Media Consumption Patterns: Watching TV in Former Yugoslav States
Media Consumption Patterns: Watching TV in Former Yugoslav States

Summary/Abstract: The period after the collapse of the communist Yugoslav state was marked by wars in several ex-Yugoslav states. Therefore the state-building period overlapped with the transition from communism to capitalism and processes of reconciliation between the disputed states. This is reflected in the transformation of the media audiences in the Western Balkans region as well. Drawing upon the reception studies tradition, the goal of this paper is to explore media consumption in several ex-Yugoslav states, namely: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia and to find similarities and differences in audiences’ behaviour. The changes in media consumption are connected to the transition processes in the media that brought new opportunities and challenges as well as different audiences’ responses to them. The selection of countries was determined by their shared history, but also by the possibilities for audiences from those countries to easily access programmes broadcast by the other countries within the region. The research asks whether and what kind of connections can be established between the socio-demographic characteristics, cultural and lifestyle values of the audiences and the programmes that they watch. Quantitative and qualitative methods are combined here. Firstly, data obtained from an initial survey carried out in the four states with a representative sample suggests tendencies and patterns in audiences’ consumption of television broadcasting in the aforementioned countries; these are then further explored qualitatively, using in-depth interviews with selected participants, to reveal common cultural values, based on collective memory, among those audiences. The research design employs a comparative approach that allows us to draw more generalized conclusions for the territory of the Western Balkans.

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