Partije i mediji u predizbornoj kampanji
Parties and the Media During the Election Campaign

Summary/Abstract: The mass media are indispensable in electoral process, because they provide to their audience many pieces of information that can help them decide which political party they are going to support at the elections. It is therefore important for the media to have an impartial attitude towards the parties, and both to inform the public and present the candidates objectively. It is believed that the media in Serbia underwent different challenges and that they generally inform the public extensively about the progress of election campaigns. However, political and especially financial impact is often visible, leading to disorders of balance of media coverage. The last two election cycles in 2007 and 2008 are characterized by multiparty elections in Serbia being in the stage of its legal age. These two election campaigns were much more mature than the previous ones. In spite of many objections, these elections have shown evident progress in the election process in Serbia. Also, the general impression is that the conduct of the parties is more acceptable than in the so-called non-election days. However, if we take into account the overall electoral process in 2007 and 2008 we come to a conclusion that things are still not so simple. After the October changes, Serbia is constantly in election campaigns, turmoil is more frequent, and the formation of the government is more and more dramatic. The aim of this paper is to present the changes that have occurred in the last two decades when the voters went eight times to the polls in order to vote for their representatives in the National Assembly. Political parties, voters, media, electoral system and electoral strategy kept undergoing numerous changes. One-party system has become a multi-party one, and socialist system has become capitalist, social property has become private, and industrial society has changed into information society.

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