CULTURE IN THE MEDIA… 171 UDC 316.72:316.774 CULTURE IN THE MEDIA: THE REPRESENTATION OF CULTURE IN JUTARNJI LIST Marko Pavlovski University of Zagreb, Croatia Abstract: In today's picture of the widely circulated print media a famous assertion is that culture as a subject is decreasing in relevancy, as seen by the amount of pages dedicated to the cultural section and informations on cultural events, especially those of international importance, in the entire content of the most widely read newspapers. The aim of this paper is to show the presence of cultural themes in one of the most popular daily newspaper published in the Republic of Croatia, Jutarnji list. The research will cover the content of this daily for a period of one year (January 1st 2013 to 1st January 2014), to show the presence of cultural themes in it. I suppose, because of a prior knowledge of the materials, that notifications on events in culture at home and abroad will reside outside pages dedicated to the cultural section, so it will be necessary to examine the contents of whole numbers. Furthermore, I will compare the representation of various artistic genres, the presence of film art compared to the amount of articles devoted to literature, and I will devote particular attention to the content dedicated to the non-commercial aspects of a particular genre, for example the amount of information about events in the poetry scene, promotions or group exhibitions of young filmmakers at home and abroad. Keywords: Jutarnji list, culture, representation, media, cultural section I. INTRODUCTION In today's picture of the widely circulated print media a famous assertion is that culture as a subject is decreasing in relevancy, as seen by the amount of pages dedicated to the cultural section and informations on cultural events, especially those of international importance, in the entire content of the most widely read newspapers. The aim of this paper is to show the presence of cultural themes in one of the most popular daily newspaper published in the Republic of Croatia, Jutarnji list. The average circulation of Jutarnji list in 2012 was 60 000 copies per day, while the average circulation of Jutarnji list in 2013 was 50 000 copies per day. We can assert a diminished circulation of average copies sold by day, but this trend is also visible with the other two most successful newspapers in Croatia, 24sata and Večernji list. The newspaper 24sata, for example, had an average circulation of 130 000 copies sold per day in 2012, and an average circulation of 110 000 copies sold per day in 2013. Večernji list had an average circulation of 65 000 copies per day in 2012, and an average circulation of 60 000 copies per day in 2012. According to those numbers, Jutarnji list is third КУЛТУРА / CULTURE, 11/ 2015 172 in average circulation of copies sold per day in Croatia. Interesting to note, however, is the fact that the newspaper is second in popularity on Facebook, with 480, 279 likes on the official Facebook page, compared to 24sata's 906, 294 and Večernji list's 243,185. All three are notorious by their lack of culture sections,which is a sentiment condivided by a wide range of commentators, from Facebook fans to journalists that work in these newspapers. Writer Miljenko Jergović, a famous columnist of Jutarnji list, wrote in one of his essays: ‘’... (croatian newspapers) on their pages do not normally deal with literature, and more recently none from the metropolis have a culture section, while culture, quite exceptionally, appears only as a tenant in other sections, ...’’ (Jergović, 2010: 385) As shown, even a columnist of the third newspaper by average daily circulation in Croatia shares the opinion that culture not only is lowly represented in croatian newspapers, but even that it doesn't have a section of its own. The research will cover the content of this daily for a period of one year (January 1st 2013 to 1st January 2014), to show the presence of cultural themes in it. I suppose, because of a prior knowledge of the materials, that notifications on events in culture at home and abroad will reside outside pages dedicated to the cultural section, so it will be necessary to examine the contents of whole numbers. Furthermore, I will compare the representation of various artistic genres, the presence of film art compared to the amount of articles devoted to literature, and I will devote particular attention to the content dedicated to the non- commercial aspects of a particular genre, for example the amount of information about events in the poetry scene, promotions or group exhibitions of young filmmakers at home and abroad. II. METHODOLOGY According to the Croatian dictionary (Anić), culture is the totality of material and spiritual, ethical and social values, made by humanity. Cultural sections of the newspaper follow art, which is defined as a creative activity founded on sensibility and expressed by speech or writing, voice, line, color, movement, plastic shapes, structures, etc. According to Baran, „Culture serves a purpose. It helps us categorize and classify our experiences; it helps define us, our world, and our place in it.“ (Baran, 2009: 10) Following the aesthetic principles of contemporary art, we decided: a) not to include the contents of the 'spectacles' section, which is often referred to workers in culture, especially musicians and actors, in a manner unrelated to their creativity; b) to research cultural articles in the strictest sense of art, divided into basic categories (literature, film, theater, music, exhibitions) and articles on literary exhibitions, film and theater festivals, etc. Furthermore, we will note on which pages articles on culture appear and the number of times per month when they are announced on the front page. After counting the articles on cultural themes in Jutarnji list in 2013,we decided to divide them in two categories: primary and secondary. Primary categories group the most present artistic genres in the articles of mostly the cultural section of Jutarnji list, while the secondary categories include groups that were also represented, but in minor numbers. CULTURE IN THE MEDIA… 173 III. RESULTS A. Primary Categories J F M A M J J A S O N D L 59 49 56 59 63 72 56 51 74 88 74 77 F 64 73 47 48 58 50 59 53 45 79 47 48 T 22 19 27 29 22 18 44 28 30 34 38 20 M 27 48 66 57 66 52 69 53 33 58 69 73 E 40 25 28 29 25 29 38 33 36 37 30 35 I 7 1 4 2 0 5 5 8 14 8 10 9 Table 1. As shown in Table 1., we divided the primary categories of cultural reviews in Jutarnji list in the following six groups: Literature, Film, Theater, Music, Exhibitions and Interviews. Of the six, Literature was unexpectedly the highest ranking, with most articles dedicated to it per month, and the highest number of articles per single month – 88 articles in October. Those number are affected by the fact that Jutarnji list in 2013 had a special issue of the cultural section, thematizing the Festival svjetske književnosti (Festival of World Literature), held in Zagreb in September of 2013. Participants of the Festival of World Literature were,among others, Péter Nádas, Claudio Magris, Jaume Cabre, Goce Smilevski, Ivan Lovrenović , Goran Vojnović... Furthermore, writers of literature articles and reviews are quite numerous in the culture section, notably the literary critics Jagna Pogačnik and Adriana Piteša, while Miljenko Jergović in his columns often reviews writers and books unknown to the wider literary audience, sometimes even publications that are not translated in Croatian, but are available in Serbian. Second in articles published by month in the culture section of Jutarnji list in 2013, is the category of Film. This category has a special subsection in the culture section, were two prominent film critics, Nenad Polimac and Jurica Pavičić, assign votes to movies, from the latest movies playing in theaters, new movies available on DVD, to reviews of classics of the genre. Articles on films often cover the topic of famous directors and actors. These articles were also included in our table because they are centred on the work and career of the presented artists over their private lives and various affairs that are not relevant to the aim of our research. The highest number of articles about Film were published in October of 79. Jutarnji list also covers various film festivals held in Croatia during the year, among others Pula Film Festival, Motovun Film Festival, Zagreb Film Festival, Subversive Festival, Zagreb Jewish Film Festival – Festival of Tolerance ecc. The newspaper's film critics also attend the most important and worldwide known international film festivals, The Cannes International Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, Sarajevo Film Festival, etc. Music was the hardest category to evaluate correctly. The adoperated methodology eliminated various non- cultural and non-artistic news, articles and reviews about the private life of musicians. Notably the most prominent author in this subsection of Jutarnji list's culture section is the music critic Aleksandar Dragaš who, by himself, covers a wide range of topic about the musical culture: reviews of the latest published musical records, concerts, festivals, new and interesting performers and bands, but also essays on trends in modern music, such as the effect of pop-music on the younger audiences and its perspectives in influencing future musicians ecc. Dragaš is a rock critic, and we can КУЛТУРА / CULTURE, 11/ 2015 174 explicitly see rock music as the most represented genre of music in the cultural section of the newspaper, but there are also reviews of classical and jazz concerts by other authors. For example,on the 9th of December Dragan Lisac wrote on his experience during the season premiere of the opera La Traviata at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Theater had an unexpectedly high number of articles per month. Articles about theater in the culture section of Jutarnji list usually include brief assertions of the monthly programme of various theaters in Croatia and recensions by theatre critics, most notably reviews by the theatre critic Tomislav Čadež. Articles on theatre in the first half of 2013 however, were characterised by the success of the play Fine mrtve djevojke by director Dalibor Matanić and dramatist Mate Matišić, followed by the cultural scandal of the year – the banning of the poster for the show by the mayor of Zagreb, Milan Bandić. This act was followed by many controversies and reactions, of which most notable was perhaps that of director Oliver Frljić, who disbanded all collaborations with Gavella, the theatre in which the censored Fine mrtve djevojke was on the programme. Jutarnji list followed the scandal, even dedicating it a first page article on 18th January 2013. The highest number of articles on theatre by month was reached in July, mostly because of a special on the 13th season of Ulysses Theatre (Kazalište Ulysses) on the island group of Brijuni. Unexpectedly, the group Exhibitions rose to the table of primary categories, as it is covered in great detail in the articles of the culture section of Jutarnji list. The most prominent author of reviews on art exhibitions is Patricia Kiš, art critic for Jutarnji list. The year 2013 was characterised by two important events: the exhibition of works by Pablo Picasso, held in Klovićevi Dvori Gallery in Zagreb from 23rd March to the 7th of July, and the presentation of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio's Supper at Emmaus, held between the 5th June and 31st August in the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb, allowed by the Italian Republic as a kind of gift for Croatia's entry in the European Union on the 1st of July 2013. Another unexpected group that rose to the table of primary categories was Interviews. By the term Interview we mean interviews with artists conducted mostly by Dobroslav Silobrčić, a journalist of Jutarnji list who leads an interview section in the newspaper. We counted only the interviews made with artists and other various workers in culture, as the section covers a wide range of professions of the persons being interviewed. We decided to enlist this category in the primary categories because of the space physically dedicated to the section and because of the relevance in Croatia, and sometimes even international relevance, of the artists being interviewed. B. Secondary Categories J F M A M J J A S O N D Arc 3 x 2 1 1 x x x x x x 1 Phot 4 1 1 2 x x x x x x x x A (v) 3 6 4 8 3 1 2 5 4 2 7 11 Str 2 3 1 1 1 x x 4 2 4 3 4 Mon 1 1 x 1 x x x x x x 1 1 Ser 1 2 x 4 1 1 3 5 7 4 3 2 Sclp x x x 3 3 3 3 x x 1 2 2 A (p) x x x x x x x x x x 1 1 Table 2. CULTURE IN THE MEDIA… 175 We divided those articles on culture in Jutarnji list, that were not in one of the six primary categories, in eight secondary categories. The term secondary is used here only to describe the presence of this categories in the newspaper's articles, andnot based on their actual importance. We considered to add Poetry as a secondary category, based on its low presence, but we concluded that it belonged in the Literature primary category. We decided, however, to differentiate the series secondary category from the Film primary category. As shown in Table 2., the eight secondary categories are Architecture, Photography, Arts (visual), Strip, Monograph, Series, Sculpture and Art (performative). We decided Strip as a self-standing category, differentiating the genre of graphic novels from the primary category Literature. Of the eight categories decided, Arts (visual) was the most covered, with 11 articles in the month of December, but most articles of the category through 2013 were reviews and brief news on discoveries of lost paintings and highly successful Art auctions. C. Dedicated Pages Table 3. As seen in Table 3, Jutarnji list dedicates its frontlines to articles on cultural themes quite often. In January cultural themes were on the frontline 7 times, in February also, in March 4 times, in April 5 times, in May 6 times, in June 10 times, in July 4 times, in August 8 times, in September 5 times, in October 5 times, in November 3 times and in December 4 times. In total, articles in Jutarnji list covering cultural themes, and that were highlighted on the frontpage of the newspaper amount to a sum of 68 articles in 2013. The presented data demonstrates a presence of cultural themes on the front pages of the newspaper, contrary to the popular opinion that daily newspapers in Croatia do not evaluate culture in an adequate manner. Some of the headlines included the Fine mrtve djevojke scandal in January, around the banning, by part of censors, of a poster for the play, that purportedly offended some citizens of Zagreb and members of the Christian Church on the basis of its controversial raffiguration of the Virgin Mary; in the same month the front pages were indicating an in- depth review of the year's Academy Awards ceremony. On the 30th of May, on the other hand, a part of the front page was dedicated to the arriving of Caravaggio's Supper in Emmaus at the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb, while on the 11th October the newspaper was proclaiming Alice Munro as the recipient of that year's Nobel Prize in Literature. It's important to note, however, that the newspaper had special editions about cultural events, and that should also be noted. For example, on the 17th of April there was a special cultural supplement on the Gavella theatre and its programme, on the 4th of September there was a special cultural supplement about the Festival svjetske književnosti, the Festival of world literature, and on the 21st of December a special supplement with recommendations about the year's best cultural events was found, based on the choice of authors from Jutarnji list. Month J F M A M J J A S O N D Front pages 7 7 4 5 6 10 4 8 5 5 3 4 КУЛТУРА / CULTURE, 11/ 2015 176 On average, the culture section of Jutarnji list in 2013 was found between pages 26-28 or 32-34 of the newspaper from Monday to Friday. On Saturday, pages 72-73 were the most common. The Sunday edition of Jutarnji list does not have a culture section. Summarizing, pages dedicated to culture in Jutarnji list were as follows:  Mon-Fri: 26-28, 32-34  Saturday: 72-73  On Sundays there is no culture section IV. CONCLUSION In conclusion, we can confirm that Jutarnji list has indeed a culture section, which is published in the newspaper every day except Sunday. Usually two pages on average of the newspaper are dedicated to the culture section, sometimes even more. The articles in the culture section can be divided in six primary categories, that are the following: Literature, Film, Theater, Music, Exhibitions and Interviews. In our research on the presence of articles on culture in Jutarnji list in 2013, we counted a total of 778 articles dedicated to Literature, a total of 671 articles dedicated to Film, a total of 331 articles dedicated to Theater, a total of 671 articles dedicated to Music, a total of 385 articles dedicated to Exhibitions and a total of 73 interviews with artists in the Interviews category, for a sum of 1,907 articles that we classified in the six primary categories. Unexpectedly, Exhibitions arose as as a primary category, with thoroughly writeen articles often accompanied by a portrait of the exhibiting artist(s). Unexpected was also the number of interviews with artists (actors, directors, writets, painters etc.), and we decided to include it in the six primary categories because of the relevance of the artists being interviewed. Articles on cultural themes that didn't belong to one of the six primary categories were divided in eight secondary categories,which were Architecture, Photography, Arts (visual), Strip, Monograph, Series, Sculpture, Art (performative). In our research on the presence of articles on culture in Jutarnji list in 2013, we counted the following number of articles in the secondary categories. There was a total of 8 articles dedicated to Architecture, a total of 8 articles dedicated to Photography, a total of 56 articles dedicated to Arts (visual), a total of 25 articles dedicated to Strip, a total of 5 articles dedicated to Monograph, a total of 33 articles dedicated to Series, a total of 17 articles dedicated to Sculpture and a total of 2 articles dedicated to Arts (performative). We differentiated the secondary category Series from the primary category Film, but decided to exclude Poetry as a secondary category, merging it in the primary category Literature instead. Despite expectations, the articles on the subject of culture are mostly contained in the culture section (except in the case of Miljenko Jergović’s column Saturday matinee, Subotnja matineja, in which the author often writes about writers and other artists, which is located in the Saturday supplement Magazin). Our presumption on the dispersion of articles on cultural themes throughout the newspaper's pages was proven wrong, with the exception of interviews with artists, that are found in the differentiated interview special section. In total, articles in Jutarnji list covering cultural themes, and that were highlighted on the frontpage of the newspaper amount to a sum of 68 articles in 2013. The presented data CULTURE IN THE MEDIA… 177 demonstrates a presence of cultural themes on the front pages of the newspaper, contrary to the popular opinion that daily newspapers in Croatia do not evaluate culture in an adequate manner. Some of the headlines included the Fine mrtve djevojke scandal in January, around the banning, by part of censors, of a poster for the play, that purportedly offended some citizens of Zagreb and members of the Christian Church; in the same month the front pages were indicating an in-depth review of the year's Academy Awards ceremony. On the 30th of May, on the other hand, a part of the front page was dedicated to the arriving of Caravaggio's Supper in Emmaus at the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb, while on the 11th October the newspaper was proclaiming Alice Munro as the recipient of that year's Nobel Prize in Literature.Besides the presence of articles thematising cultural topics on the front pages of Jutarnji list, in the newspaper were present through the year various special cultural supplements. Some of these were the following: on the 17th of April there was a special cultural supplement on the Gavella theatre and its programme, on the 4th of September there was a special cultural supplement about the Festival svjetske književnosti, the Festival of world literature, and on the 21st of December a special supplement with recommendations about the year's best cultural events was found, based on the choice of authors from Jutarnji list. Notable is the presence of authors-columnists that cover cultural topics (Aleksandar Dragaš covering music, Miljenko Jergović, Adriana Piteša and Jagna Pogačnik literature, Patricia Kiš exhibitions and art in general, Jurica Pavičić and Nenad Polimac film, Tomislav Čadež theatre). This phenomenon may warrant further research, as it seems that culture themed articles in Jutarnji list are mostly written by a specific group of authors, of which some are relevant experts in their corresponding fields or well-known art, literary or theatre critics. REFERENCES [1] M. Jergović, Pamti li svijet Oscara Schmidta. Zagreb: Naklada Ljevak, 2010. [2] S. J. Baran, Introduction to mass communication: media literacy and culture, 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. [3] Jutarnji list. 1st January – 31st December 2013. Zagreb: EPH Media, 2013. КУЛТУРА / CULTURE, 11/ 2015 178