Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.5559/di.26.3.03
Interpreting Media Content Post-Conflict: Communications of 'Travel' and 'Bosnia and Herzegovina' in U.S. Newspapers, 20 Years Post-Dayton
Nicholas Wise
; Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool
Abstract
This study looks at the role the media plays in how a destination
is communicated over time post-conflict – by considering how
discourses longitudinally brand a destination. Bosnia and Herzegovina
(BiH) was the centre of a violent conflict in the early 1990s.
The war ended with the signing of the Dayton Agreement. Much
of the conflict, and especially the siege of Sarajevo, was captured
by the media. The representation of the Bosnian War established
a negative imagination of the new country, resulting initially in a
hesitancy to travel to a war-torn destination. This paper suggests
place repression, fading memory and destination redefining as a
framework to analyse media content and brand a post-conflict
destination. In the years following the agreement, there was no
discussion promoting travel to BiH. After 2000, travel was still
advised against but the narrative began to change and promote
the destination by discussing the past and present situation. Post-
-2000 content reduced significantly but stories promoting travel
increased after 2003 with more extended narratives promoting
travel and new opportunities for branding the destination.
Keywords
media; travel; destination brand; image; Bosnia and Herzegovina
Hrčak ID:
187745
URI
Publication date:
17.10.2017.
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