Media monitoring reveals: Systemic growth of anti-Western content alongside Vučić’s dominance in live programming
Throughout 2025, Serbian media consistently and systematically cultivated anti-Western narratives. The European Union was predominantly portrayed in a negative light, while Russia and China, and increasingly the United States, were presented positively. These trends unfolded in a media environment marked by the president’s record-high visibility, with hundreds of live appearances on television programs.
The results of CRTA’s media monitoring for the period from January to December 2025 show the continued dominance of negative coverage of the West, accompanied by a noticeable intensification of anti-EU narratives. Unlike the EU, which remains a constant target of negative campaigns, coverage of the United States has undergone a clear shift: in 2025, positive coverage increased only in the case of the US, while anti-American narratives declined.
Russia and the US Dominate, the EU Under Pressure
In Serbia’s media landscape in 2025, the most frequently covered foreign actors were the United States and Russia. While Russia and China have traditionally been portrayed affirmatively, the key change concerns the United States, which has now joined these two powers in being predominantly framed in a positive tone. By contrast, the European Union remains isolated in a negative context, portrayed more often negatively than positively, a trend that is maintained systematically.
This shift in the portrayal of the United States coincides temporally with Donald Trump’s return to power, but also reflects a broader pattern in which Serbian media positively frame foreign actors whose political systems are characterized by authoritarian or populist models of governance.
At the same time, the EU remains almost the only Western actor toward which negative coverage not only persists but intensifies further. In 2025, the EU was predominantly framed through critical and problematizing narratives, both in regular news coverage and in content characterized by elements of information manipulation. In such content, the EU and NATO most often appear as negative actors, while Russia, China, and increasingly the United States are presented in a positive or neutral light.
In content marked by information manipulation, anti-EU narratives are particularly dominant, while manipulative narratives about China and Russia are disseminated almost exclusively in a positive context. Notably, during 2025, manipulative content increasingly favored the United States as well. Importantly, these manipulative narratives most often originate in domestic media, indicating that anti-Western sentiment, specifically anti-EU sentiment, is generated internally rather than merely relayed from foreign sources.
Vučić: 411 Live Appearances in One Year
The central figure in media coverage remains Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vučić, who is by far the most quoted political actor. During 2025, the president made 411 live appearances on television programs, representing a 16% increase compared to 2024 and a 35% increase compared to 2023.
The analysis shows that this pattern of reporting is closely linked to the president’s high media visibility. In content where the president is quoted, countries led by populist leaders almost without exception receive positive treatment, while the EU is more often portrayed negatively than positively. This distribution of tone indicates that the shift in attitudes toward the United States cannot be viewed in isolation, but rather as part of a broader narrative realignment aligned with domestic political messaging.
The findings of the 2025 monitoring thus confirm that anti-Western discourse in Serbia’s media has undergone a significant transformation. While in previous years it targeted the West as a whole, including the United States, in 2025 this discourse has become increasingly concentrated on the European Union. At the same time, under new political leadership, the United States has been repositioned among the actors that enjoy predominantly positive media treatment in Serbia.
Methodology
The monitoring was conducted between 1 January and 31 December 2025. The sample included central news programs and morning shows on national television channels: RTS 1, TV Pink, TV Prva, and TV Happy. A total of 13,054 mentions in media items were analyzed.
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