Elections on the information margin

Preliminary analysis of media content for the most visited online media in Serbia: 1 November – 17 December 2023 

On Wednesday November 1, the President of the Serbian Parliament, Vladimir Orlić, announced local elections in 65 cities and municipalities in Serbia, including Belgrade. A few hours after Orlić’s traditional protocol of signing the Decision on calling for elections in the hall of the National Assembly, the message “Long live Serbia! Happy elections!” arrived from the digital address of the President of the Republic of Serbia. Aleksandar Vučić’s cyber address also announced snap parliamentary elections, which started the pre-election campaign that lasted until December 14 at midnight. Meanwhile, on November 16, provincial elections were announced.

Research shows that online media’s importance as sources of information keeps steadily increasing, both in the world and at home. Although television is still in the lead when it comes to sources of obtaining information, the role of online media, which is currently in third place, requires special research attention. Taking into account the importance of free, comprehensive and balanced information from the point of view of the level of democracy of the entire election process, this research focuses on digital media and the information environment they create. The aim of the research is to identify and explain the key features of the informational content published by the leading online media in Serbia, in order to determine to what extent and in what way citizens were informed about the elections in the pre-election period, but also about key social and political issues, and the ways in which the central themes were defined in the digital environment and specific forms of support to the ruling structures were shaped.

Elections 2023: Preliminary Report (.pdf)

Mila Bajić is the Lead Researcher at SHARE Foundation with a focus on the relationship between new media, technology and privacy.

Snežana Bajčeta is the SHARE Foundation Researcher in the fields of digital technologies, media and journalism.