Slovakia has a rich history of student radio broadcasting. Its origins date back to the 1970s, when radio studios were mainly located in university dormitories. Presenters who have worked or are working in the media environment nowadays in Slovakia have often emerged from these communities. The dormitory radio studios has enriched the culture of academic soil for decades and continues till today. This paper is dedicated to this important topic connected with education but also free time activities, within selected decades, the history of individual student radio studios in Slovakia and describes their activities. It is devoted to mapping of this sphere of culture and cultural heritage of student radio broadcasting in Slovakia. The paper is also based on the analysis of secondary sources and the available recollections of committed individuals, and therefore has particular value within the topic of student broadcasting in Slovakia, as it provides a comprehensive overview of the history of this part of the culture of the selected country.
Popular television is perhaps the most important tool for the production and promotion of popular culture content. It is a strong place of resistance and a space for various cultural struggles, including the feminist struggle that we observe through a number of genres and characters that resist established definitions of femininity and typical female characters. Products of popular culture, such as television soap operas, and lately a number of other genres, especially those that put female characters in the role of heroines, have enabled the development of a diverse spectre of female characters and given their audience a place where they can find authentic representations of their identities and life experiences. Through the analysis of such series, this paper will show how popular television, empowered by the ideals of feminism, and above all, popular feminism, introduced many female characters to a wider audience, and has undeniably become one of the primary places for female consumption of popular culture.
In his studious analysis of art in the context of its status and social function, French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu analyzed the problem of the distribution of power within the area that he refers to as the “field of art”. The habitus of the protagonists active in this field plays a decisive role in it, determining the perception of the value of artwork. The interests maintaining the field dynamics are essential elements of any field, making the field a battleground in which various interests battle for domination, nevertheless presupposing a consensus between the participants in the battle and their roles. Bourdieu, like Weber, believes that any social action is based on the interests of social protagonists, because no one will engage in something that has no material or ideal value and does not include a certain motive or profit, which does not necessarily have to be economic. Furthermore, aesthetic conflicts in the field of art often have a political dimension and are merely an embellished form of the battle fought in order to impose the dominant vision of the social reality on others. The field is an imaginary space where the real social power is generated. It is superior to the concept of institution, because institutions imply consensual relations within the society, while the field also includes phenomena that are not institutionalized or defined by firm boundaries at the given moment. The objective of this study is to analyze the role of critics and other protagonists in the field of art in the process of shaping values in visual arts, and to show the importance of power in the formation of symbolic capital in a broader cultural context. For the purposes of this research, the author will use the methodology that Bourdieu applies to literature in his book The Rules of Art, whose main theses help us better understand the economic, symbolic and cultural relationships in the fields of visual arts, with an emphasis on the situation in Croatia after the war.
Refraining from reasoning in support of the universal taste and the experience of the beautiful, cultural sociology treats taste as socially contingent and constructed. The objective of this paper is to outline a social critique of different judgements of taste when it comes to different types of literary production based on the theoretical framework established by Pierre Bourdieu and on the example of the reception of popular literature, mainly historical romances written by Marija Jurić Zagorka. The methodological approach thereby applied includes the deconstruction of common distinctions based on Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, field and doxa, genealogy of highbrow taste in the era of so called highly textual modernism, critical analysis of gender discourse underlying cultural evaluations of literary production by women and for women, and the practicing of the ethnographic shift towards the reader in her context. This empirically contextualized analysis of literary tastes expressed by various recipients in Croatian cultural history has led to the results that reveal a long persistence of popularity and adoration of Zagorka’s novels on the one hand and harsh, almost visceral, disgust with her production by official discourse on the other, confirming the thesis that judgments of taste are based on society (and class). However, these results do not suggest a linear (let alone causal) relationship between the class system and the system of cultural classifications as well as between consumerist desire and taste. Historical novels by Marija Jurić Zagorka, mainly written in the first half of the 20th century, contain a foundationally strong inscription of opposed social strata, thus providing a useful and relevant empirical basis for the analysis of complex processes of cultural modernization and accompanying changing forms of social power.
The experiential, emotional reception of a piece of music depends on a number of factors. Considering this complex phenomenon from a subjective aspect, the individual experience of a particular piece of music is influenced by the time and place of listening, as well as by physical and social factors, structural elements of the music, and other qualitative elements. Popular music, due to its distinctive features, which are manifested through a simpler melodic and rhythmic structure, elicits an intense emotional response from the listener even at the first listening. The textual element plays a significant role in this, as it can completely change the affective valence of the piece of music. Based on the musical analysis of nine popular songs from the Homeland War, the most intensive period in Croatian history in social and political terms, the paper discusses all the experiential elements that influenced the emotional reception and the popularity of these songs. The impact of lyrics on the affective dimension of the acceptance of the songs is highlighted, as is the setting in which they were composed and the significance they had for the formation of national identity.
The focus of this paper is on increasing challenges that Europe faces when it comes to the defense and security of cultural heritage under the legal framework developed by the United Nations (UN) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and based on the Hague Convention of 1954. Cultural heritage has been, for a long time and in diverse circumstances, both a strategic war target and a hostage in conflicts such as the Balkan Wars and conflicts in the Middle East, and now in Ukraine. Heritage has been intentionally destroyed or threatened, among others, by sophisticated military technologies such as drones, thermobaric explosive devices and in ultima ratio the nuclear weapons threat, which has had severe psychological and physical effects on the people. The growth of the asymmetrical military conflicts in Europe is observed due to the new technologies of war. How does this make cultural heritage a desirable target? Are there mechanisms created by international organizations to act in defense of heritage in the event of an armed conflict? In order to answer these research questions, the research methodology used in this paper will start with a review of literature about threatening processes in European conflicts, and continue with the collection of data on institutional platforms in order to create the basis for a proposal, an observatory for this theme. The final conclusion is that cultural heritage is in itself powerful, but also deeply symbolic and fragile at the same time. This power becomes an identity enforcer of a nation and can be considered as a morale booster.
In this paper, the issue of the power the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have over people’s digital lives is examined through the following examples: inheritance of digital assets, users’ rights over digital content and their inability to transfer it after purchase, and implicit consent to unexpected clauses found in ISPs’ Terms of Service (ToS). This paper draws attention to the rules most people accept daily, without even noticing them or knowing what the consequences of their acceptance are. 1) In the context of inheritance, after users die, ISPs will usually not allow their heirs to access their digital assets and accounts, even if users stated the opposite in their wills. This can pose problems, both for the heirs because many of those assets have a real monetary and emotional value, but also to ISPs, because many of them have faced lawsuits from heirs wanting access to deceased’s accounts. 2) The issue of the rights users hold over digital content polemicizes those situations in which a person, after purchasing certain digital content, does not become its owner, but acquires only the right of use, until death. Therefore, he/she cannot transfer those assets to anyone, both during his/her life and after death. If he/she would do so, it would, in case of most digital content, constitute copyright infringement. 3) In terms of consent, users often accept various clauses that ISPs put in their ToS, some of which are not expected to be a part of ToS. Some of them have little or nothing to do with the purpose that the users intended to achieve on ISP’s websites. In a hurry to use ISP’s services, a person may accept many conditions that he/she might not accept in the physical world, which, in turn, might lead to court proceedings after the user becomes aware of what he/she has consented to. The authors methodologically deal with the stated issue using analysis, compilation, and case methods, trying to reach valid (civil) legal conclusions. In this regard, the basic problems of the paper will be elaborated analytically, by using valid domestic and foreign civil law literature. Stated conclusions are supported by concrete examples that appear in the (IT) practice.
For over a decade, a number of scholars and scientific papers emphasized the continual decline of trust in public institutions, mainly in the democracies of “the West”. Some associated the observed phenomenon with the rise of social media and digital environments, while others attributed it to the rise of economic and political power of less democratic regimes of “the East”, such as China and Russia. In times of crisis, trust in government institutions could be of crucial importance for the appropriateness of the institutional response to the problems facing the nation. Across the EU, it is obvious that citizens of certain member states express higher trust in government and state institutions than others. This division has been even more apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially when vaccination rates of particular EU countries are compared. In Croatia, the Government’s main message concerning COVID- 19 vaccination was modeled to appeal to the receivers’ empathy towards others. However, emotional appeal is just one of the possible courses of action. Theories of rational choices and exchange theories emphasize other, often ulterior motives, such as selfishness and revenge, as equally effective purposes to undertake certain actions. In this paper, we have examined four different types of messages, based on selfishness, revenge, honesty and empathy, and their power to persuade research subjects to get vaccinated. Message reception results are compared to other socio-demographic and behavioral factors to define which message type would be most appealing to different demographic groups.
After the first vaccines were developed, the global response to the COVID-19 crisis was focused on preventing infections. However, attempts to achieve a fully vaccinated population faced certain challenges, including doubt or complete rejection of scientifically established facts about the effectiveness of vaccines harbored by some people. In an effort to investigate and understand the factors associated with vaccine hesitancy, this paper examines recent findings about the role of social networks/media use and acceptance of anti-vaccination content during the pandemic in Croatia through a systematic literature review of pertinent research. In general, the literature review highlights the most important findings about the role of social networks/ media use and acceptance of antivaccine content, but the results also highlight the limitations of the research. The objective of this literature review, focusing on articles published 2020-2022, was to provide deeper insight and understanding of the role of social networks/media in the context of the acceptance of anti-vaccination content, bearing in mind the analytical criteria of the literature review with respect to the research design and the methods used.
Digital media and means of mass communication play an essential role in disseminating information. Studies (Vozab and Peruško, 2021) have shown that the pandemic merely accelerated the apparent shift towards digital news sources. In the 21st century, the internet has become the primary source of information, used by persons of various age groups (Benzinović, Dabo and Šimić, 2021). Authors also point out that the media influence the formation of the public opinion (Jurčić, 2017), especially on topics that their audience knows little or nothing about (Klapper, 1974, as cited in Kovačević, 2020, 5). Chomsky (2002) goes as far as to claim that the media participate in the control and surveillance of the masses. Other authors have argued that the media wield tremendous power in crisis situations, given their ability to filter information and shape opinions on certain problems and their solutions, which can reinforce existing prejudice (Nelkin, 1987, as cited in Kovačević, 2020, 5-6). The coronavirus pandemic provided a perfect breeding ground for fearmongering and dissemination of false and sensationalist news and spins, which are given unmerited space in the media landscape even in normal circumstances. Since the ability to recognise fake news and think critically is one of the prerequisites for responsible internet use, the question is if a person can tell the difference between truth and lie when faced with a deluge of conflicting information about COVID-19 – how infection occurs, how the disease spreads, how we protect ourselves from it, and how it is treated – that are disseminated by a variety of authoritative voices, even if this person has good critical thinking skills. This paper seeks to analyse the language contained in web portal articles about the epidemic that championed opposing views, and examine how this content influenced the formation of the public opinion. For this purpose, the authors analysed articles published on the highest-readership Croatian web portals and on official coronavirus information websites that contained the following keywords: coronavirus, vaccine, COVID certificate, recovery, pregnancy, symptoms, cases, children. Analysis results have shown that the articles overflow with unclear, illogical, incomplete or contradictory information, and use linguistic devices that exhibit the characteristics of political discourse.
Due to its impact on the quality of the human capital, and thus, the country’s economic growth, education is considered a top priority and a strategic sector in every economy. This is the reason why education is in general publicly financed by governments throughout the world. Therefore, the efficiency of tertiary education needs to be consistently evaluated and measured. The main goal of this article is to survey and present all the published studies investigating the efficiency of tertiary education in the Republic of Croatia with the application of the non-parametric methodology Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Moreover, other goals of the study are to explore their used DEA models, the selected inputs and outputs as well as their findings and recommendations. The methodology used for this research is the extensive literature review of studies that employ the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in the efficiency evaluation of higher education in Croatia. The research approach includes a survey of the most relevant scientific databases for this research (i.e. Scopus, Web of Science – SSCI and SCI papers and the Croatian Scientific Bibliography CROSBI). The terms “Data Envelopment Analysis”, “Education” and “Croatia” were used for the data collection. After a total of 41 hits (5 in Scopus, 23 on WoS and 13 on CROSBI), a manual evaluation of the relevance and a selection has been made with the criterion of paper relevance. This ultimately led to 8 articles that investigate the relative efficiency of Croatian tertiary education. Thus, this article presents the findings of the most relevant published work regarding the efficiency of Croatian higher education and its findings are invaluable to the higher education institutions, the government, as well as academic members and the interested public.
This paper explores the relevant knowledge in philosophy, psychology, art theory, and visual culture dealing with the phenomenon of the spectator. Spectatorship is explored through complex relationships between authors, works, observers, and the environment, which condition the view and consider how social and cultural patterns mediate the image. In this approach, interest is no longer primarily focused on the visual object but on visuality, a complex set of conditions in which a work of art is created, observed, and interpreted, researching the history of the gaze theory: perception and its physiological and cultural conditioning, the implicitness of the observer in the aesthetics of the reception, psychoanalytic theories about the constitution of the subject with a gaze, feminist ideas of voyeurism, and the male gaze, theories on technological and cultural conditioning of the scopic regimes, the cultural history of gaze and the gaze politics that approach viewing as possession of power. An analysis of the theory shows that the role of the body as a perceiving mechanism is present in the naturalistic approach to observation but is avoided due to its subjectivity and relativity. Although it was created in the 1960s, the theory of gaze has roots in the hermeneutics of art history and the aesthetics of reception. The cultural determination of gaze, its dependence on social norms, and the technological conditions of the medium indicate that our view of art and the visual world has been learned, which opens spaces for the acceptance of other gazes that are equally valuable.
Looking at the global technology acquisitions over the past 20 years, it becomes clear that a major share of these transactions is made by the US-based “Big 5” technology companies (also known as GAFAM – Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft). Given the market power of GAFAM (Dolata, 2017), which is evident not only in form of market capitalization, revenues, and profits, but also in the other dimensions of competitive strategy – such as innovation, patents, talent/people, and data, – it seems interesting to examine whether one of the main reasons for the overwhelming power of these companies is their obvious and almost unlimited ability to make technology acquisitions. Against the background of the umbrella theme of the conference “POWER”, it is thematically and methodologically suitable to conduct a thought experiment based on the theoretical concept called “Concept of Strategic Power” (Scholz, 1987; 2001). This approach considers power as an interplay of strategic capabilities, strategic movements and strategic barriers and allows an evaluation of strategic power as a source of competitive advantage and market success (Scholz, 2001). The results show that GAFAM’s high acquisition power enables it to make any acquisition it wants and thereby trigger strategic movements. These produce the interdependent and self-reinforcing effect of gaining strategic power to win the war for innovation, the war for patents, the war for talent, and the war for data.
This paper analyzes the importance and use of marketing for fundraising in the cultural sector. Namely, due to limited public financial resources and social changes in general, the cultural sector should turn to the market and to new sources of financing and implement a fundraising strategy. Activities are needed to attract financial resources from various sources to ensure the income necessary for its operation and sustainability. To be successful in fundraising and ensure stable business, the cultural sector needs to implement various activities that are usually associated with the profit sector (planning, management, marketing, analysis), which also includes an entrepreneurial way of thinking and acting. This paper aims is to identify the role of marketing in fundraising and the effectiveness of marketing strategies for the success of fundraising in cultural institutions. Empirical research was conducted on cultural institutions in the Republic of Croatia with an emphasis on the use of unconventional marketing for fundraising purposes. The conclusion is that this type of marketing affects the successful collection of funds and, ultimately, the success of the business and the financial result of the cultural institution. The results of the research indicate that it is necessary to implement an appropriate marketing strategy for the purpose of successful fundraising, as well as to educate the employees of cultural institutions in the field of marketing and fundraising.
According to Weber (1999), power is the probability of achieving a desired goal through social relations and is not necessarily related to coercion. There are several types of power, including the power of professionalism, which refers to the possession of certain knowledge, skills and competences. In this context, nursing holds the power of professionalism in relation to healthcare because it possesses specific knowledge, skills and competencies. Computer and information literacy can be a tool to increase this power by providing better patient care. This paper will examine whether computer and information literacy increases the efficiency and effectiveness of nursing, to what extent it reduces and speeds up the administrative work, whether nurses and technicians are satisfied with the formal education they have received in this context, what are the existing curricula like, and what else could be included to improve them. A self-assessment questionnaire regarding computer and information literacy was used for the purposes of this paper, which also includes an review of the available literature and an analysis of the existing secondary school and university curricula. The research showed that computer and information literacy helps achieve the power of professionalism. Also, the results indicate that it is necessary to introduce new content into the curricula related to computer and information literacy, and practice lifelong learning in this area.
Theoretical approaches that analyze media effects can be divided into those which state that the impact is real, comprehensive and one-way, and those which state that there is a reversed causality, i.e. that values, characteristics and attitudes affect the way the media are used. In this paper, these approaches were developed on the example of the attitudes towards vaccination, a topic that has become an extremely important social and public health issue with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors analyzed the data collected in a pilot study on attitudes towards vaccination conducted before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic on a convenience online sample of the Croatian population (N = 822). The results of the research study showed the lack of influence of television and the limited and uneven influence of the use of the Internet and Internet social networking sites on attitudes towards vaccination, i.e. on conspiracy beliefs in the field of vaccination. Namely, the research results revealed negative correlation between the Internet and SNSs use and conspiracy beliefs, which probably flows from the impact of social integration or the prevailing positive information that can be found about vaccination online. Furthermore, age was proven to be a significant moderator variable, given that the negative correlation between time spent online and conspiracy beliefs is much stronger among younger people, and the moderating impact of time spent on social media moved to the opposite direction. The results of the research therefore indicate a need to better understand the use of old and new media, their communicative differences, age differences in their use, and other background variables that can lead to unequal influences of the media on different social groups.
Almost 35 years since the publication of Herman and Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent, the world has undergone significant transformations. For the authors, power appears in an interaction between the (media) corporate and state-political structures, which maintain the status quo, promote desired changes, or limit the undesirable aspirations in the public sphere. Power no longer has a unique possessor in the form of a state-political repressive apparatus. Rather, results from the interaction of multiple forces, while truth is a thing of this world, produced by means of multiple forms of limitation, as Foucault wrote in “Power/Knowledge”. Manufacturing of consent is attributed to the mass media and the propaganda model within which media create a partial picture of open issues, prevent the availability of alternative approaches, and select materials for publication in accordance with the dominant political structure. Such a model of power functions under the condition of control over mass media and publishing in general. This paper contributes to the understanding of changes caused by the technical and digital shift that has (potentially) enabled each individual to become a publisher and directly participate in shaping the public sphere. With the flood of publishing on social networks and portals, the issue of control over published content and availability of alternative approaches has turned into its opposite. The problem is no longer how to break the media-corporate blockade, but how to block the entry of “alternative facts”, fake news and obscene attitudes into public sphere via algorithm. The review of the relevant literature, research results from secondary sources, and quantitative indicators of modern electronic media usage reveal the extent of the transformation of modern society. Results show that, with information coming to the fore, meaning slips into the background, and the intrusion of the private into public space results in gradual dissolution of both private and public spheres.
The effects of climate change are being felt in all parts of the world. Ways to predict future climate change and reduce the impact of humans on the climate have been the subject of numerous studies. The transition towards climate neutrality at EU level is the backbone of the European Green Deal. It is about the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 and achieving a climate neutral Europe by 2050. Energy companies are responsible for three quarters of greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union, especially those that produce energy from fossil fuels. The paper examines the impact of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through investments in renewable energy sources, implemented as a result of the adoption of the regulatory framework, on the business and financial performance of three energy companies (Hrvatska elektroprivreda – the HEP Group, Holding Slovenske elektrarne – the HSE Group, and the Slovenské elektrárne a.s. – the SE Group) from the European Union over a three-year period (2017-2019). The main objective of this paper is to determine how adapting to the new European Union regulatory framework in terms of the green transition affects the operation of energy companies, focusing on profitability, liquidity, and financial stability. The paper revealed that the companies observed plan to invest in renewable energy sources and reduce or abandon the use of fossil fuels in electricity generation in line with the European Union’s objectives. The analysis of their businesses showed that they approach changes in business models differently with regard to the specifics of the business environment and the development of energy infrastructure, which affects success and stability of their businesses.
The paper provides a scientific insight into the history of human interaction with the environment. It focuses on the history of the Slavonian (oak) tree forests and lumbering that inspired the artists and their images. On the one hand, there is the well-known pre-war Vinkovci photographer, Franjo Körner (1901-1945), whose valuable collection of 97 glass plate negatives was accidentally discovered in 2020. Unlike Körner, another artist from Vinkovci used words to express his passion and love for the Slavonian (oak) tree forests. Being a professional forester, Ivan Kozarac wrote numerous poems, short stories and novels inspired by the Slavonian landscape. From the perspective of new cultural geography i.e. literature geography, the landscape is not simply a material artifact that reflects the culture in straightforward ways but is laden with symbolic meaning that needs to be decoded concerning the social and historical context.
Brand and brand development are central to any company given the principles of the market economy and emissions dynamics. In every market, where supply meets demand, there is also a competitive environment, and the brand is currently the main asset of every company, a representative and clear symbol of the image of the company and the products it offers in the target market. Demand in the free market has its limits, and excess supply over demand causes logical cannibalization in the market. The brand represents the company or the company’s products and their characteristics, benefits, or, on the contrary, disadvantages and negative sides. Associations with a specific company or product can be the main, but not the only, incentive for the buyer‘s decision. The role of the brand is irreplaceable for the company and has a direct impact on its functioning. Companies and their marketing teams are aware of the ever-increasing importance of the brand, but the professional community is even more aware of it, which has generated a huge amount of information about the brand and brand development. Several scientific disciplines, which themselves are still developing, deal with the issues related to branding. The dynamics of brand-related issues and brand development thus give companies the opportunity to find a new way and create a strong and popular brand on the target market in a competitive environment. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the areas and information that are key to the brand and its proper management and development. Using selected positive and negative examples, we will show the power of the brand within the long-term success of the entire company.
