LOKALNI MEDIJI KAO NOSIOCI PROMENA: UTICAJ LOKALNOG NOVINARSTVA NA REŠAVANJE SOCIJALNIH I EKOLOŠKIH PROBLEMA U OPŠTINAMA U SRBIJI
LOCAL MEDIA AS DRIVERS OF CHANGES: THE IMPACT OF LOCAL JOURNALISM ON TACKLING OF THE SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS IN SERBIA’S MUNICIPALITIES

Summary/Abstract: Local media play an important role in informing local communities, developing media pluralism and shaping citizens’ perspectives about important social and political issues. Local media outlets also contribute to citizens’ activism and encourage debates about relevant problems, trying to impact local governments to create and implement credible policies and solve diversified problems, e.g., poverty, underdeveloped infrastructure, toxic air, water and soil etc. Contemporary scholarship dealing with local media has been mainly focused on their economic and market sustainability, political instrumentalization and staff professionalization, or citizens’ participation in the production of media content. However, questions about whether and how local media outlets influence local governments to drive changes in local communities and develop more transparent, fair and democratic policies have been largely marginalized in contemporary media research. Against this background, this paper examines the influence of local media outlets in Serbia on the work of local governments and their ability to create and implement public policies which contribute to solving different social and environmental problems. Methodologically, this study is based on in-depth interviews with twenty journalists and editors of local media organizations from eleven cities in Serbia. The analysis shows how certain journalistic stories and media initiatives, coupled with citizens’ participation in the production of media contents, impact local governments to solve particular sets of social and environmental problems. At the same time, the study highlights the main groups of problems and barriers local journalists have been faced with in their professional reporting, which largely prevents the scope of their impact in local communities.

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