Reporting the European Union in the Serbian national radio newscasts

Abstract

The visibility of the European Union in the media has been largely researched in contemporary scholarship. The EU reporting is mostly analyzed in regard to national print media and TV stations across Europe. Relevant studies show that the reporting on the EU topics is mostly uniform, shallow and occasional. The media are more interested to report on the EU from the national rather than supranational perspectives. However, the representation of the EU topics in radio newscasts is rarely researched. The radio has been the second most important source of information for Europeans and the first medium that holds the highest level of citizens' trust. In an attempt to contribute to the existing scholarship, this paper analyzes the extent to which national radio stations in Serbia report on the EU topics, as well as how they have been represented in the news. For that purpose, content analysis of the main newscasts of Radio Belgrade First Programme, Radio B92, Radio S and Radio Indeks was conducted during a three-month period in 2013. The main research findings show that only 5.44% of the newscasts are related to the EU topics. The thematic scope is rather limited to daily politics and representation of influential political actors in the country and in Brussels, without in-depth or analytical approach to the discussed issues.

Vidljivost Evropske unije u medijima privlači pažnju brojnih istraživača. Istraživanja pokazuju da se o Evropskoj uniji izveštava gotovo uniformno, površno i sporadično, i da su mediji više zainteresovani da nadnacionalna pitanja učine nacionalno relevantnim. Izveštavanje o EU se najčešće ispituje na uzorku nacionalnih štampanih medija i televizijskih stanica u EU i državama u regionu Zapadnog Balkana. Međutim, informativni programi radio stanica se retko kad uzimaju u obzir analize, iako mogu da imaju značajan uticaj na publiku. Radio je, odmah posle televizije, drugi najvažniji izvor informisanja za građane Evrope. Cilj ovog rada je da istraži u kojoj meri i na koji način nacionalne radio stanice u Srbiji izveštavaju o EU temama. Za potrebe empirijskog istraživanja sprovedena je analiza sadržaja centralno-informativnih emisija Radio Beograda 1, Radija B92, Radija S i Radio Indeksa u tromesečnom periodu u toku 2013. godine. Rezultati pokazuju da je u ukupnom informativnom programu ovih stanica samo 5,44% emitovanog sadržaja posvećeno EU temama. Tematski okviri u kojima se izveštava o EU su ograničeni na dnevno-političke događaje i sastanke visokih političkih zvaničnika sa predstavnicima EU u Briselu, bez dublje obrade aktuelnih pitanja i kritičkog odnosa novinara prema temi.