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The dual crisis of representative democracy and the authoritarian assault on the liberal dimension have challenged the global democratic order. While these parallel processes have been extensively studied, there remains a gap in understanding their implications for the participatory dimension of democracy. This is especially the case for the region of Southeast Europe (SEE), which has been at the forefront of the crisis for more than a decade. What are the key features of the contemporary research agenda on political participation in SEE? What insights does it provide into the evolving trends and patterns of regional participatory practices? This chapter delves into these questions through a scoping review of 149 academic articles addressing political participation in SEE from 2010 to 2022. The observed period is marked by a gradual uptrend in the number of articles, primarily driven by a scholarly interest in unconventional and innovative modes of participation and an emphasis on youth engagement. The results further delineate the characteristics of this academic output in terms of the production of knowledge, geographical emphasis, methodological approaches, target populations and the antecedents and outcomes associated with different forms of political participation. The chapter concludes by identifying literature gaps and suggesting avenues for future research on political participation in SEE.

This chapter is an opening to the edited volume that critically examines the intersection of social movements, participatory governance and democratic innovations in Southeast Europe. We introduce the chapters that explore the historical experiences and the contemporary evolving landscape of democracy in the region, discussing the challenges of representative democracy, rising autocratization and the potential for democratic innovations in creating more inclusive societies. The contributors to this volume assess the connections between participatory models with civic engagement and institutional practices, shedding light on the dynamic relationship between bottom-up activism and top-down governance.

This volume strengthens the dialogue between conceptual perspectives, approaches and fields on deliberative and participatory forms of democratic innovation and offers novel insights, focusing on the Southeast European space. Traditional forms of participation seem insufficient in satisfying the growing complexity of the democratic processes, especially in the context of autocratizing societies. It is crucial to examine the possibilities of democratic innovation in political research and practice, trying to establish a connection between the possibilities and limits of representative democracy and social movements as possible carriers of the process of democratic innovation. This book offers novel insights into practices of civil society and social movements and their pathways carved to initiate a deep change in political thinking and practice and compelling insights for scholars and students of Southeast Europe, social movements and democracy.

Cilj ovog rada je da istraži načine na koje aktivisti u Srbiji koriste digi- talne alate kako bi obezbedili pažnju publike i ostvarili ciljeve za koje se zalažu. Podaci su prikupljeni kvalitativnom analizom sadržaja digi- talnih objava deset udruženja građana i dubinskim intervjuima sa ak- tivistima. Procedurom tematskog kodiranja identifikovane su tri ključne strategije koje ilustruju povezanost digitalnog aktivizma, na- vika digitalnih publika i političke kulture. Prva strategija nazvana je ukrojavanje i predstavlja različite oblike prilagođavanja sadržaja ka- rakteristikama platforme i ciljnoj grupi. Strategija povezivanje odnosi se na upotrebu dijaloških i interaktivnih funkcija digitalnih platformi za definisanje granica zajednice i jačanje veza u njoj. Na kraju, osnaži- vanje i organizovanje je strategija kojom aktivisti pokušavaju da oja- čaju efikasnost pratilaca i edukuju ih o političkim procesima kako bi podstakli interesovanje građana za politiku i aktivnosti udruženja., The digital environment presents activists with new possibilities and challenges in their advocacy efforts when performing the key communication functions—i.e., informing the public, community building, and mobilizing citizens for various activities. Digital tools allow activists to circumvent mainstream media gatekeepers and speak directly to their audiences. Activists can use digital platforms to build and maintain relations with their public, forging a dialogue on important issues for the community. Digital platforms can also be used to reinvigorate citizens’ interest in politics and facilitate various modes of political participation. However, in order to utilize the full potential of digital platforms, activists need to find ways to capture the attention of digital audiences. This is becoming increasingly difficult as activists face stark competition from various actors—including politicians, celebrities, and popular brands— who also depend on public attention to meet their goals. Against this background, this study set out to identify and describe the main strategies that activists in Serbia use to capture the attention of digital audiences to promote the social changes they advocate. Given the exploratory nature of the study, a qualitative research design was selected. Data were collected using qualitative content analysis and in-depth interviews. Purposive sampling was used to select ten diverse organizations that differ with respect to the type of organization (formally registered NGOs and informal citizens’ associations), thematic focus (e.g., environment, housing, and labor rights), and geographic scope (local, regional, and national). The entire content of each organization’s websites and social media posts (on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) published between 1 September and 31 December 2021 were analyzed. In addition, in-depth interviews were conducted with ten activists from six organizations that accepted the invitation to participate. The main res

In many parts of the world, journalists work in increasingly hostile environments. To better understand the characteristics and implications of hostility against the press in a hybrid regime, this study explores how journalists in Serbia perceive and experience anti-press hate speech. Based on 20 interviews with diverse reporters, we describe hate speech against journalists as an ad hominem attack triggered by the very nature of journalistic conduct. We discuss two identified mechanisms of hate speech propagation. The first, machinery of hate speech, refers to orchestrated attacks on independent journalists by ruling party officials, pro-government news outlets, and troll armies. In contrast, the lone-wolf-haters mechanism refers to authentic and sporadic expressions of hate by extreme partisan audiences to which all journalists are susceptible, regardless of their affiliation. Describing their personal experiences, the participants report various responses to encountering hate speech, ranging from immediate emotions to less immediate psychological reactions to physical health problems. To prevent hateful acts from interfering with their journalistic performance, they rely on a variety of coping strategies and mechanisms, including psychological and professional strategies, as well as social and institutional support.

Cilj ove studije bio je da ponudi dubinski uvid u kontekst koji okružuje upotrebu pojma lažna vest u medijskom izveštavanju u Srbiji. Na osnovu kvalitativne analize sadržaja (N = 300) identifikovane su tri teme koje opisuju karakteristike medijskog diskursa o lažnim vestima. Prva je problematizacija fenomena lažnih vesti kroz definisanje problema, traženje uzroka, razmatranje posledica i/ ili predlaganje mera u borbi protiv lažnih vesti. Druga vrsta upotrebe upućuje na instrumentalizaciju ovog izraza u političke svrhe. Treća tema nazvana je normalizacijom diskursa o lažnim vestima i označava usputnu upotrebu ovog izraza kao pomodne fraze u različitim kontekstima., The goal of this study was to offer in-depth insight into uses of the term “fake news” in news reporting in Serbia. Based on a qualitative content analysis (N = 300), three themes emerged describing the key characteristics of the media discourse on fake news. The first one describes the phenomenon of fake news as a problem by defining it and identifying its causes, consequences, and potential measures for fighting it. The second theme describes instrumentalizing the fake news label for political purposes. The final theme was the normalization of the fake news discourse, which refers to using the term “fake news” in passing as an empty buzzword with different meanings in different contexts.

U ovom radu se razmatra kako aktivisti u Srbiji koriste dostupne digitalne alate da bi obezbedili pažnju javnosti i ostvarili ciljeve za koje se zalažu. Na osnovu pregleda interdisciplinarne literature o aktivizmu u digitalnom okruženju, u prvom delu rada ponuđen je osvrt na ključne mogućnosti i izazove koje su digitalne tehnologije donele aktivistima prilikom informisanja javnosti, izgradnje zajednice i mobilizacije podrške. Nakon toga, analizirano je trenutno stanje u ovoj oblasti u Srbiji i identifikovani su neki od ključnih problema, poput nedovoljne informisanosti i negativnih percepcija javnosti o civilnom sektoru, kao i nedostatka strateškog pristupa komuniciranju aktivista sa javnostima u digitalnom prostoru. Na osnovu pregleda dostupnih podataka i nalaza originalnog istraživanja ponuđene su i preporuke civilnom društvu, donatorima i istraživačima sa ciljem da pomognu aktivistima da delotvornije planiraju i sprovode digitalne komunikacione strategije.

Amidst a widely discussed crisis in audience-media relations, this study argues for the importance of a more nuanced understanding of audience animosity toward professional journalism. Based on 20 in-depth interviews with diverse news audiences in Serbia, we explored how media distrust and cynicism can be empirically distinguished. While both perceptions entail negative expectations from journalism, our findings indicate that they diverge with respect to interviewees’ views on journalistic ideals and integrity, differentiation between media actors, and receptivity to journalistic performance. In the interviews, cynicism emerged as the deterministic and process-oriented perception that journalism serves no other purposes than financial profit and audience manipulation. In contrast, distrust was a more nuanced, probing, and outcome-oriented perception that may be open to correction in the presence of counter-evidence. These findings can help media researchers and educators to better diagnose and address negative media perceptions.

Efforts to institutionalize deliberative institutions are almost absent in Serbia and other Western Balkan countries. On the other hand, the growing lack of interest of European societies’ citizens in participating in political life through traditional instruments of representative democracy has caused a renewed concern in the EU and its member states for the promotion and encouragement of deliberative institutions (Reuchamps, Suiter 2016). This has resulted in democratic engineering inspired by the principles of participatory and deliberative conceptions of democracy. Democratic experimentation along these lines, observed in many EU countries, gave rise to the promotion and institutionalization of deliberative institutions (town meetings, citizen assemblies, neighborhood councils, citizen juries, participatory budgets, etc.). However, democratizing effects of deliberation have been a matter of intense political and academic debate for over 20 years. Still, with a few exceptions, most deliberative institutions were implemented in stable democracies. While deliberative institutions and other participatory democratic innovations are generally less known in Serbia and the region, there has been a trend of citizen mobilization in the form of social movements and local civic initiatives, which are both a symptom of unresponsive and more openly authoritarian institutions and the potential pathway to democratization (Fiket, Pudar Draško 2021). The pace and scope of these developments in the undemocratic societies of the Western Balkan region, in terms of both bottom-up and top-down democratic experimentation, call for a deeper understanding of their internal dynamics and their social and political impact as both individual cases and parts of a greater cycle of social movement mobilizations and institutional experimentation. Responding to this need, the research team gathered within the framework of the Jean Monnet network “Active citizenship: promoting and advancing innova

People have always related art to the creation and transmission of myths. While myth as a theme in art has been thoroughly addressed, research about the “mythic” nature of the artist figure is far less common. The 20th and 21st centuries brought challenges to the status of art and artists in society, historically situated archetypes and stereotypes that we associate with the figure of the “artist” still survive to this day (e.g. “genius”, “subversive artists”, “child prodigy”, “eccentric”, etc.). In this paper, we set out to analyze various tropes used persistently to describe artists and explore how relevant the resulting myths are in (self) perceptions of Serbian contemporary artists. Our multidisciplinary approach to this topic combines a historical­theoretical and empirical perspective. Through historical research of the relevant literature, we described and mapped the key tropes of the (mythical) artist figure as it developed in Western culture. In the theoretical analysis we address the inseparability of digital culture with everyday life of people today, which we call postdigital. We explore how the transition into contemporaneity affects the determination of the “artist­figure”, i.e., how it impacts the contemporary process of myth­making. Following our historical­theoretical analysis, we conducted five in­depth interviews with contemporary Serbian artists to understand better how relevant the artist­ myth tropes are for their self­perception.

This study proposes that media distrust and cynicism are two related but distinct perceptions that indicate qualitatively different ways in which audiences relate to news media. To substantiate this, we developed a new instrument to measure media cynicism. Factor analyses showed that the indicators of media distrust and cynicism are not influenced by the same underlying dimension. Structural equation modeling indicated that while distrust appears to be predominately caused by perceived media responsiveness, media cynicism may be susceptible to a wider range of factors.

To examine the prevalence and diversity of older adults on primetime television, and age stereotyping in these portrayals, we analysed the contents of 112 episodes of popular American television series aired between 2004 and 2018. We identified 6.6 per cent of characters as aged 65 and older – a slight improvement to the values reported in previous studies. However, older adult characters are still grossly under-represented, considering the actual proportion of older adults in the general population of the United States of America. Further, the typical older character was young-old, male, Caucasian, middleclass, able-bodied and straight – if his sexuality was referenced. Older women still face double discrimination in media representations. In addition, older adult characters with ethnicities other than Caucasian and African American are virtually invisible in primetime fiction series. Similarly, old-old characters, sexual minorities and persons with disabilities are particularly rare among older adult characters in this type of programming. Finally, portrayals of 51.9 per cent of characters included at least some elements of age stereotypes, most of which were positive. The most commonly applied positive and negative stereotypes were found to be the golden ager and the shrew, respectively. The findings are discussed in the context of the dominant discourse of ageing and the potential implications of how various social groups perceive ageing and older adults.

Recent public opinion polls indicate that the public’s distrust in traditional news media is on the rise and that citizens increasingly turn to alternative information sources in the digital environment. Professional journalism—burdened by a multifaceted crisis—faces the challenge of maintaining a central position in the public information process. In this environment, media audiences may themselves produce media content and perform some journalistic functions, such as selection and verification of the news. These processes have the potential to contribute to the democratization of public information and to improve the critical capacity of citizens, which could help the public resist manipulation attempts from various political actors and organized interests. In such a context, improving media literacy is often discussed as a panacea for democratic challenges in the digital environment in both academic and media discourses. Similar to other countries, the popularity of media literacy programs in both formal and informal education is on the rise in Serbia. Recent empirical research shows that such programs are not a universal remedy and that their success is contingent on careful planning and setting realistic goals. The first aim of this study is to offer a critical review of the literature on media literacy focusing on theoretical and methodological diversity, as well as on the empirical findings regarding intervention effects. Based on this analysis, we will propose a research agenda with the aim of bridging the works of practitioners and researchers in order to increase the potential of future media literacy programs to improve the civic capacities of digital audiences in Serbia.

Declining trust in news media has often been recognized as one of the major challenges facing modern journalism with potentially detrimental consequences for democratic processes. In this article, we examine the predictive potential of cultural-political and performance factors on public trust in news media in the context of a young democracy. Specifically, we have analyzed to what extent citizens’ populist attitudes and perceptions of journalistic roles relate to the levels of media trust using data from an online survey of Serbian respondents (N = 200). The findings showed that support for populism did not significantly predict trust in news media in general after controlling for relevant factors, most importantly political trust. However, populist attitudes were found to be related to the amount of trust citizens have in distinct types of news media—i.e., those who support populism exhibited less trust in public broadcasters than in online news outlets. The analyses also revealed that the more Serbian citizens perceived news media as being successful at performing interpretive and mobilizing roles, the more trust they placed in the media.

A person’s activity in virtual space can have a significant impact on his/her cognitive, emotional, and mental development. Nevertheless, previous research revealed mixed results in studying the relationship between Social Networking Service (SNS) use and well-being. This could be because these studies relied heavily on participants’ self-reported results, rather than examining their actual activities. To avoid the bias of respondents’ subjective evaluation, we use data from the UK Understanding Society Innovation Panel (IP) and link each participant’s survey data with their actual Twitter activities (from June 27, 2017 to June 27, 2018), seeking to investigate the extent to which life satisfaction is associated with actual Twitter activity.