In the past two years, the pandemic has changed the way many industries function and operate, including the media. What important changes has the media industry undergone?
Even before the pandemic hit, the general opinion was that the press had no future and that it would become extinct like dinosaurs in the foreseeable future. Covid-19 additionally aggravated the situation for the print media, due to significantly reduced sales and advertising revenues. If the print media are adamant to survive both Covid-19 and the growing competition from other media and social networks, which many, despite everything, already treat as a legitimate source of information, they will have to transform and adapt to the new needs of readers. Covid-19 only forced us to expedite those changes. The recent survey on the voters’ pre-election mood did not disappoint only some political parties with low ratings, but it also disappointed the media, especially the press, because they are the main source of information for only 2 or 3 percent of the population. Objectively speaking, these results can be deemed as a statistical error. At the same time, we are all victims of tabloids that put fake and unverified news on the front pages every day. In the pursuit of clicks and higher circulation figures, the basic function of the media has been neglected, which is to inform citizens objectively and promptly. The big question is whether and when the stray media return to the right path.
Due to the pandemic, significant changes have taken place in the media, as well as in all other industries. We have mainly been working from home and have meetings with our colleagues via Zoom. I do not believe that we will ever return to the old. In every evil, there is obviously something good. I just wonder what would happen without new technologies, the Internet, digitalization …
What do you think of the overall situation on the Serbian media scene and the competitive race among media outlets? How can we boost trust in the media and how do you see the media in the future?
Unfortunately, there is no free and fair media market in Serbia. Instead of being divided into professional and non-professional, in a deeply divided society, the media is divided only into “pro-government” and “opposition”. Thanks to the open, but also various types of hidden support that the government provides to “its” media, the normal market for information and other activities simply does not exist, i.e. the market where quality should be a crucial factor for survival and success. According to a report drafted by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, the situation is more likely to get worse than better. The report says that “even if the world returns to normal tomorrow, the press will compete with other media without having any investment capital, money for amortization or journalistic talent who will go where they are paid.”
Unfortunately, this is not just a short-term problem. The latest European Commission’s Progress Report from October 2021 states that “limited progress” has been made in the segment of media freedom. In practice, the situation is much worse than it could be concluded from this formulation, because all analyses of the Association of Journalists of Serbia and the Press Council show that most public funds from the competitions for project co-financing is directed towards media that violate the Journalists’ Code. On the other hand, public companies, and even some private companies that have business arrangements with the state, seem to be banned from advertising in the media that are critical of the government. Regardless, the problem will not go away if they silence the bearers of bad news.