Media News - Monday, February 20, 2012

Journalism in Serbia: Profession at the Crossroads

“Profession at the Crossroads – Journalism at the Doorstep of theInformation Society,” conducted by the Media Center of the Faculty of Political Science in Belgrade from July 2010 through June 2011 explores the hypothesis that journalism in Serbia lacks the adequate resources for an appropriate response to the technological, economic and social challenges radically transforming the profession. The results paint a gloomy picture of Serbian journalism, grappling with extremely low salaries and digital advances. A long period of transition and the primacy of existential issues in Western Balkan countries have removed the emphasis from the challenges of contemporary journalism. Unsuccessful privatization, increasing concentration of ownership, development of the media market and the economic crisis – these are the characteristics defining the Serbian media scene. Most Serbian journalists work for electronic media outlets (60 percent) and the press (30 percent), while others work in news agencies, online media, as independent journalists, etc. More than half work in Belgrade, while the remainder are almost uniformly distributed throughout Vojvodina and Central Serbia. According to journalists themselves, the greatest challenges to the industry are low-quality journalism, the prevalence of sensationalism and tabloid journalism (22.13 percent), while almost one-fifth (17.23 percent) believe that the largest problem facing the media is a poor economic position aggravated by the global economic crisis. (European Journalism Observatory)

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