DEZINFORMACIJA, NEKULTURA I MANIPULACIJA

Abstract

In this age free journalism and the media, as well as the rights of individuals to have their opinion and opportunity to express them freely, can be described mainly in terms of ideal‐typical theoretical models. These are the models that are not founded on reality and practical merits. On one hand , we have the legislation, on the other , “real world” of the media with all its anomalies and questions; theory and practice with very little or nothing in common. These observations are made after analyzing numerous media texts on, “Report on the ownership and control of media in Serbia” and “Law on Public Information and Media of the Republic of Serbia”. In this paper, we try to see the essence of the problem concerning the media; more specifically, to answer the question to what extent information nowadays acquired trademarks and manipulative character, and what is our civil right to objective information? Whether, and to what extent, the public interest in informing replaced spinning and “storytelling” and who benefits from it, and who suffers from sensationalism and tabloid media? In search of answers to these questions, we will go from words that were once served Umberto Eco as the title for one of the most famous books which dealt with the semiological aspects of cultural phenomena: “Culture, Information, Communication”. We used these words as a point of reference in understanding the current media, social and cultural phenomenon and antinomy they produced. The word “cul‐ ture” was replaced with the word “uncivilized”, the word “information”, with the word “misinformation” and the word “communication” with the word “manipulation”. These three words, in our view, basically reflect the spirit of today and describe the state of free media and journalism in Serbia From our point of view these three words describe the state of free media and journalism in Serbia.