The Roma are an officially recognized ethnic minority in Slovenia. The two regions with the largest share of the Roma population in Slovenia are Prekmurje and Dolenjska. The general living conditions of the Roma in one and the other region varies greatly. The Roma in Prekmurje are better organized at the local level, they are more involved in the school system and generally have better housing conditions. Roma in Dolenjska live in worse housing conditions, they rarely attend school and are less involved in the local community. The media plays an important role in creating a public image of the (in this specific case Roma) minority. With the quantity and content of the articles, as well as the choice of their interlocutors, journalists and the editorial board of the newspaper have the power to bring the minority closer to the general public or to distance the minority from it. Therefore, we were interested in whether the differences in the living conditions between the regions are also reflected in the reporting of two regional newspapers Vestnik (Prekmurje) and Dolenjski list (Dolenjska). The analysis of the articles showed that there are marked differences between the newspapers in terms of the content of the articles and the representation of the interlocutors who are directly related to or themselves are members of the Roma community.
|