Politička (ne)kultura u zagrljaju tabloida
Political (un)culture in tabloid Embrace

Summary/Abstract: Information blizzard, which we all live in, makes Serbian citizens fed up with facts; therefore, public opinion makers have to double their efforts to bring media contents closer to consumers. Gutter press covers bitter political struggle between parties in power, and daily papers have thus become a place where the imperceptible battle between power centers, secret services, relics of the old regime and new leaders takes place. Self-disempowering of the state is simply hot air, while in reality political elites still decide which media will be privileged. Trivial, provocative, sometimes false and often manipulative messages block communication channels; infotainment dominates media contents in various forms and formats. All that leads to media cloning and uniformity of newspapers; electronic channels look the same, because nothing is critical or provocative in communication cornucopia (as media mogul Rupert Murdoch put it metaphorically). In an abundance of uniform news and controlled information, choice became more important than issuing, so that fast and aggressive tabloid journalism became a dominant trend of the new generation, offering a surrogate of entertainment, rumor and information. Sex, death, scandals, fame and sensations are the backbone of modern values distortion, and by publishing such contents media provide fast appearance on the public scene. By imposing tabloid (un)culture, the new political right develops the strategy of “authoritarian populism”, which tightens state control over an underdeveloped civil society. That is how the public becomes transformed into political hodgepodge. The public is easily manipulated because tabloid readers are never critical of anything, but they do make a difference when they vote. Social counterbalance can only be created by making the public media-literate, introducing responsibility at the information market, professional self-regulation, efficient judicature and a responsible cultural strategy.

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