensationalist reporting on violence against women is becoming a skillfully used tool to justify male aggression, filling the black chronicle and attracting attention, which produces a kind of effect of audience resilience on violence.