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Covering the Bosnian War: Journalism of Attachment in Dutch Newspapers
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Paper submitted for the International Communication Association conference 2006 in Dresden
Covering the Bosnian war:
âJournalism of attachmentâ in Dutch newspapers
Abstract
The civil war in the former Yugoslavia, and especially in Bosnia, was one of the most brutal periods in European post-war history. Dutch media played an important role in creating a rather stereotypical, simplified picture of the Bosnian conflict, and, as a consequence, also of what the international community, the Netherlands in particular, could do to bring it to an end and solve it.â The reasons why the media created this simplified and stereotypical picture can be found in the phenomenon of âjournalism of attachmentâ. Coined by BBCâs former correspondent Martin Bell, âjournalism of attachmentâ agrees that reporters are participants in the conflicts they report, and as a consequence take part in the public debate about the conflict. Using a content analysis of the news coverage about the Bosnian war, we investigated in this study the extent to which the phenomenon of journalism of attachment occurred in Dutch newspapers and the consequences of this phenomenon for the quality of the news in terms of objectivity. We found that journalists covering the Bosnian war played a leading role in the public debate. They violated the Western ideal of journalistic performance. They adopted the role of heroic fighter for the oppressed rather than impartial mediator between the events and the audience. This tendency is especially seen in the news coverage of the left-wing newspaper de Volkskrant, and in a more subtle way, through the use of opportune witnesses, also in the âintellectualâ newspaper NRC Handelsblad.
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NTRODUCTION
Two images widely spread throughout Dutch media mark the Dutch involvement in Bosnia. On the one hand, the pictures of the emaciated men behind barbed wire in âOmarskaâ that pricked everyoneâs conscience in August 1992 and acted as a catalyst for the Dutch morally based crusade for military intervention in the conflict. On the other hand, the photograph of Lieutenant Colonel Karremans and Bosnian-Serb general Mladic drinking a toast to each other after the fall of Srebrenica, in July 1995. This image fuelled the harsh critics at that time about the futility of the international communityâs efforts and those of the Netherlands, in particular. The preferred framework of âgood guys versus bad guysâ, within which the conflict had been defined, had clear references to the Second World War. The first image brought back memories of Nazi concentration camps, with the Serbian forces in the role of Naziâs. The photograph of
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| | Authors: Ruigrok, Nel., Schoenbach, Klaus., Scholten, Otto. and De Ridder, J.. |
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Paper submitted for the International Communication Association conference
2006 in Dresden
Covering the Bosnian war:
âJournalism of attachmentâ in Dutch newspapers
Abstract
The civil war in the former Yugoslavia, and especially in Bosnia, was one of the most brutal
periods in European post-war history. Dutch media played an important role in creating a rather
stereotypical, simplified picture of the Bosnian conflict, and, as a consequence, also of what the
international community, the Netherlands in particular, could do to bring it to an end and solve
it.â
The reasons why the media created this simplified and stereotypical picture can be found in the
phenomenon of âjournalism of attachmentâ. Coined by BBCâs former correspondent Martin Bell,
âjournalism of attachmentâ agrees that reporters are participants in the conflicts they report, and
as a consequence take part in the public debate about the conflict. Using a content analysis of the
news coverage about the Bosnian war, we investigated in this study the extent to which the
phenomenon of journalism of attachment occurred in Dutch newspapers and the consequences
of this phenomenon for the quality of the news in terms of objectivity. We found that journalists
covering the Bosnian war played a leading role in the public debate. They violated the Western
ideal of journalistic performance. They adopted the role of heroic fighter for the oppressed rather
than impartial mediator between the events and the audience. This tendency is especially seen in
the news coverage of the left-wing newspaper de Volkskrant, and in a more subtle way, through
the use of opportune witnesses, also in the âintellectualâ newspaper NRC Handelsblad.
I
NTRODUCTION
Two images widely spread throughout Dutch media mark the Dutch involvement in Bosnia. On
the one hand, the pictures of the emaciated men behind barbed wire in âOmarskaâ that pricked
everyoneâs conscience in August 1992 and acted as a catalyst for the Dutch morally based
crusade for military intervention in the conflict. On the other hand, the photograph of Lieutenant
Colonel Karremans and Bosnian-Serb general Mladic drinking a toast to each other after the fall
of Srebrenica, in July 1995. This image fuelled the harsh critics at that time about the futility of
the international communityâs efforts and those of the Netherlands, in particular. The preferred
framework of âgood guys versus bad guysâ, within which the conflict had been defined, had
clear references to the Second World War. The first image brought back memories of Nazi
concentration camps, with the Serbian forces in the role of Naziâs. The photograph of
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