Eva Tamara Asboth and Michaela Griesbeck
The Children of the Balkan Wars, as a post-war generation in Bosnia–Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia, share similar childhood war experiences, grew up in post-socialist…
Abstract
The Children of the Balkan Wars, as a post-war generation in Bosnia–Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia, share similar childhood war experiences, grew up in post-socialist societies, and live in comparable political and media systems. In our study about their practices relating to war-related media content based on qualitative interview data, we discovered that knowledge about the recent wars is very important for them. By interpreting the data against the background of everyday resistance theory, we argue that the findings show two main practices of media use: (1) avoidance of traditional media, which is perceived as distributing the official hegemonial narratives that are also transmitted within the family. (2) “Accommodating” as a form of everyday resistance: when it comes to war-related media content, members of the post-war generation become active media users. They expose historical facts or disseminate their own knowledge mainly online; they create their own content as a way of coping with the unsatisfying traditional (nationalistic, ethno-political) media offerings.