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Serbia’s news satire phenomenon

“Dragan Stevic was soused to the gills while partying at the Red Sea resort Sharm El Sheikh when he inadvertently felled the beast that had been terrorizing tourists for weeks. Stevic cannonballed into the water from a high-diving board, according to a Macedonian news agency. Instead of making a splash, he came down right on the shark’s head, killing the toothed terror instantly. The fun-loving party boy was immediately touted as a local hero who saved tourist season, which had dried up after the shark had injured three people and killed one vacationer. Stevic swam to shore and is currently in the hospital recovering from alcohol poisoning.”

The New York Post was just one of many international media outlets that in December 2010 ran this story about Serbian Dragan Stevic’s feat in Egypt. The story got more than five thousand Facebook likes through the Post’s website. 

It was Russian paper Komsomolska Pravda however, that went through the process of fact checking both with marine life experts and sources in Egypt. Although they provided graphic descriptions of what might have happened with the shark and tourist’s unlikely interaction, they also concluded that it was most likely just wishful thinking.

They were right that the story was not true - it was a complete hoax.

‘News in the mirror’

First published on December 10 via Serbian portal Njuz.net, in the following ten days the incredible story was picked by numerous media in the Southeast European region and around the world. Most of them did not even doubt its accuracy.

Njuz.net is an online Serbian satirical portal launched in October 2010 with the slogan ‘News in the mirror’. Its creators were inspired by the American site the ONION, both in style and in topic selection. The idea behind the site has been to offer a critique of Serbian society in an entertaining way.

According to Viktor Markovic, the Belgrade professor and blogger who is one of several people responsible for the site’s creation and day to day running,

“It would be fine if visitors would get accustomed to think more when reading news and to check some data, rather than uncritically assuming accurate all what was published”.

Currently there are ten regular authors and approximately thirty contributors who submit stories. The call for contributions is always open and editors receive several dozen submissions daily, selecting only the best ones for publication.

The team running the portal has gathered gradually, consisting mainly of people with experience in online and traditional media and also viral marketing. At first they posted stories on Njuz’s Facebook page which built up a solid base of followers, with the result that the first day of launching the actual website brought them over ten thousand visitors.

Make believe media

The stories Njuz.net publish are invented, but topics and personalities covered are mainly those already gathering media and public attention. As noted on one of the blogs commenting on the phenomenon of Njuz.net, its news represents reality as it would become if current trends in a given sphere were to continue. 

One of the most popular pieces was about a clinic in the Serbian city of Novi Sad for curing addiction to Facebook likes. That text itself was Facebook liked more than nine thousand times.

The question remains, why has make believe media become a phenomenon in Serbia? Many readers contend that reality in their country is so rich in hard-to-believe facts of social and political life that it is often difficult to distinguish between the possible and impossible, true and false. Readers comment on stories thinking they are real, which in turn provokes mocking remarks from others.

Many media outlets in Serbia, both online and more traditional print and radio, did the same as media outlets around the world and ran with the shark story without verifying facts.

Asked how Njuz.net influences other media in Serbia, Viktor Markovic says, “It would be good if the influence consists at least of indicating the source of news, which is often not the case”. On the other hand, he adds, it is messy situations in society and the media which leave ample space and inspiration for the stories Njuz.net publishes.

So far the whole team has worked pro bono, still figuring out the best business model. Njuz.net in a short period of time has become the most cited Serbian media outlet abroad. This fact, along with the several hundred thousand visitors a month they reportedly receive, could help in finding a way to generate some income from the site. 

Internet still plays marginal role in the Serbian media industry in terms of profits. According to the Nielsen survey results for 2009 for Internet media and traditional media on the Internet, it accounted approximately for 1.6 percent of the total media revenue in the country. The general finances of the media industry in the country has in the meantime worsened.

Yet access to broadband Internet in Serbia is growing, as well as the influence of online media. Of the online scene in Serbia Markovic says:

“It is quite strong in terms of the number of people trying to do something on the Internet. Also, community of Internet professionals is well connected. However, I would like to see more innovative thinking, and fewer imitations of existing ideas. Probably that trend is not limited to online sphere, but Internet offers so vast opportunities to do something differently and to think differently that it would be a pity not to do so”.

Njuz.net has successfully demonstrated its wit and social critique, along with the ability to reach and entertain people; an innovative business model would go along with it well.

Meanwhile, both audiences and media professionals should remember to take media stories with a big pinch of salt.

 

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