Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 17:12:24 CST
From: <U15231@uicvm.uic.edu>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.bosna-herzgvna
Subject: Bosnia Ignored

Contribution by: P.Lytle.Clark


The Los Angeles Times-Mirror has a "Center for the People and the Press"
which periodically reports on American attitudes on various subject.  The
following are excerpts from the January 1993 report.  The entire report is
free and available from the Center at 1875 Eye St. NW Suite 110,
Washington D.C. 20006 or call 202-293-3126.

Bosnia Ignored

        Although the deployment of troops to Somalia topped the Times
Mirror News Interest Index this month, other important international news
stories without an explicit U.S. connection attracted small audiences.
Most notably, Americans continue to be indifferent to the war in Bosnia -
15% said they followed news about the Balkan war very closely.  This marks
only a marginal improvement over the 10% who said they followed news about
the conflict very closely in Times Mirror's September sampling.

        American lack of interest in Bosnia is matched by how little the
public knows about the basics of the conflict.  Just 21% could name the
Serbs as the ethnic group that was besieging Sarajevo.  20% were able to
answer this question in Times Mirror's September poll, reflecting no gain
in the public's level of information over the past four months.

        Other questions further documented the public's fundamental lack
of understanding of the conflict.  Only 32% were able to answer correctly
a multiple choice question about the principal reason the Serbs and
Bosnians are fighting.  As many said the Bosnians were trying to expel
the  Serbs(32%), as said that Serbian claims to large parts of Bosnia was
the reason for the war.

        Although the term "ethnic cleansing" has become emblematic of the
horrors of the Bosnian war, only one in three Americans were able to give
a reasonably correct definition of its meaning.  61% of college graduates
could define the term correctly.  But people under 30 years of age, less
well-educated and people who say they rely on television exclusively for
their news were much less likely than others to know about this aspect of
the Balkan war.

        Indifference to the war in Bosnia plays out importantly in
American attitudes toward the war.  30% of the Times Mirror sample said
they sided with the Bosnian  in the conflict, and only 8% favored the
Serbs.  However, most Americans said explicitly they favored neither side,
or had no opinion (62%).  Among people who said they followed news about
the conflict very closely there was a little more support for the Bosnian
side (41%), but a plurality of the attentive public (48%) expressed
support for neither side.

        ONLY THAT VERY SMALL SEGMENT OF THE PUBLIC THAT KNOWS A GREAT DEAL
ABOUT THE DISPUTE TAKES SIDES.  As shown in the table below, 72% of those
who know the correct answers to all three quiz questions asked in the poll
were sympathetic to the Bosnians.  No opinion was the plurality view of
all segments of the public with less knowledge about the dispute.

              Number of Bosnia Quiz Questions Answered Correctly
                     3        2           1          0
% of Public         11       14           27        48   = 100

Sympathies in war
Bosnians           72        39           27        19
Serbs               3         6           10         8
Neither            15        22           16        17
No Opinion         10        33           47        56

No. of People    (155)     (199)         (332)     (530)

        With few Americans following the conflict or taking sides, there
is little basic support for American intervention in the conflict.  By a
55% to 32% margin respondents opposed rather than favored the use of
military force to help end the fighting there.  There was also plurality
opposition to the use of American force when the question was posed in
terms of "preventing Bosnia from being taken over by Serbs."; 36% favored,
47% opposed the use of military force for that purpose.

        The attentive and informed elements of the public seem little more
disposed to U.S. involvement in the Balkan War than those who have paid
less attention to the conflict and or know less about it.  For example,
only 44% of those who said they have followed the conflict very closely
favor the use of U.S. force.

THE AMY FISHER PHENOMENON

        Four in ten Americans (41%) watched at least one of the made for
Amy Fisher movies that aired in recent weeks.  No less than 18% of the
public watched two or more of the films about the Long Island teenager.
THERE WAS A NEGATIVE CORRELATION BETWEEN WATCHING AMY FISHER MOVIES AND
KNOWING ABOUT THE EVENTS IN BOSNIA.     50% of Americans who knew nothing
about the Bosnian   conflict watched an Amy Fisher movie, while only 15%
of the informed Americans had that experience.