Media construction of identity through moral panics: Discourses of immigration in Slovenia

With its independence in the 1990s, Slovenia started constructing a new identity through cyclical moral panics. In that process, the media play a decisive role. Journalists, blinded by the myth of objectivity, reduce their role to transmitting the perspective of others, based on the assumption that there is a consensus within society. As loyal followers of the professional ideology, they objectify the xenophobic discourse of the dominant ideology with the creators of such discourse. In media discourse, the triumph of 'objective' journalism creates a consensus regarding the ethnic antagonism between 'us' and 'them', the latter being people south and east of the border, and forms a new 'European' identity for the Slovene people. The prevailing media discourse in Slovenia creates a nation by sharing the same story about national identity in the discursive community.

Keywords:

• National Identity
• Immigrants
• Migration
• Journalism
• Moral Panic
• Former Yugoslavia
• Slovenia