The Online Media Landscape in the Focus of Disinformation Campaigns in the Western Balkans: Albania, Kosova, and North Macedonia
The Online Media Landscape in the Focus of Disinformation Campaigns in the Western Balkans: Albania, Kosova, and North Macedonia

Summary/Abstract: In the conditions of a technological transformation of the media, professional credibility and reliability in information are fading due to the manipulative role that the media have taken. This paper, among other things, highlights exactly the editorial lines of the media, which do not build them on principles based on professional cause, but rather on the causes of political-media oligarchies. The fake news industry in the world is currently the most profitable product, and this is the most serious threat to democracies, which cannot be properly consolidated without a regulation in the dense "traffic" of online communication. In this industry Russia leads with its Sputnik, which has created a widespread establishment in the media space of Central and Eastern Europe. Preventing of this media "pandemic" is extremely complicated and costly, because this type of information is camouflaged in various forms and the public needs a proper media education to identify and differentiate fake news from true ones. Therefore, it is very necessary to create a national strategy of each state, to prevent the spread of this media "pandemic", while the most effective "virus" is the professionalization of the media and its detachment from the influence of political oligarchies. False news is creating its bedrock of influence and this is especially evident in the division of society as a result of political tensions and inter-ethnic discontent. Moreover, this paper shows that in such a divided society, the disinformation that circulates incessantly in the public space, sows fear. If a disinformation protection strategy were to be developed, then public confidence would not be in crisis, as it is currently in the Western Balkans, and the media would return to its primary role: independent and objective information.

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