The media presentation of the migration crisis: An analysis of the discourse on the Croatian women politicians

Abstract

This article analyses links between the archetypal myths in Croatian news stories and images of woman politicians transferring through the media to the public. A total of 73 articles have been empirically analysed using content analysis to identify master myths according to Jack Lule’s classification in Croatian news articles about the migration crisis 2015. The analysis covers the period from 31 July 2015 to 8 November 2015. The articles have been selected by searching web extension of the newspapers Jutarnji list, Večernji list and 24sata from 31 July 2015 to 8 November 2015. The data has been selected, coded and analysed per chosen woman politicians, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, Vesna Pusić, Mirela Holy, Ruža Tomašić and Milanka Opačić. The results show that the dominant myth in all analysed statements is the myth of a good mother. In doing so, the use of lexemes indicates a stereotyped and idealized social role of a woman who cares for and protects ‘her family’. Two framing perspectives are evident: one is a patriarchal, protective and defensive attitude towards migrants, while the other is humanitarian, based on a positive attitude towards migrants. The article’s value is that it provides a perspective on mythological narration within media texts, whereby the mythological narration could be used as a tool for stereotypical and ideological construction on politician’s images in the media.