Media as an Instrument of Power and Capital: The Future of the Media in Serbia – Perspectives of Key Stakeholders

Qualitative research on the state of the media in Serbia and potential future media trends has shown that the attitudes of citizens and media professionals largely align with findings from previous quantitative studies. The current socio-political crisis has further exposed the fragility of the media landscape, characterized deep media and societal polarization, political pressure on editorial policies of both commercial outlets and public broadcasters, and media campaigns targeting citizens involved in recent protests and blockades. At the same time, these events have driven citizens increasingly towards alternative sources of information—primarily social networks and online communication platforms—which has, in turn, prompted many media outlets to make greater use of these channels to reach audiences.

A continuous decline in professional standards in media reporting has been observed, largely resulting from political pressures that have brought about the near-total collapse of regulatory mechanisms and established democratic practices designed to ensure quality reporting in the public interest. Citizens now identify only a handful of journalists and media outlets as credible sources. The absence of a functioning market, the state’s financial interventions, and the logic of profit maximization have been recognized as serious risks to the survival of professional media and journalism in Serbia.

This publication is the result of research undertaken as part of the project “Our Media: A civil society action to generate media literacy and activism, counter polarization and promote dialogue.” The second research cycle was conducted in the thematic framework titled “The Future of the Media in the Western Balkans and Turkey” in 2025 and focused on analysing the views and opinions of media professionals regarding the current situation and trends in media and democracy in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Turkey.

The project “Our Media: A civil society action to generate media literacy and activism, counter polarization and promote dialogue” is jointly implemented by nine media development organizations from the Western Balkans and Turkey, with the financial support of the European Union. The coordinator of the three-year project is the Foundation Mediacentar Sarajevo. Partners in the project are the Albanian Media Institute in Tirana; bianet in Istanbul; the Macedonian Institute for Media in Skopje; the Montenegro Media Institute in Podgorica; the Novi Sad School of Journalism; the Peace Institute in Ljubljana; the Press Council of Kosovo in Pristina; and the South East European Network for Professionalization of Media (SEENPM).