Television is the dominant medium in Serbia, watched by 96,7 percent of respondents, but only 36,9 percent consider it a credible source of information. As many as 77,4 percent of citizens never read the press, while only 1,3 percent follow it daily. Which media do citizens trust, how do they influence them and do they manage to recognize harmful content
Mediji they rarely change citizens’ beliefs. More than half of them in to the media they rarely or never learn something new that would change their views on a political or social issue.
On the other hand, the media has an extremely strong influence on the emotional reactions of citizens. As many as 68,6 percent of those surveyed feel overwhelmed by information daily or often, while more than half state that information from the media causes them strong negative emotions such as sadness, anger, shame, disgust or fear.
This is the data from the latest OSCE-‘s research on media literacy in Serbia for the year 2025.
What media do citizens use and whom do they trust?
Citizens have the most trust in people they know. More than 68 percent of respondents cite friends, family and colleagues as a reliable source of information. The research also shows which media Serbian citizens use the most.
Television remains the dominant medium watched by as many as 96,7 percent of respondents, but only 36,9 percent consider it a credible source of information.
The press even 77,4 percent of citizens never read it, while only 1,3 percent follow it every day. Accordingly, the press is also the media that Serbian citizens trust the least – only 3,7 percent of respondents do considers reliable source information.
When it comes to social networks, the ratio of trust and distrust is even, but the number of those who consider social networks as both a reliable and unreliable source of information is slightly higher.
Critical reading of information
Serbian citizens largely admit that they fail to recognize harmful content in the media. Fake news is rarely or never recognized by 27,6 percent of respondents, while conspiracy theories go unnoticed by more than half.
Accordingly, 38,4 percent of respondents admit that it often happens to them that believe in some information for which later it turns out that it is not true.
When they doubt the truth of some information, citizens usually check it by consulting with people they know or by comparing it with other media sources, whereby close people have a slight advantage.
Citizens almost never use fact-checking sites and applications, and half of respondents never read comments on questionable content, while only 1,4 percent do so every day.
Citizens’ expectations from REM and commercial media
Although Serbia does not have a functional one from November 2024 Regulatory body for electronic media (REM), since its Council has not been elected since then, citizens have very clear expectations from REM.
Almost all respondents, 81,4 percent completely and 8,9 percent mostly, believe that REM must monitor the work of all media and warn and punish them for inappropriate content, regardless of political or economic influences.
About 60 percent of citizens still believe that it makes sense to complain to this body about the unprofessional work of the media.
When comparing the Public Service and private media, more than three quarters of the respondents believe that the Public Service should have a higher level of responsibility.
Also, the majority of citizens do not agree with the claim that commercial media are deprived of social responsibility just because they are privately owned. However, 11,5 percent are those who believe that private ownership frees the media from social responsibility.
What about artificial intelligence
For most, artificial intelligence still represents unknown. Almost three-quarters of respondents cannot judge how reliable artificial intelligence tools are as a source of information.
Those who use artificial intelligence tools, 25,4 percent of them, do so most often in order to checked and improve content they’ve previously created, as well as research and come up with ideas.
When it comes to adjusting and checking content created by artificial intelligence, there are almost identical percentages of those who never do it and those who always do it. 30,1 percent never adjust content, compared to 32 percent who always do.
The situation is similar with content verification. 30 percent of them never check, while 28,2 percent always check content created by artificial intelligence.
Source: Vreme
