Monday is the right time for a new post.
Exactly two and a half years ago, I finished my first scientific work in which I proved three hypotheses.
First one – reporting about the situation in Serbia by global media (Associated Press, New York Times and The Times) in the late 90s, influenced the formation of a historical record in terms of explaining the reasons for the interference of the European community and the USA into Serbian internal politics, and later the justification for the beginning of the Angel of Mercy intervention.
The second, which claims that the mentioned global media provided public support to one side.
And the third, claiming that Serbian media in 1998. and ’99. reported inexperienced and defensively, because the situation in which Serbia found itself in those years, required special education and a specific approach of journalists…
A very difficult topic, 6 months of research, numerous domestic and foreign literature, several subscriptions to search the archives of foreign magazines and another confirmation of the power of the media.
The paper will be translated into English and I am very grateful to the mentor PhD Jevtovic.
‘If we go back to the very beginning of the work and we put the first hypothesis forward, we can consider it proven. The political and military action of NATO alone, without the contribution of the media, would be reduced to a simple aggression against a sovereign state and as such would be unsupported. However, it is the Western media that created a completely distorted image of the conflicts in Kosovo and thus gave legitimacy to the aggression by turning it into Operation Mercy Angel, necessary to protect the lives of the innocent population.
The same can be said for the second hypothesis. An analysis of the Associated Press, New York Times and The Times media and their coverage of Kosmet conflict showed that they were complicit with their governments and provided public support to one side only.
And finally, media coverage of terrorism certainly requires special education and a specific approach of journalists, which, unfortunately, representatives of the Serbian media have repeatedly proven in the midst of the Kosmet conflict. Their insufficient preparation, slow reactions in urgent situations and often amateurish approach, could not cope with the media power of the West. In a democratic society, one should strive for a good and efficient policy of public reporting, which would limit the great power of the media and thus become an element of vital importance in a successful strategy of fighting terrorism (Mikic, 2012, pg. 68). By providing a strong support to the governments of the Western forces, the foreign media succeeded in creating a parallel reality – the world believed in the Serbs who have been oppressing the Albanian minority for years and Albanians finally dared to fight for their liberation. The Serbian truth at that time was only heard as the scream of a helpless people who did not understand who they were fighting against.’
