The style of the Serbian media (2010–2020) — the language of the crisis

Abstract

The societal crisis’ influence on the crisis of the language in contemporary Serbian journalism is prevailing. Words have been increasingly framed into inappropriate content. Homonyms are gradually becoming the only way to debate and give second opinions. Globalizing vocabulary with fashionable phraseology, manipulative rhetoric and the artificial realignment of language serve as the basis of rhetorical and stylistic research presented in this work. Casual populist political speeches and sensationalistic topics in Serbia are in the centre of events, even though they are easily forgotten. An apparent lack of creativity in language results in the glorification of a globalizing rhetorical model. This leads to a sort of recycling of language patterns and a pathetic usage of metaphors in everyday life, hence the apparent emergence of a new kind of sensationalism. Different linguistic matrices obsessively repeat themselves in the same rhetorical frame. Therefore, the language of journalists is increasingly reduced to the form and the form is reduced to the void. In this article, the analysis of the contemporary use of stylistic knowledge by media professionals will be conducted within a sample of one year of broadcasts during 2019–2020, prior to the pandemic. The authors explain the methodology of the research by describing the theoretical approach and the methods used to substantiate the hypothesis. The research aims to show the gradual change of media language during the current professional, economic and moral crises. A vast majority of media have a common inherited loss of truly free expression. Instead of free relations, a plethora of excessive self-censorship and hidden advocacies and connections is being extended. This appears to be a certain eternity or bad infinity of the shadows in the media.