SERBIAN MINORITY ON THE INTERNET: INBEETWEEN DENIAL AND ACCEPTANCE OF REALITY

Abstract

The mode of worldwide Internet presentation used by Serbs from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina signifies one of the most important fashioned images of their cultural modes. This paper deals with the conduct of Internet presentations created by these groups, and argues that a new way of ethnic/minority/cultural group organization is taken place. The presentations of the Serbian minority refugees (from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina) on Internet can be divided into three groups: 1) sites with historical orientations expressing a form of nostalgia for the native land but without idea of the homecoming/return; 2) sites that aim to draw together all the former and present residents of the particular area, and all the others interested in the culture of that particular area, where the culture in question is not seen as union of tradition and folklore but as totality; 3) sites that aim to maintain in-group cohesion regardless of the residing place of group members, insisting/developing group identity and xenophobia. Out of these sites, it is only second category that conforms to the contemporary European/world standards on respectability of diversity and multicultural dialogues, and because of that these sites could be way to new international/inter-ethnic peace on Balkan Peninsula.