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STRATEGY OF DEVELOPMENT OF MEDIA LITERACY IN THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

Vladica Todorović

Abstract

The DOS government, led by the Democratic Party introduced the first strategy in 2011, while the SNS as the ruling coalition’s leading party introduced the second strategy in 2020. The strategies were adopted as part of the process of joining the European Union. The EU oversees the process and in order for a country to become, a member there needs to be free media. Additionally, the citizens should have free access to information from multiple sources, but also be enabled to recognize accurate information fromthe information they are exposed to daily.

The new age introduced new sources of information, social networks Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Podcast… These novel ways of communication have become an alternative to the previous ways of communicating and obtaining information. Nonetheless, younger population adopted them asways of accessing information, whereas the older population mostly relies on electronic media.

In Serbia, since the 1990s, there has been a huge expansion of television, and a little later, satellite and cable television providers, which have a significant impact on citizens’ access to information. The two leading TV content distributors (that additionally offer other services, such as telephony and internet) are (SBB) Serbia broadband and (MTS) Mobile Telefonija Srbije. SBB was founded in 2000. It grew rapidly, and for a long time it was unrivalled in this area of the media industry. The company is privately owned, while MTS is state-owned, and has seen a rise in recent years. These two providers offer most of the same content. Nonetheless, the main difference is that SBB has, first of all, the news channel N1, which is critical of the Serbian authorities, and where representatives of the opposition parties can make an appearance, while members of the ruling party rarely appear, not because the editors don’t invite them, but because they refuse. There is also the TV channel Nova S, which has entertainment content often colored by political messages, and has political programs. MTS does not offer these two channels, though it has several news channels on which representatives of opposition parties make an appearance: Euro news, Kurir, Tanjug TV. However, those channels are pro government. The offer of sports channels also varies. SBB has Sportklub channels, while MTS has Arena sports channels. For many years, Sportklub broadcasted the NBA basketballleague and the English league in football, but in the last few years, Arena Sport bought the rights to broadcast these competitions aided by the state, since the state can always offer more money than private distributors. The government wanted to influence politics through sports, so that users of SBB and viewers of the Sportklub, due to the transmission of the NBA league and the English football league, would switch from SBB to MTS, and stop watching N1 and Nova S channels, but news channels that support regime policy. The rivalry of the two providers has escalated in recent years, and those users who do not follow political events more seriously, cannot easily navigate this situation. That is why media literacy is essential, in the educational system or through informal education, so that citizens can recognize such situations.

„There is a global media literacy week marked by the United Nations, the European Union and UNESCО“ (Nova pismenost 2023). In 2022, Media Literacy Week in Serbia was held at the Museum of Illusions. However, much more media attention should be given to this event, with space in the most important electronic and printed media, in schools, on squares, with stands, with informative publications, billboards. This would draw the public attention to media literacy.

Media literacy can be introduced to students in the first years of primary education. REM also printed picture books for that age, so that lecturers could introduce students to the world of media literacy. At later levels of education, it is necessary for students to get to know the media closely, and the messages broadcast by numerous media.

It is necessary to introduce the subject The Media Literacy at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, in all four majors, as a compulsory subject. While the subject Media Literacy should be introduced at other faculties of social sciences, at least as an elective subject. This subject can also be introduced as an elective at faculties of natural sciences. In this area, due to the rapid development of the media industry, Serbia must follow modern trends in the world, and media literacy should become one of the priorities of the media strategy.

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References

ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC POLICY 1/2023 1/2023 УДК 316.77(497.11) 107-127
https://doi.org/10.22182/ajp.1912023.5
Back to Issue Administration and Public Policy - 1/2023