The Online Media Perception of Cooperatives in Croatia

Bogunović Boris bboguno@gmail.com

“The unbridled and arrogant company, a true pesant’s cooperative!”

(a headline of the article on bad game of football team)

A few facts

• 65% of Croatian households with Internet access in 2013.1

• The most visited websites in Croatia in April of 2014. were two online news media, namely 24sata.hr with 1.140.122 real visitors and jutarnji.hr with 1.026.391 visitors.2

1. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/ tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&plugin=1&language=en&pcode=tin00134 2. http://www.audience.com.hr/pages/display/reach

Research sample

• Collected from January 2012. to April 2014. • 166 articles • written by 101 authors (and 47 redactional) • published on 59 online news portals.

Limitations

• online segment of media coverage • sample of articles • partiality in analyses

Methodology

• Content analyses in respect of: 1. Importance of cooperative subject 2. Cooperative context 3. Journalistic style 4. General emphasis 5. Headline intonation 6. Journalistic style 7. Geographical placement 8. Cooperative type

1. Importance of the Cooperative Subject

28%

57%

15%DominantCollateralMentioned

2. The Cooperative Context

35%

37%

28%PoliticalBusinessOther

3. The Journalistic Style

56%29%

15%InformativeExplanatoryEvaluative

4. The General Emphasis

53%36%

11%AdvantageIssuesOther

5. The Headline Intonation

39%

16%16%

29% PositiveNegativeNeutralIrrelevant

6. The Journalistic Genre

39%

39%

6%

3% 13% NewsFeaturesInterviewColumnReview

7. The Geographical Placement

40%

20%

30%

10%LocalRegionalNationalInternational

8. The Type of Cooperative

39%

14%10%

8%

7%

4%

3%

1%

14%AgriculturalVeteransWorkersEnergySocialBankingFisheryHousingMultiple types

Premise 1: The public image of cooperatives is burdened with bad memories from past system.

• Cooperatives… were eliminated in the beginning of 90's as a relict of socialism.

• Croatia is doing misinterpretation that this is Marxist and other political doctrine product.

• …in our country there is still negative connotation when it comes to co-operatives, because it is still connected to ... the former system when people were forced to that associations, their property was taken away...

• Although the imposed socialist model of cooperatives has passed more than half a century ago, the negative associations are still unreasonably strong.

• The word cooperative is inevitably associated with socialism and former collectivization of villages…

Premise 2: All the prejudices are reflected in business sector too.

• In business circles cooperatives virtually provoke mocking…

• The banks have the hair-raising when they see some cooperative want to do the business with them because it is known how majority of them worked and finished.

• Although the problem of cooperative image of the socialist system still exists it is no longer as significant as the problem of public ignorance.

• …cooperatives are associated with something that is out of date, old-fashioned, which does not correspond to the new challenges.

• …our farmer keeps away from the cooperatives like from the devil. This is a question for sociologist not for an agronomist.

Premise 3: The goverment is responsible for cooperative state of affairs.

• For such a situation in the cooperative the state and those who govern are to be blamed.

• In recent history the cooperative movement in Croatia declined due to inconsistent government policies, poorly managed transition and favouring other forms of entrepreneurship.

• Declaratively they are "of special interest" to the state, but in reality their access to the working capital was hindered and cooperatives existed only literally.

• If we would have incentive by the state in form of quality credit and proper subsidies, it could be something done...

• The cooperative enterprise could be improved by several measures, and passing of the legislative acts certainly has an importance.

Premise 4: The cooperative offer an answer for individual producers problems.

• Everybody knows that the biggest problems of individual manufacturer are selling and payment. We were just forced to establish a cooperative…

• As these properties are small an individually driven wine business would not make sense, so they found solution by joining in the cooperative.

• …connecting journalists in the cooperative could provide employment opportunities and restore degraded public trust.

• …model of cooperative is very interesting to veterans because it in itself presents mutual trust, companionship, fellowship, and the closeness of wartime friends continues in the business.

• In a veteran cooperatives there are no suicides, no domestic violence, no alcoholism, there are no problems, only positive stories...

Cooperatives: a part of solution

• People are encouraged to cooperate. However, we should change a mindset of the people. Now they are estranged, everyone is looking for himself.

• Are you looking for a way to save a good deal in the struggling economic situation? Join together! Establishing a cooperative is the answer.

• Raising the children in the cooperative spirit seems to me the best pedagogical approach.

Is perception always onesided?