doiSerbia

Between pro-natalist population policy and women’s reproductive rights: The analysis of exposure of the two discourses in press media after 2000

Đorić Gorana (Faculty of Philosophy, Niš)
Gavrilović Danijela (Faculty of Philosophy, Niš)

The paper is an attempt to assess the exposure of two distinct approaches to reproductive behavior - the claims for reproductive rights and freedoms, and the pro-natalist population policy - in the press media in Serbia after 2000. The first approach is grounded on the principle of self-determination in respect to reproductive behavior, whereas the second attempts to modify reproductive behavior so that a higher goal of the survival of Serbian nation is achieved. The two approaches have clear and contradictory policy implications. In the first part of the paper two discourses are constructed based on relevant declarations and other publications by the proponents of the two discourses. In the second part, by the means of a descriptive quantitative analysis, we assess the frequency and the coherence of the discourses in the articles published in Blic, Kurir, Vreme and Nin. The questions we attempt to answer are: To what extent interested pressure groups get to place the elements of their agendas in the press? To what extent these groups manage to frame public discussions and to dominate the instances of media coverage with their own imagery and rhetoric? .

Keywords: reproductive rights, population policy, media analysis