The financial decline of the traditional media; technological advances and 24/7 news cycles; and the rise of new media are transforming journalism in ways that are seen as problematic and leading towards less professional practices. In Eastern Europe this transformation tops off the still ongoing systemic transformation from communist systems, ongoing since the late 1980s. This study examines how journalists in Macedonia perceive their profession today, what they consider professional journalism, and how they define their role in Macedonian society and democracy. Macedonian media system is fragmented and financially fragile, providing an opening for political and business influence. Foreign capital in the media market is limited and only present in the print media. The ethnic diversity of the country is reflected in the mass media, thus there are number of media working in languages other than Macedonian. The research takes a humanistic approach, employing grounded theory. The researcher discovered five themes in the analysis of interviews with 32 participants: (1) Ideal vs. reality, or when journalists do not behave according to professional standards, even as they define them; (2) Self-censorship, as a rule; (3) The blame game, with older journalists blaming younger journalists, and vice versa, for the problems experienced in journalism; (4) Education, the acknowledged and ignored problem; and (5) Agents of change that cannot change anything, another exhibit of the tensions between the ideal and desired journalistic roles, and reality. These themes constitute the theoretical framework of journalism in transformation.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2007. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 45-46).

This thesis treats the normative power of the European Union and its affect on Macedonia. The main purpose has been to look closer with the use of the application of Ian Manners theory of normative power on the Macedonian case. The focus will be to answer the following questions: Does the European Union act as a normative power in relation to Macedonia, if so, how are these values diffused? Has there been any effect of the spreading of these values? Based on six interviews and the available material of European Union strategies for the Macedonian membership I have attempted to understand to what extent the European Union’s normative power has had an influence in Macedonia. The result of my analysis is confirmation of the European Union as a normative power in Macedonia and the understanding of the methods of application.

Denna studie berör den nuvarande disputen om namnet “Makedonien” mellan Grekland och Republiken Makedonien. Grekisk identitet undersöks genom disputen och visas vara ett viktigt element för att förstå disputen. Diskurser produceras från både det Grekiska och Makedoniska perspektivet, vilka visar hur både antiken och den nuvarande disputen konstrueras. En tredje diskurs konstrueras från antika Grekiska författare för att problematisera Grekisk identitetskonstruktion, vilken framställer greker som ensamma arvtagare åt de antika Grekerna. Disputen visas ha politiserats både inbördes och bilateralt i båda länderna, försök till kompromisser från vardera sida riskerar därför att förarga och raljera populistiska uppfattningar i landet. Den moderna Grekiska nationen som ett förverkligande av de antika Grekerna visas vara föreställda i att de antika Grekerna värderade sin stadsstat suveränitet högt och inte hade en uppfattning av Greker som en politisk grupp, utan snarare som en väldigt lös kulturell grupp.

There are many unanswered questions in the genus Sempervivum (Crassulaceae family). One of them is Sempervivum kindingeri from Macedonia. This species has not been revised yet since then he was found and described. In the last few years were published new floristic reports from the territory of Macedonia and Serbia and these reports indicate that discovered species belong to Sempervivum kindingeri. During 2012 and 2013 were some of the localities revised successfully and the live plants for research were collected there. Collected plants have been cultivated in comparative culture and afterwards they were used for morphometrical and karyological analysis. It was found that trichomes on the upper side of the leaf is the most important feature which allows to determine the species identity. Based on the obtained data it was found that plants descended from the high mountains of Macedonia and Serbia are probably a different taxon from S. kindingeri plants grown in culture.

To promote their desired national identity, the North Macedonian government funded the Skopje 2014 Project––an initiative including abundant statues, architectural façades, and other structures that depict Ancient Macedon as North Macedonia’s heritage. This project received copious amounts of criticism on two central fronts: first, that its allusions to Ancient Macedon are a false depiction of history; second, that its aesthetic is tacky. While valid arguments are made on each of these fronts, I argue that the latter complicates the former when analyzed in the context of North Macedonia’s precarity. In this analysis, I employ the work of Judith Butler and Liron Lavi as a theoretical backdrop to interrogate the nature of North Macedonia’s precarity. Analyzing political negotiations between North Macedonia and Greece surrounding Skopje 2014, I introduce the term persistent infelicity––a type of precarity in which the validity of an identity performance is made inaccessible for a given entity. Further, the commodification of the Ancient Macedon narrative has transformed North Macedonia’s identity performance from an iterative production to an instantaneous transaction, limiting North Macedonia’s opportunity to challenge its infelicitous state. However, I assert that the aesthetic of Skopje 2014 creates space for subversion even considering these limitations. Expanding upon the work of Susan Sontag, I identify Skopje 2014’s aesthetic as camp and delineate its function in the project as one of subversive compliance. Camp as a rhetorical tool allows North Macedonia to perform a bifurcated identity—one identity that is insincere yet appeases its international audience and another that is more authentic yet controversial directed toward an intra-national audience. While this has modestly empowering implications for Skopje 2014, this analysis concludes that the identity performance of North Macedonia has been propelled into the realm of simulacra—a realm ultimately and perilously untethered to the “real”––and prompts further consideration for other precarious nations whose identities may be fated to persistent infelicity.

The case of the National Liberation Army (NLA) in Macedonia, taking up arms against the state in 2001, is a largely underrepresented in the literature. Thus, basing this study on the theory of contingent events and a relational perspective, the purpose of this study is to examine the processes and motives behind individuals joining the National Liberation Army in Macedonia. This was done by conducting semi-structured interviews with former rebels and combatants from Macedonia and analysing the material qualitatively, using the constant comparative method through the lens of the theory. The study of civil wars and rebel participation and mobilisation have long been dominated by quantitative studies and rational choice theory, which is why this study instead is qualitative in nature and based on the personal and individual perspectives of former combatants. I found that the main reasoning behind joining the NLA was to increase the rights for Albanians in Macedonia. Further, rebel participation, as well as the development of the motives behind it, were the result of a process of experiencing discrimination and contingent events. The eruption of violence can be contributed to the relationship and interactions between the Albanians experiencing discrimination and the Macedonian state, having acted as an oppressor. Thus, the results include not only understanding why individuals joined the NLA, but also how.

This dissertation analyzes several topics related to political life in ethnically divided societies. In chapter 2, I study the relationship between ethnic social conflict, such as protests, riots, and armed inter-ethnic violence, and bloc partisan identification. I find that protests have no effect on bloc support for political parties, riots increase bloc partisan identification, and that armed violence reduces this phenomenon. In chapter 3, I analyze the factors that influence the targeting of ethnic groups by ethnic parties in social conflict. I find some empirical evidence that conditions favorable to vote pooling across ethnic lines reduce group targeting by ethnic parties. In chapter 4, I analyze the effects of ethnic demography on ethnic party behavior. Through a qualitative analysis of party behavior in local elections in Macedonia, I find that ethnic parties change their strategies in response to changes in ethnic demography. I find that co-ethnic parties are less likely to challenge each other for power under conditions of split demography. In fact, under conditions of split demography, I find that co-ethnic parties have political incentives to unite behind a single party because intra-group competition jeopardizes the group's hold on power.

La storia tracia occupa spesso una posizione marginale sia nelle fonti antiche sia negli studi moderni. La presente indagine intende ricostruire le vicende della regione attorno alla metà del IV secolo a.C., dalla morte del sovrano odrisio Kotys (intorno al 360 a.C.) all’insurrezione di Seuthes III (dopo il 326 a.C.). Le fonti letterarie antiche forniscono informazioni lacunose e frammentarie, perché si dedicarono agli avvenimenti traci soltanto quando questi interferirono con la coeva storia ateniese o macedone. Dati aggiuntivi si ricavano dalla documentazione epigrafica, numismatica e archeologica. La presente ricerca ripercorre le complesse dinamiche che portarono alla conquista della Tracia da parte di Filippo II, a costo di numerose e impegnative campagne, e analizza le difficoltà sorte nel mantenere il controllo macedone sulla regione: la pacificazione, tentata da Filippo II negli ultimi anni di regno, non resistette a lungo e l’età di Alessandro fu caratterizzata da una continua tensione tra le spinte autonomistiche delle popolazioni locali e i tentativi di sottomissione condotti dai Macedoni. Una serie di rivolte e il progressivo aumento dell’autonomia locale fecero sì che, alla fine del regno di Alessandro, le tribù tracie riuscissero a tornare "de facto" all’indipendenza originaria. / Thracian history is very often left in a secondary place in ancient sources and in modern studies. This research wants to investigate the Thracian history around the half of IV century B.C., from the death of the Odrisian king Kotys (in about 360 B.C.) to the Seuthes III’s revolt (after 326 B.C.). The ancient literary sources are scanty and give fragmentary or incomplete data: they tell about Thrace only when this region is involved in Athenian or Macedonian history. Epigraphic, numismatic and archeological evidence can sometimes be added. This study demonstrates that the conquest of Thrace by Philip II wasn’t easy and it took a lot of time and many expeditions; the Macedonian control of the region was even harder, because the Thracian people always fought for their independence. The peace of the last years of Philip II’s reign couldn’t go on and, in Alexander’s time, many insurrections arose one after the other. Quintus Curtius Rufus tells that Thrace was almost lost in the end of Alexander’s reign: Seuthes III led the most important rising and local autonomy increased too. Thracian tribes returned "de facto" to their original independence.

Thesis (doctoral)--Princeton, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [202]-109) an index.