Binder, David and Roberts, Walter R (1998). The Only Good Serb is a … Mediterranean Quarterly, Summer 34-45.

Binder and Walters look at how anti-Serbian biases were perpetuated by the media during the 1990’s. They take a historical perspective and examine how news organizations removed permanent correspondents and replaced them with “stringers and occasional staff correspondents flown in from elsewhere.” This change resulted in substandard reporting by journalists lacking knowledge of the history behind the conflict who were “unprepared to deal with the complexity of Yugoslavia.” They credit the Albanian public relations machine for the bad press the Serbs received in the west. The Serbian reluctance to work with the media is also at play in their lack of good press. According to Binder and Walters, only violence committed by the Serbs was reported, through a typical foreign conflict frame of good versus evil. They assert that both sides in the conflict perpetuated violent criminal actions against one another.

News coverage of Yugoslavia provides a particularly interesting situation for analysis. Some theorists, including Binder and Roberts, argue that events that transpired in Yugoslavia and the resulting media coverage demonstrate a telling example of biased reporting. Others point to Yugoslavia and say the conflict exemplified a situation where journalists necessarily had to choose to vilify the Serbs because of the atrocities being committed by their government. These arguments are central to the question of whether conflict reporters can ever “choose sides.” This article also provides tools for understanding the conventional restrictions on journalists in reporting conflict including economics and the growth of the public relations industry.

Abstract by Meghan Maskery

Missouri School of Journalism

MA ‘07