Promotion Instead of Information: The Media and 2008 Presidential Elections in Serbia

Sa？etak This essay analyzes election communication for the 2008. Presidential elections in Serbia. It is based upon results of the qualitative and quantitative content analysis of the major broadcast and print media in Serbia during one week preceding the elections (January 25-31).Broadcast and print media coverage differed significantly in three respects: amount of coverage, presentation of candidates and value context of their presen-tation. Total election output of six major TV channels (aprox. 60 hrs) decreased by around two percent during the second election round, while the number of election items in the print media increased by almost 10 percent (726 to 662 items). Pro？gram structure reveals dominance of commercial programming over information content, resulting in 75 percent of promotional compared to 25 percent of infor？mation content. Information programming included 11 percent of regular evening newscasts and 14 percent of special election broadcasts. Overly commercialized TV coverage had two major consequences for other me-dia. Firstly, it made radio less interesting. Combined output of the six national ra-dio channels was three and a half hrs and almost 70 percent of it aired by only two channels. As election candidates did not show commercial interest in buying radio time- the election significance of the radio was almost completely marginalized. As a second consequence, vivid election communication transferred to the printed press, making it highly polarized and extremely biased