Journalism and media industry in Serbia: Challenges for the profession in public print media

Abstract

Technology innovations and journalism community are challenged by alternated process of content production, interaction with the audience, economic crisis and saturated media market. Taken together these factors impose a need to reassess capability of the printed public media in Serbia to follow global trends. Research results published in this article indicate that both owners and media managers of the four publicly owned print media in Serbia are looking for the appropriate adjustment model, facing at the same time under-qualified personnel, obsolete technical infrastructure and lack of investments. It was quite expected that public media owners during the adjustment process consider the state as both supporter and protector, since large portion of their business depends on the financial support handed over by the government or municipalities budgets. However, chivalrous role of the state is also being perceived by the public print media representatives within the process of creating comprehensive and respected regulatory framework, that will treat each media as equal competitor in the media game. In the fight for survival newspapers in Serbia are additionally overwhelmed by the technological revolution, leading in direction of an impression that media system is not developing appropriate mechanisms in order to overcome external difficulties. Therefore, the existence of the oldest mass media is being seriously questioned, both globally and locally.

Tehnološke inovacije i izazovi za novinarsku profesiju, drugačiji proces proizvodnje sadržaja u interaktivnom odnosu sa publikom, opterećenost ekonomskom krizom i zasićenim tržištem, nameću potrebu za preispitivanjem sposobnosti štampanih javnih glasila u Srbiji da odgovore na ove izazove. Rezultati ovog uzorka pokazuju da su u četiri štampana lista vlasnici ili predstavnici medija u potrazi za adekvatnim modelom prilagođavanja, suočeni sa nedovoljno osposobljenim kadrom i veoma malim budžetima za ulaganje u infrastrukturu, jer posluju na granici preživljavanja. Sasvim očekivano, vlasnici javnih glasila državu vide kao zaštitnika i oslonac u procesu prilagođavanja, jer velikim delom njihovo poslovanje zavisi od visine sredstava izdvojenih iz državnog ili budžeta lokalnih samouprava. No, paternalističku funkciju države predstavnici javnih štampanih medija sagledavaju i u stvaranju celovitog i delotvornog regulatornog okvira, koji će sve medije tretirati kao ravnopravne aktere medijske utakmice. U borbi za opstanak štampana glasila u Srbiji su suočeni sa tehnološkom revolucijom, pa se čini da medijski sistem u tranziciji ne poseduje adekvatne mehanizme za prevazilaženje spolja nametnutih poteškoća. Samim tim ugrožen je opstanak najstarijeg medija, kako na nacionalnom, tako i na lokalnom nivou.