Demokratizacija medija u Srbiji: Etika novinarske profesije posmatrana kroz analizu naslova u dnevnoj štampi
The Media Democratization in Serbia: Journalism Ethics Analysed Through Newspaper Headlines

Author(s): Ana Milojević, Aleksandra R. Krstić
Subject(s): Media studies
Published by: Fakultet političkih nauka Univerziteta u Beogradu
Keywords: Headlines; daily newspaper; ethical standards; journalism code of ethics
Summary/Abstract: Professional ethics and self-regulation are among the weakest links of the media democratization in the post-communist countries. Although the codes of ethics have been adopted in all of the post-communist countries, including Serbia, they have no value unless journalists respect them, and broader professional and social climate do not support ethical conduct. The aim of this paper is to examine the ethical norms of the Serbian Journalists’ Code in the headlines of the national print media as an indicator of the achieved level of the media democratization. Headlines are the first and often the only contact of the reader with the text. Furthermore, headlines can be considered as the most important part of the text because they provide a summary of the central idea of the text, attract the attention of readers and set the frame for interpreting the text. At the same time, headlines are responsibility of the entire editorial team. Therefore headlines make a solid basis for evaluating the ethical behavior of a professional group. Qualitative content analysis of the headlines of four daily newspapers in Serbia during two weeks in September 2015 shows that: some headlines convey different information than the stories they lead, some are ambiguous, discriminatory, disturbing and colloquial, or contain hate speech, slander, libel and hidden propaganda.

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