Tranziciona budućnost: politička upotreba proročanstava u Srbiji devedesetih
TRANSITIONAL FUTURE: THE POLITICAL USAGE OF PROPHECIES IN THE 90'S SERBIA

Author(s): Lidija Radulović
Subject(s): Media studies, Politics and communication, Politics and religion, Post-Communist Transformation
Published by: Srpski genealoški centar
Keywords: politics;religion;media analysis;prophecy;
Summary/Abstract: Media propaganda utilizes and revitalizes myths for their ability to generate nationalism. Prophesies or statements by psychics in the media, instigate and participate in the construction and reconstruction of mythologies of the Serbs in a new historical position. In this paper on the basis of discourse analysis of media propaganda, its usage in the social and political context of the nineties, is emphasized. In the prophecies, rhetoric mythical motives are being utilized: myth of the martyr and the destiny of the Serbian people as victims of a curse; the distinctions of the nation in regards of the supernatural and Para psychological motives; myth of the "golden age" that is mostly associated with the rule of Milosevic, widely considered to be the capable of leading the Serbs back to their past glory. The prophecies legitimize the existing relations of government and political dominance, construct new, or reinterpret old myths, ascribing to them new political functions that represent an element of the vital, national "mythologies of survival and identity". The usual methods of propaganda in the prophetic messages of psychics are being analyzed, and their instrumentalisation for the propagation of a model of thought magic, that is dogma free, but which relies on the psychology and the fear, are pointed out.

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