engleski

You talking to me?: Political economy of the internet and the editorial boards of popular news websites in Croatia

The internet is increasingly commercialized globally and locally. Companies such as Google dominate web search and online videos through YouTube, while Facebook dominates social networking. Statistics on audience reach of news websites in Croatia show that the most popular websites are owned either by transnational media companies, or by large local media conglomerates that also own high circulation daily newspapers. Since 2008 advertising revenues have been dropping dramatically for all media in Croatia except for the Internet. Between 2008 and 2013 online advertising revenues have almost quadrupled. Reflecting a global laissez-faire regulation approach there is almost no legislation focusing on the Internet and its impact on the sphere of public communication. How do these structural conditions shape the editorial boards of online news websites in Croatia? What are the online strategies of public communication of these media? How do they frame their supposed social role and impact? What are their targeted audiences and how do they reflect their interests? Who do they represent? These are some of the questions we will focus on in this presentation. The paper will, first, present an analysis of a series of in-depth interviews conducted with members of the editorial boards, and second, present a detailed qualitative and quantitative content analysis of articles on relevant social issues published on these websites. The data will be collected and analyzed as part of a large-scale project funded by the Croatian science foundation.

Internet; political economy; news websites

nije evidentirano