Introduction

According to Grant (2003: xvi, in Scammell and Langer, 2006), popular genres are constellations of conventions, ‘which through repetition and variation, tell familiar stories with familiar characters in familiar situations’. Transfer of popular genre conventions and symbols serves to encourage patterns of expectations and experience and provide readily recognisable story frames (Scammell and Langer, 2006: 12). John Street, in his book "Mass Media, Politics and Democracy" (2003: 33) states that mass media doesn't simply 'cover' visible events and report about facts; they animate them, turning them into stories with plots and actors". For understanding those stories, the concept of framing is important.

This concept is based on the assumption that media defines certain frame constructed of a limited number of attributes that are thematically connected and then uses this frame while building a story (in Kunczik and Zipfel, 2006: 206-207). Kunczik and Zipfel (2006: 147 - 148) defined this as an interpretative framework, cognitive structures that simplify processing of information and work itself.

Interpretative frameworks, schemes or simply – frames – arise from previous experiences that all human beings tend to classify, organize and interpret so they could understand their meaning (Goffman, u Kunczik i Zipfel, 2006: 148). ). It is in human nature to use mental shortcuts, cognitive shortcuts or frames to organize their knowledge about social world that surrounds them, so they do not have to approach everything as it is completely unfamiliar. Journalist's job is to present and simplify events that occur in an arena that is not close to ordinary people; thus it can be assumed that they will use a frame to bring stories closer to the...

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.... As Popović puts it, reality show has a "democratic" character, which means that it involves ordinary people that wish to compete before the eyes of the public (Popović, 2012: 34). They will share their inner emotions; they will talk about their actions in front of a microphone… Politics is not very different: in politics, in a way, people compete for power, they express their beliefs and opinions, they explain their decisions… "On the face of it, the rules of both games are remarkably similar" (Coleman, 2003: 30). So, one can assume that journalism can use reality show genre and its elements as a frame of reference for explaining politics.

Given these points, in the next chapter, it will be discussed whether Croatian media drew on these three popular genres (soap opera, drama, reality show) while covering the events that occurred on 18 November, 2013. in Vukovar.