Mirrors and Messaging: The Role of Media in Serbia’s Protests, 2023–2025

Emma E.S. Brandt

doi:10.2298/FID2601099B

Authors

Emma E.S. Brandt University of Waterloo

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2298/FID2601099B

Keywords:

Serbia, media, protest, metaphor, television, youth, ethnography

Abstract

Over the past few years, Serbia has seen several major protest movements, including the Serbia Against Violence protests in 2023 and the 2024- 2026 student protests after the collapse of the canopy at Novi Sad Train Station. Over the course of these protests, media have served not only as a way to channel and disseminate information about political protests, but have also themselves become a target of critique. Indeed, through protests targeting otherwise obscure bodies such as REM (the national regulator of electronic media) and the framing of seemingly unrelated issues (such as interpersonal violence) through narratives of media, these protests have highlighted the role of media capture, censorship, and suppression as key tactics of the state in Serbia. Through discussions of media as a “mirror” for society, media is framed as indistinguishable from or even synonymous with politics, corruption, and the problems perceived to exist in Serbian society. Drawing on a year of ethnographic research in Serbia, including interviews, participant observation, and media analysis, this chapter situates the relationship of media to democracy, authoritarianism, and protest in the context of the successive social movements that have taken place in Serbia over the last several years.

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