First field in the Croatian coat of arms: (re)constructing the contested symbol in online news.

The sphere of new media, particularly in European post-socialist societies, often reflects controversies around the meanings of symbols related to the past. This paper analysed controversy in online news caused by the photo in which an unofficial Croatian coat of arms with a white upper left square was publicly presented. This symbol is sometimes seen as problematic since it was, besides other historical contexts, used by the Ustashe, a political movement that established the Nazi-collaborator regime during the Second World War. A qualitative analysis of 195 online news articles revealed that two general meanings are presented to the audiences. The first meaning emphasizes its totalitarian nature, while the other presents it as complex because of its multiple historical uses. Subsequent quantitative analysis of 180 articles compared four groups of online news and established differences regarding the dominant meanings of the symbol that are presented to the audiences. Croatian media predominantly present it as complex/historical. Serbian and Bosnian and Herzegovinian media present it as Ustashe, while global/other news almost fully present it as (pro)Nazi. The differences are also established with regard to content diversity and Croatian media exhibit much greater diversity in the presentation of the symbol compared to the other three groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]