Media scandals: Example of Croatian politics

Medijski škandali so postali vsakdanji pojav v novinarskem poročanju. Poleg tabloidizacije in tehnološkega razvoja, so škandali posledica številnih družbenih in kulturnih sprememb, zaradi katerih je ta pojav postal vseprisoten v moderni družbi. Danes si je težko zamisliti škandale brez medijskega učinka. Številne medijske hiše so namreč istočasno delokalizirale škandal in začele ustvarjati senzacionalne zgodbe. Prek medijev lahko občinstvo redno spremlja prekrške in neprimerno vedenje različnih posameznikov – zvezdnikov, predstavnikov institucij in »navadnih« ljudi. V diplomski nalogi se bom osredotočila večinoma na institucionalne ali politične škandale in bom kritično analizirala medijski diskurz, ki se je uporabljal pri poročanju o enemu najbolj kontroverznih škandalov na Hrvaškem: »Afera Dnevnice« ali bolj enostavno »primer Tomislava Saucha«. Poslanec Tomislav Saucha je glavni osumljenec pri podpisovanju lažnih potnih nalogov in dnevnic, s čimer je ogoljufal hrvaški državni proračun. V analizo so vključeni članki iz novinarskih portalov, in sicer Večernji list, Jutarnji list, Index.hr, 7Dnevno.hr in Novi list. V nalogi bom razložila sociološki in antropološki pomen škandalov, naslovila bom družbene in politične učinke koncepta ter ga primerjala s sorodnim fenomenom – moralno paniko.Media scandals became a common characteristic of mainstream news reporting. Along with the process of tabloidisation and technological development, numerous social, cultural transformations in society made this phenomenon omnipresent in modern society. Today it is hard imagine scandals without the interference of media. This is because numerous media companies delocalised scandal and began producing sensational stories at the same time. The media allows the audience to regularly keep track of the wrongdoings and odd behaviour of various individuals – celebrities, institution representatives and even “ordinary” people. In my bachelor thesis, I will focus mostly on institutional or political scandal through the analysis of the media discourse used to portray one of the most controversial scandals in modern-day Croatia – “the Daily Allowances affair” or simply “The Tomislav Saucha case”, in which MP Tomislav Saucha was suspected of defrauding Croatia’s state budget by falsifying travel orders and signing off daily allowances. I analysed reports from the following news websites: Večernji list, Jutarnji list, Index.hr, 7Dnevno.hr and Novi list. Throughout my research, I will examine the sociological and anthropological meaning of scandals, along with the phenomenon’s social and political effects. I will compare the occurrence of scandal with another related phenomenon – moral panics