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LOCAL JOURNALISM AND AUDIENCE IN THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA DURING THE PANDEMIC CAUSED BY THE CORONAVIRUS

The Coronavirus outbreak started in 2019, in the city of Wuhan in central China, right before it spread to the whole world. In such crises, the media have a very big role in society, and local media are important to inform citizens on a daily basis about events from the immediate environment. The study explores whether citizens living in the south of Serbia believe that local journalism is necessary and whether they are interested in local news, especially local news related to the coronavirus pandemic. In the research, we tried to determine how the citizens of southern Serbia evaluate the reporting of local media when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic, whether they consider reporting as objective and professional, but also if they notice omissions in the area of violating privacy in journalistic writing about the pandemic. The results show that the citizens of southern Serbia are interested in local news, as well as in news related to the pandemic caused by the coronavirus. Also, the results indicate that the citizens of southern Serbia are informed through local media about important local topics, and especially about the facts and events related to the pandemic caused by the coronavirus. Based on the obtained results, we have determined that the citizens of southern Serbia evaluate the reporting of the local media on the pandemic caused by the coronavirus as other important events reporting as objective and professional. The results also indicate that the citizens of southern Serbia do not notice omissions in journalistic writing about the pandemic caused by the coronavirus in the area of endangering the right to privacy, such as sensationalism, reliance on unverified sources, use of photographs without permission, and similar unethical practices.