ELECTIONS 2026: Between Online Media and the Feed

The calling of snap parliamentary elections in Serbia has launched an election campaign that will take place largely in the digital space. Online and social media are important spaces for political communication and public information, but they can also be sources of pressure and violations of digital rights.

We therefore monitor how online media cover the elections, how the campaign unfolds on social media, and which violations of digital rights occur during the electoral process.

Once a week, we will publish an overview of the monitoring’s key findings and highlight the main trends and patterns of the digital campaign.

How do we monitor the campaign?

The monitoring covers three interconnected areas: online media, social media, and violations of rights in the digital environment.

Online media

Throughout the campaign, we monitor content published by online media outlets with a range of editorial policies. We analyze the topics that receive the most attention, how political and other relevant actors are portrayed, and the dominant narratives and interpretive frames through which political and social reality is understood. We also identify similarities and differences among groups of media to gain an overall picture of the election campaign.

The research covers the following online media outlets: Alo, B92, BIRN, Blic, Danas, Direktno, Informer, Insajder, Južne vesti, Kurir, Mondo, N1, Nova, Novosti, 021, Pink, Politika, Prva, Radar, Republika, RTS, Srbija danas, Tanjug, Telegraf, and Vreme.

Social media

On social media, we monitor users’ information environment during the campaign – that is, their content diet: the mix of political, media, and other content appearing in their feeds. We analyze the prevalence and structure of different types of content, topics, and actors, as well as the narratives and communication practices that gain visibility on X, Instagram, and TikTok.

Rights and freedoms in the digital environment

Throughout the electoral process, we closely monitor violations of digital rights and freedoms and analyze incidents in which political actors, media outlets, journalists, activists, and citizens are exposed to different forms of attack. In this way, we track the conditions in which the election campaign takes place in the digital space.

In the weeks ahead, we will follow the campaign and the key trends that show how online and social media, and the state of digital rights, shape the digital environment in which the 2026 elections are taking place.

Week at a glance

Week #00 | September 9–13, 2026

The first overview of findings covers the period from the calling of snap parliamentary elections to the end of the first, incomplete week of monitoring. We view this period as a brief but important starting point for recording the initial digital snapshot of the 2026 elections.

At the start of the election campaign, online media coverage is dominated by recurring narratives portraying the opposition as divided and incapable, while the student movement and protests were consistently linked to chaos, violence, and foreign influence. By September 13, these interpretive frames had intensified, alongside claims of a “color revolution”. The authorities retained control of the media agenda through economic topics and the strong visibility of Aleksandar Vučić. At the same time, foreign policy reporting presented the United States as an imperial power, Russia as a target of Western pressure, and the EU as an actor that imposes conditions on Serbia.

On social media, the campaign’s initial picture is marked by pronounced division. Political preferences connected users’ feeds more strongly than similarities in their demographic profiles, while the least content overlap was found among politically opposed users on X.

Finally, the start of the election campaign was marked by a case of harassment and threats against a journalist from the Istinomer portal, who received messages on her private phone number from an unknown person. In addition, shortly before the elections were called, a platform called PodržAVam (“I Support”, with the president’s initials emphasized) was launched as a “support network for Aleksandar Vučić”.

Words that defined the week

Dominant words in online media (September 9–13, 2026):

PRESIDENT | VUČIĆ | BELGRADE | ELECTION | COUNTRY | WELL-KNOWN | SERBIAN | QUESTION | CITIZEN | WORLD

MEDIA OVERVIEW

• With the volume of reporting on the electoral process relatively stable, the campaign began in an information environment still dominated by entertainment and sport. Crime, violence, and incidents also received consistently high coverage, alongside a wide range of international affairs topics.
• 291 articles on the elections and the electoral process were published across all monitored online media outlets on the day snap parliamentary elections were called.
• In the first five days, media coverage of the electoral process mostly fell within the interpretive frames of legitimization, conflict, moral condemnation, and threat.*

* LEGITIMIZATION – legitimate, justified, acceptable, credible
THREAT – danger, risk, endangerment, destabilization, crisis
CONFLICT – conflict, confrontation, disagreement, division
MORAL CONDEMNATION – moral wrongness, irresponsibility, dishonor, selfishness

WHAT WAS IN THE FEED?

• The analysis of social media shows considerable diversity in the content appearing in the feeds of users with different demographic characteristics, interests, and political preferences. Preliminary findings indicate that content overlap is greater among users with similar political preferences than among users with similar demographic profiles. On X, the feed of a young male student who supports the current government shares only 1% of its content with that of a female student committed to the student movement. At the same time, the overlap between the feed of a pro-government student and that of a Serbian Progressive Party supporter over the age of 65, who strongly supports Aleksandar Vučić, reaches 26%, despite the major differences in their demographic profiles. Their feeds are most commonly linked by content from @InformerNovine, @LaziDetektor, @KurirVesti, @RTS_Vesti, @sns_srbija and @BakarecPolitika.
• The feed analysis points to strong political polarization in the information space. Two opposing narrative frames dominate among politically oriented users. In one, student protests are presented as legitimate civic resistance, while the authorities and institutions are portrayed as repressive or corrupt. In the other, the authorities are portrayed as guarantors of stability and national interests, while protest and opposition actors are delegitimized as destabilizing, extremist, or linked to foreign interests. Between these two poles, more varied feeds also appear, combining domestic politics with international affairs, social issues, entertainment, sports, and other content. They do not have as clear an ideological orientation, but recognizable value positions are still present.

Rights and freedoms in the digital environment

The opening of the election campaign was marked by a case of harassment and threats against a journalist from Istinomer. The unnamed journalist received harassing messages from an unknown phone number. The person behind the messages said they had deliberately obtained the journalist’s private number to make clear that she was under unlawful surveillance, intimidate her, and threaten her. CRTA, the organization that founded Istinomer, said that both the journalist and its staff were disturbed by the surge in political violence at the very start of the campaign. CRTA will take all legal steps to protect its colleague and ensure that the perpetrator is identified and held accountable.

Shortly before the elections were called, a platform called PodržAVam (“I Support”) was launched as a “support network for Aleksandar Vučić”. In addition to its active website, the platform announced that a mobile app would soon be available through the official app stores (Google Play Store and App Store). Until then, citizens could download and install it directly from the website.

An analysis of the platform’s privacy policy indicates that the app is a system for recording, connecting, and organizing identified political supporters, including data on their political preferences, activities, and whether they vote. On election day, a special mode is activated to collect information on which app users have voted. Although the company Bus Logic DOO is listed as the data controller, the app’s functionality, data flows, and capabilities suggest that the ruling Serbian Progressive Party is the actual data controller.

Key trends

• Key messages identified through our monitoring of online and social media:
• “The opposition is a foreign agent/traitor; it is divided and inept.”
• “The protests and the opposition threaten stability.”
• “The protests are a source of political conflict and disorder.”
• “The EU systematically imposes conditions on Serbia.”
• “Russia is a target of Western pressure.”

The second week of the electoral cycle begins with the following messages dominating the digital space:

• “The Serbian Armed Forces have been modernized, and the president personally guarantees the country’s security.”
• “Higher wages and pensions are proof of economic progress.”
• “The student list represents a legitimate alternative in the October 25, 2026 elections.”
• “The Youth Guarantee program addresses youth unemployment across Serbia.”
• “The ‘sound cannon’ affair is false and fabricated, proof of a hate campaign against the authorities.”
• “The official alliance between Vučić and Šešelj proves that the authorities have abandoned the European path.”

About the 2026 election monitoring

The monitoring of the digital space during the 2026 elections tracks online media coverage, the course of the election campaign on social media, and violations of digital rights and freedoms. Findings are published in weekly overviews throughout the election campaign.

We monitor 25 online media outlets in Serbia, as well as the feeds of typical TikTok, Instagram, and X user profiles.