Suchergebnisse

This article deals with an analysis of the relations among communicology, novitology, and journalism as the practice of public communication. Communicoloy is defined as a general science on public communication (philosophy of communication), novitology as a specific science dealing with all the singularities of mass communication by means of the mass media (radio, newspapers, television, and the new media), while journalism as practice is defined by means of the methodology of direct journalistic activities. This leads to the introduction of epistemiological order into a number of sciences Also, misunderstandings and overlappings are avoided, as well as totally erroneous attitudes pernicious for the theory of public communication and journalism as the practice of public polylogue in the media. (SOI : PM: S. 214)

The article deals, at various levels, with the limits and scope of the media activity, on the example of the latest Balkan war. On the theoretical level, there are three basic modalities in political communication: the positive propaganda (the so called carrot system), the negative propaganda (hard propaganda, aimed at destroying the enemy and its institutions) and, finally, the military propaganda with the military action, i.e. the system of communicating with a "stick". All these modes have been used in the war for Kosovo: Serbia had been positively conditioned for at least the entire decade, then a somewhat stricter model of the negative propaganda was used, and when this led nowhere, in 1999, Milosevic felt the full force of the state-of-the-art military equipment and the communication with a "stick". The author concludes that the media are powerful, but not all- powerful i.e. that they are eclipsed by the military communication, wars and victories or defeats. (SOI : S. 119)

The information technology is increasingly shaping human life. Thanks to it, the quantity of publicly accessible information has been extremely enlarged. There is also a greater number of people who use these information actively, which should make more space for the development of communication culture. However, there are certain problems. The information technology deprives man of many natural ways of communication. In spite of everything, man needs it. Then again, when using the information technology, he should not let himself to be a mere slave, but he should aspire to become the subject - an active agent of the process with all characteristics that make him human. (SOI : PM: S. 243)

The author analyzes the current trends of the globalization of trade, capital, mass media, communication, transport, tourism and economic migrations. However, there is the backlash to the globalizing processes: cultural particularism which has mobilized traditions and triggered violent outbreaks of hostilities. Political scientist Francis Fukuyama has pointed out that today the key challenges to liberal democracy are a miscellany of particularistic fundamentalism, national extremism, totalitarism and authoritarian paternalism. Samuel Huntington also warns about the dangers of particularism. Within such a framework, the phenomenon of "ethnic cleansing" is only an extreme form of the trend which has marked the 20th century - ethnical homogenization as a reaction to the problems of multiethnic communities. The author is of the opinion that this development need not represent an obstacle for the dialogue and communication among cultures. (SOI : PM: S. 168)

In this work, the author analyses three basic requisites for the establishment of a comprehensive information system in Croatia: contemporary worldview, the latest state-of-the-art technology of the electronic media and the new rhetoric of tele-dialogue/polilogue. The author claims that, regarding the implementation of the latest technology, Croatia is on a par with the world (since we have links with the satellite and optical system and the number of the INTERNET subscribers is growing). However, the situation with the growth of political culture is not so rosy, since the media are still far from a constructive polilogue and mostly stoop to the ad hominem rhetoric. The bleakest situation is in the unpreparedness of journalists and citizens for active, participatory communication in powerful polilogist electronic media. + That is why the author advocates a speedier progress in all subsystems, since only through the synergetic linking of the new communicational technology with the new rhetoric of the polilogue, as well as with the responsibility of all the participants in public communication, a comprehensive Croatian information system may be developed. (SOI : PM: S. 215)

The policy of pressure on Croatia as an illustrative - although not isolated - example has not inspired empirical and theoretical studies of this phenomenon. The discussion has remained at the level of everyday political discourse, even "coffee-house politics". Due to its extreme topicality, as well as its theoretical "solvency", the author has attempted with this essay to come up with a theoretical definition of the concept of pressure and to demonstrate on the Croatian example its goals, scope, dynamics and future prospects and outcomes. Among the existing approaches, the author has chosen the "politico-economic approach" which defines the policy of pressure as a specific form of political communication between the "centre" and the "periphery" in Wallerstein's "world system". The example of Croatia serves the author as an ideal-type model of such communication through a combination of political science and sociological analysis. In his opinion, and due to certain favourable contingencies, Croatia is the nearest to the ideal type of such communication. + Due to a lack of systematic empirical data, the discussion naturally remains at the theoretical- hypothetical level, and should be understood as an invitation to further discussion and as an incentive for more extensive empirical research. However, since this is a very dynamic phenomenon, the question is: is the author's argumentation still valid today as it was at the time when the essay was written? There have been two changes: (1) the war on Kosovo which proves the author's hypotheses; and (2) a certain "thaw" in the relations between the international community (particularly USA) and Croatia (it is still unclear whether this change concerns the fundamental strategic trends or is solely a "politico-meteorological" phenomenon (the alteration of colder and warmer periods). This is why the author did not deem any alterations in the text necessary; one should wait and in the meantime expose the (hypo)theses to some critical scrutiny. (SOI : PM: S. 211)

The current trends in media industry (in the text referred to as concentration trend, diversification, globalization, and deregulation) bring up the question of the scope of classical liberal theory when .faced with the challenges of new communication technologies. The convergence of the market and the capital, the interests from the point of view of ownership and the commercialisation of mass media make up the contextual framework of the debate about certain limitations of the principles of classical liberal theory concerning freedom of the press and media in general. (SOI : PM: S. 176)

The author provides a definition of political marketing and hightlights its links with democratic polity, reviews the evolution of political marketing from the party to the marketing concept, looks into political marketing as a sort of construction of political reality and analyzes political marketing in Croatia. The author points out that political marketing is resisted by the very people who should make use of it, but that there are some objective circumstances which stand in its way, such as the lack of money, the undeveloped public electronic media, and the still predominantly traditional culture of the society, more inclined to oral communication. (SOI : PM: S. 167)

The essay analyses the feasible developments of radio in the 21st century. By the method of extrapolation of the latest technologies of electronic communication, the author claims that radio in the 21st century is to become a synergetic element of an integral medium, which means that radio as a separate institution will be transformed, but that it will remain in the audiosphere. Due to the possibilities of advanced electronic technologies, artificial phonic qualities are to be increasingly devised while the use of optic fibres in the transmission of sound will enable the dialogue/polylogue at a distance. Consequently, there will be changes in the field of radio rhetoric and the stature of radio journalists who, besides being disseminators, will increasingly become regulators, moderators, and animators of the entire public dialogue among citizens. (SOI : PM: S. 210)

The notions of "right" and "left" are a fundamental semantic pattern within which voters construct their political perceptions and attitudes. Their universal meaning lies in a simple spatial approach to politics as conflict; functionally, "right" and "left" are "shortcuts" for political communication. In the empirically oriented political science, the left- right scale has become a standard variable in public opinion polls. After the initial pessimistic interpretations, in the last twenty years or so, this scale has increasingly demonstrated its validity and reliability. The sources of the right-left identification may be manifold, and not solely ideological. Also, the right-left scheme has demonstrated a remarkable potential to - in time - encompass new political contents and thus create a need for new cross-national and longitudinal studies. Voters - and not scientists - are those who define what is left and what is right. (SOI : PM: S. 168)

With the emergence of television, pre-election campaigns in US shifted its focus from the content and the platform to the image of candidates who became well-packaged products. The biggest election turnout in US occurred exactly at the time of the emergence of this media; however, the percentages of voters' turnout plummeted in the nineties. Enhanced by the attributes of television as a media, the focus on "how" rather than on "what" did not achieve absolute results, and voters responded to the invasion of political image producers with voting abstinence. The latest chapter in pre- election campaigning is the Internet. With its properties and the rapid expansion of the users' net, the new media offers different conditions of communication with voters and is becoming a powerful - and so far, insufficiently utilised - weapon in the hands of pre-election strategists. (SOI : SOEU: S. 191)