New in the media

The editor-in-chief of Radio Belgrade 1, Djordje Vlajic, has announced changes in the programme schedule as of 3 October 2011. They are aimed to combine interesting news content and a dynamic programme design in the tradition of today's international electronic media, especially the public service broadcasters in European countries, says Vlajic.
(Politika, 30.09.2011)

The fact that an increasing number of people access the internet from their mobile phones has forced the traditional media to pay more attention to mobile apps and to adapt their content to smartphone users – this is one of the conclusions reached by the participants of the Belgrade New Media Summit. "People want to read headlines and find out what is new in the shortest amount of time. News adapted to mobile phones are more similar to information from Twitter than traditional newspaper articles", said Steve Herrmann, the editor-in-chief of BBC online news.
(Politika, 30.09.2011)

Everyone who has ever wished to publish their information in the press or on TV now has a chance to become a "journalist" with the first Serbian citizen journalism agency "Moja Vest". On the web site www.mojavest.com, every computer-literate citizen can share news with the rest of the world and offer their own point of view. The first Serbian agency for citizen journalism is a project of the organization Integracija SADA and is supported by the news agency FoNet and the Embassy of the USA in Belgrade.
(Politika, 30.09.2011, ASMEDI Newsletter October 2011)

The 12th season of the cult radio show Pescanik begins on Sunday, 2 October 2011. In the new season, Pescanik will be aired each Sunday on Radio Boom 93, while the audio recording of the show will be available on its homepage. The programme will be aired on Sunday at 9.00 in Pozarevac as well as on radio stations in Novi Sad, Vranje, Cacak, Novi Pazar, Kotor and Podgorica. The authors of Pescanik left the Radio B92 after the radio station refused to apologize to Srebrenica victims because of the participation of Ljiljana Bulatovic and Kosta Cavoski in the programme Debata. Pescanik had been broadcast on B92 for 11 years.
(Boom 93, 30.09.2011)

Digitalization

The Serbian media must be prepared to rapid development of global communication and should use the new forms of communication more actively, said the State Secretary for the Digital Agenda, Jasna Matic, at the opening of the New Media Summit.
(Beta Pravda, 29.09.2011)

We will have to adapt to fast-developing changes, like for example the 140-character limit in Twitter, believes the editor-in-chief of the online edition of BBC news, Steve Herrmann. Thanks to the internet and the digital media, journalists have a chance to find out what their audience thinks and to learn news directly from the audience, because there is always someone among the viewers or readers who knows more than the journalists, says Herrmann. He gave a lecture at the New Media Summit in Belgrade (organized by ABC Serbia) about the distribution of news on mobile devices. "In the case of the digital media, the content must be presented in such a way that people can easily find what they want to find. We are talking about partnership between content and technology. The online team of the BBC numbers 100-150 people, mostly in their late twenties or thirties."
(Politika, 29.09.2011)

Both the digital TV and the test digital signal will not arrive in time, reports Vecernje Novosti. The original deadline for digitalization of television in Serbia was 4 April 2012. After a while, it became doubtful that the deadline could be achieved, and therefore it was extended to the beginning of 2013. Today, the State Secretary for the Digital Agenda , Jasna Matic, and the director of the Public Company "Emisiona Tehnika i Veze", Vladimir Homan, cite the forthcoming elections as a reason for delays. Experimental broadcasting of digital programme is also late. Equipment for transmitters that is necessary for the launch of the digital TV and repair of 12 transmitters that were damaged in NATO bombing of 1999 has not arrived. The sum of around 70 million euros that is necessary for completion of the process of digitalization is still lacking.
(Vecernje Novosti, NUNS, UNS, 10.10.2011)