Media consumption patterns: watching TV in former Yugoslav states

Vesnic-alujevic, L., Simeunovic Bajic, Natasa, Majdarevic, Aleksandra (2012). Media consumption patterns: watching TV in former Yugoslav states. Post-socialist Audiences Workshop.

Abstract: The period after the collapse of the communist Yugoslav state was marked with wars in several ex-Yugoslav states. Therefore the state-building period overlapped with the transition from communism to capitalism and processes of reconciliation between the disputed states. It reflected the audiences on the Western Balkans region as well. The goal of this paper is to explore the transition in the media that brought new opportunities and challenges and how the audiences respond to them. This research relates to the media consumption in several ex-Yugoslavian states: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia. The choice of countries was made based on shared history as well as possibilities and willingness of the audiences from one country to watch program broadcasted by another country. By choosing a comparative approach we also tried to make larger generalization for the territory of Western Balkans. The survey done in these four states with the representative sample gave us the initial tendencies that were further discussed and explained through the interviews with selected participants. We wanted to see if and what kind of connection can be established between watching a certain program and socio-demographic characteristics, cultural and lifestyle values of the audiences. The initial quantitative results showed us certain patterns in watching television in the aforementioned countries. These tendencies were further examined qualitatively that revealed common cultural values, based on collective memory, among audiences on Western Balkans.