Negative headlines, positive tone: how military exercises, peacekeeping missions and IPAP are seen in Serbian media

This analysis focuses on media reporting regarding selected keywords, namely military exercises, peacekeeping missions, multinational operations and IPAP. These keywords were selected because they receive considerable attention in the media, but there is often a mix of true and false information in reports on them. The analysis covered 383 media pieces published between 1 December 2018 and 28 February 2019.  Media sources included online portals, printed newspapers, TV and radio.

The goal was to determine how often and in what context these subjects are mentioned in the media, which media sources report on them the most and whether they are brought up in positive, neutral or negative tone.

We also measured how often key international actors, namely NATO, Russia and the EU are referred to. Furthermore, the tone towards NATO and Russia was analyzed in media pieces regarding military exercises and IPAP respectively.

Main conclusions

In Serbian media peacekeeping missions and military exercises are mainly referred to in the context of Kosovo. Multinational operations are overwhelmingly brought up in positive context. Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) is mostly touched upon in positive tone, but the reports are generally very polarized and the number of neutral texts is rather small. Overall, military exercises are the most frequently mentioned topic. However, in the reports on military exercises, Russia is never referred to in a negative tone. On the other hand, NATO is primarily mentioned in a neutral or a negative tone.

This publication was produced with the assistance of the British Embassy in Belgrade in the framework of the project “Exploring the best possible cooperation: what role for NATO in Serbia and the region?”. The views expressed in the publication are those of the author and do not reflect the views of the United Kindgom.