Over the past decade, social media has fundamentally changed the way information is disseminated. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter) have become the dominant channel for news distribution, and many users now see them as their primary source of information. However, this trend has also brought new challenges: speed of publication has replaced fact-checking, algorithms have become editors, and the line between relevant news and mere trivia is becoming increasingly thin.
This phenomenon has not bypassed Montenegro. Editorial offices, in an effort to keep the audience's attention, often follow what has already become popular on the networks, even when the content has no real social value. Experts warn that such an approach threatens the credibility and professionalism of the media in the long run.
"Daily journalism is increasingly relying on social media, which can be very dangerous in the long run, because journalists and editorial teams must have their own sources and a way of working that will not be coordinated with controversies on social media," says Danilo Ajković, a journalist at TV Vijesti.
He adds that the importance of networks should not be underestimated, but points out: "Editorial offices must have certain rules, in the sense that not every persistent writing by an influencer on a certain topic necessarily leads to a journalistic reaction."
Predrag Tomović, a former journalist for Free Europe and Al Jazeera, shares a similar view, emphasizing that virality often overrides criteria of importance.
"It's enough for some content on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok to go viral, for newsrooms to take it over as 'main news', even though it's banal or purely trivial," he says.
As an illustration, he cites an example from Budva, when a video of a private conflict and argument on the street between a Budva family and a beach tenant appeared on social networks, which then occupied media space as if it were a socially relevant event.
He adds that such topics are often treated with the same intensity as serious political or economic developments.
Tomović warns that pandering to algorithms harms the quality of information.
"Instead of the media setting their own criteria of importance and providing context, they are pandering to popularity on the networks. This leads to a loss of professional standards, and the audience is deprived of serious, quality and responsible journalism," says the interlocutor.
Long-time journalist and media analyst Duško Vuković believes that the problem is not only with networks, but also with those who use them to shape public discourse.
"Various actors, primarily political, use social networks to impose their agendas on the media. They are counting on the laziness of journalists and the media, who have long pandered to various information brokers, neglecting the obligation to search for news and stories themselves," says Vuković.
He warns that such an approach "ignores the very purpose of journalism, and thus loses professionalism and credibility."
However, Vuković emphasizes that social media should not be completely discarded. "We should not ignore the interest of the audience, but we should not indulge it endlessly either. The media must take care that there are news and stories that citizens need to hear, as well as those that, from the point of view of their own interests, it would be desirable for them to hear."
Social networks have undoubtedly become an important ally in the dissemination of information, but also a serious challenge to preserving the professional integrity of the media. Journalism, if it wants to remain a pillar of a democratic society, must not be reduced to transmitting viral posts without critical distance.
Newsrooms should set clear standards: social media can be a starting point for researching a story, but not a filter through which all editorial policy is passed. Otherwise, the danger of journalists becoming mere relays of what algorithms dictate – instead of a voice of reason and analysis – will become a reality from which the audience will lose the most.
This text was made with the financial support of the National Endowment for Democracy. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and publishers of the Media Institute of Montenegro and does not necessarily reflect the views of the donors.
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