Page 68 - Dark Shades of Istria
P. 68
Media Perspective on Dark Tourism and Memory
ple themselves (Širok, 2009, p. 37; Stone, 2009). Pavlaković (2016) high-
lighted how collective memories (particularly of wwi i and the post-war
period) were abused (manipulated by the media) and oriented through
increasing disagreements between Croats and Serbs in the late 1980s and
1990s; in this context, the Jasenovac concentration camp was completely
politicised. Širok (2009; 2012), furthermore, points out how interesting
people still find w w i i, as well as the fascist and post-war violence on
today’s Italian-Slovenian border area. A concrete example from the Up-
per Adriatic is the commemorations of the Italian Il Giorno del ricordo,
which is mentioned in this study several times. It is discussed in the Is-
trian newspapers every year in February as well. In 2020, the Croatian
Glas Istre tried to explain the (post-)w w i i situation mainly based on a
black-and-white principle, where no special empathy or reverence were
expressed towards the victims (Angeleski, 2020). A completely different
example was that of the La Voce del Popolo, where the Italian victims and
other victims of post-war revolutionary violence were very sensitively
displayed in six articles. However, the time of fascism, which had pre-
viously seen violent confrontations with Slavs and anti-fascists in Istria,
was almost completely neglected.
Many authors who discussed different perspectives of the media’s cre-
ation of social reality were pointed out already in sub-chapter 1.1 ‘Back-
ground and Rationale for the Study,’ i.e. Gamson et al. (1992, p. 385), Čr-
pić and Mataušić (1998, p. 673), Edy (1999), Kitch (2002; 2008), Nišić and
Plavšić (2014, p. 74), Pavlaković and Perak (2017, p. 301), and Mustapić
and Balabanić (2018, p. 439). Their claims are also relevant for the media-
memory relation, just as the claims of Simone-Charteris et al. (2018) are
relevant for the dark tourism-media relations. In conclusion, Katz and
Liebes (2007, p. 163) emphasised some extremely relevant factors related
to the establishments’ and media’s control over the public events: ‘inte-
grative versus disruptive character of each type of event, and the factor
of preplanning versus surprise, lurks the question of control, of who is in
charge.’
4.3 Chapter Conclusion
The ‘media environment’ as described by Napoli (2010), despite its ob-
vious weaknesses, offers a relevant perspective for the investigation of
memory and the related dark tourism; see also Le et al. (2021). The spe-
cific, media-created social reality – as an output of processes performed
within the ‘media environment’ – evidently reflects the actual social re-
68
ple themselves (Širok, 2009, p. 37; Stone, 2009). Pavlaković (2016) high-
lighted how collective memories (particularly of wwi i and the post-war
period) were abused (manipulated by the media) and oriented through
increasing disagreements between Croats and Serbs in the late 1980s and
1990s; in this context, the Jasenovac concentration camp was completely
politicised. Širok (2009; 2012), furthermore, points out how interesting
people still find w w i i, as well as the fascist and post-war violence on
today’s Italian-Slovenian border area. A concrete example from the Up-
per Adriatic is the commemorations of the Italian Il Giorno del ricordo,
which is mentioned in this study several times. It is discussed in the Is-
trian newspapers every year in February as well. In 2020, the Croatian
Glas Istre tried to explain the (post-)w w i i situation mainly based on a
black-and-white principle, where no special empathy or reverence were
expressed towards the victims (Angeleski, 2020). A completely different
example was that of the La Voce del Popolo, where the Italian victims and
other victims of post-war revolutionary violence were very sensitively
displayed in six articles. However, the time of fascism, which had pre-
viously seen violent confrontations with Slavs and anti-fascists in Istria,
was almost completely neglected.
Many authors who discussed different perspectives of the media’s cre-
ation of social reality were pointed out already in sub-chapter 1.1 ‘Back-
ground and Rationale for the Study,’ i.e. Gamson et al. (1992, p. 385), Čr-
pić and Mataušić (1998, p. 673), Edy (1999), Kitch (2002; 2008), Nišić and
Plavšić (2014, p. 74), Pavlaković and Perak (2017, p. 301), and Mustapić
and Balabanić (2018, p. 439). Their claims are also relevant for the media-
memory relation, just as the claims of Simone-Charteris et al. (2018) are
relevant for the dark tourism-media relations. In conclusion, Katz and
Liebes (2007, p. 163) emphasised some extremely relevant factors related
to the establishments’ and media’s control over the public events: ‘inte-
grative versus disruptive character of each type of event, and the factor
of preplanning versus surprise, lurks the question of control, of who is in
charge.’
4.3 Chapter Conclusion
The ‘media environment’ as described by Napoli (2010), despite its ob-
vious weaknesses, offers a relevant perspective for the investigation of
memory and the related dark tourism; see also Le et al. (2021). The spe-
cific, media-created social reality – as an output of processes performed
within the ‘media environment’ – evidently reflects the actual social re-
68
