| dc.description.abstract | The societal crisis’ influence on the crisis of the language in contemporary Serbian journalism
is prevailing. Words have been increasingly framed into inappropriate content. Homonyms
are gradually becoming the only way to debate and give second opinions. Globalizing vo-
cabulary with fashionable phraseology, manipulative rhetoric and the artificial realignment of
language serve as the basis of rhetorical and stylistic research presented in this work. Casual
populist political speeches and sensationalistic topics in Serbia are in the centre of events,
even though they are easily forgotten. An apparent lack of creativity in language results in
the glorification of a globalizing rhetorical model. This leads to a sort of recycling of language
patterns and a pathetic usage of metaphors in everyday life, hence the apparent emergence of
a new kind of sensationalism. Different linguistic matrices obsessively repeat themselves in
the same rhetorical frame. Therefore, the language of journalists is increasingly reduced to the
form and the form is reduced to the void. In this article, the analysis of the contemporary use
of stylistic knowledge by media professionals will be conducted within a sample of one year of
broadcasts during 2019–2020, prior to the pandemic. The authors explain the methodology
of the research by describing the theoretical approach and the methods used to substanti-
ate the hypothesis. The research aims to show the gradual change of media language during
the current professional, economic and moral crises. A vast majority of media have a com-
mon inherited loss of truly free expression. Instead of free relations, a plethora of excessive
self-censorship and hidden advocacies and connections is being extended. This appears to be
a certain eternity or bad infinity of the shadows in the media. | sr |
