Original scientific paper
Crisis communication in the case firefighters on the Kornati tragedy
Jadran Perinić
Abstract
Print media in Croatia have still a very important influence on public opinion
formation. A tragic event on the island of Kornat, where 12 fire fighters lost their lives,
attracted a great deal of public attention. This paper analyses the daily press with national
coverage. The analysis of the published articles in the first four days after the tragedy
shows that the print media had a same approach on this subject, if the number and size
of the published articles are taken into consideration. The news released immediately
after the tragedy were not true with regard to the number of victims, and later news in
the form of press releases by certain politicians, fire fighter officials or eye-witnesses were
incomplete and sometimes contradictory. Headline-grabbing approach and political
journalism have resulted in splitting public opinion into interest groups that represent
only partial interests, while the truth about the tragedy became of secondary importance.
Keywords
daily newspapers, investigative journalism; sensationalism; ethics of journalism; public information
Hrčak ID:
41450
URI
Publication date:
4.11.2007.
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