Three Decades of Digital Media and Journalism in Croatia and Slovenia: A Systematic Review of Empirical Studies Published in Local Languages

Through the lens of the theory of mediamorphosis, the authors intend to demonstrate scientific contributions in the native languages of Croatian and Slovenian scholars to the study of digital journalism. This paper provides an insight into the common points but also similarities and differences in the evolution of interests and approaches of these scientific communities, which are special in that they are the only two members of the European Union that also share the legacy of the socio-political system of the former Yugoslavia. The central goal of this study was to identify, evaluate, and synthesize all the relevant empirical research, categorized only as original scientific papers that had been published from 1994 to 2024, together with scientific monographs on digital media and journalism, in order to contribute to filling the gap in regard to the review of local literature and internationalized local research. The primary search on the following terms and keywords: digital media, digital journalism, electronic publications, Internet, Internet journalism, Internet portals, new media, online media, online journalism, online portals, and web portals was conducted via several local databases (HRČAK, CEEOL, SCIndex, and COBISS). Using a systematic literature review strategy and content analysis methods, this study deeply explored several aspects of the empirical studies (N = 24) it found: metadata, theoretical background, research objects, methodology, and results. The articles were, in principle, published in local journals with high international impact and included in major databases WOS and SCOPUS. The findings show the first articles in Croatia date only from 2007 and from 2010 in Slovenia. With some interruptions, they are published relatively regularly. In the corpus analyzed, two scientific monographs from Croatia and one from Slovenia were included. The research confirms that the topics studied in this region and the methodologies used are characteristic of the contemporary trends in digital journalism studies. Although the thematic focuses are somewhat similar—journalistic texts and writing; editorial protocols; practices; policies; division of labor; organization; platform regulations and preferences; and audience behavior—there is a significant difference in the methodological approach; Croatian scholars rely on output manifestation and the analysis of media content; while Slovenian colleagues mainly research media organizations from the inside; through interviews.