In post-conflict Bosnia-Herzegovina the development of the media sector has, since the intervention by the international community, been a key strategy to address a range of political and societal issues. The rationale was and still is that the media sector should be able to serve as an important mediator in the Bosnian society and thereby contribute to reconciliation and reintegration in the country. This is considered as a first step in the internationally driven nation-building procedure in the war-torn Balkan state. The media outlets have a golden opportunity for offering a vision and perspective which is undetermined by ethnicity or nationality in order to contribute to the reintegration and reconciliation of BiH. This is due to the fact that media in general, through priming, have a huge influence on later judgments and behaviour among the audience related to the content that has been processed. It means that news media have the power to prime positive or negative thoughts and feelings among citizens. The power of the news media in the modern society is unquestionable. The media are exceptionally influential in terms of creating an understanding of the society that citizens are a part of and moreover to picture the self-perception of people and their fellow human beings. Moreover, the news media are a central arena for political debates and determents of who gets to speak.
This aim of this research is to analyse how we can understand the role of the Bosnian newspaper media in the reconciliation process of the country 15 years after the DPA was signed. The method chosen is an inductive research strategy. There are two main dimensions in the analytical framework. First, a quantitative content analysis of articles collected from the Bosniak newspaper Dnevni Avaz, the Croatian Dnevni List and the Serbian Nezavisne Novine during the general election campaign in BiH in 2010. The aim in this context is to see how ethnic counterparts are presented in the three ethno-affiliated newspapers, and moreover, to see if there is any reason to problematise the role of the Bosnian newspaper media in the reconciliation process of the country. Subsequently, the most frequent findings in the quantitative content analysis are to be elaborated in a qualitative content analysis. By applying the theoretical tools of Gadi Wolfsfeld it is possible to analyse which role the Bosnian newspaper media play in the reconciliation process of the country anno 2010. The final part of the analysis is focused upon exploring why the media acted as they did during the 2010 general election campaign. By including five influential factors of effects of the media provided by Jennings Bryant and Mary Beth Oliver, combined with contributions from Bosnian media experts, this thesis elaborates on why the main Bosnian newspaper media did not contribute positively to the reconciliation and reintegration process of BiH and presents explanations to which problems and challenges the Bosnian print media is facing and why these ethno-affiliated newspapers currently reflect the ethnic divisions of the country.