Representation of Gender Minority Groups in Media: Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia

2013 - 2014

Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia

This research project aims to analyze social and cultural practices of exclusion and inclusion of marginalized communities in the Western Balkans. The specific focus of the research was placed on the role of the media in the process of protecting human rights of gender minority groups (LGBT) and other doubly marginalised and therefore especially vulnarable groups (GMG). The purpose of project was to investigate how the media (dailies, TV news, and the Internet) reported on the Gay Prides/ Pride Weeks in Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia, in two years (2013 and 2014), and with the following two weeks prior to the events, during the actual events, and two weeks after the events. Main Objectives were: • To highlight the crucial role of the media in the process of shaping the public discourse on LGBT population and twofold marginalised gender minority groups in Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia; • To map the media mechanisms of misrepresentation and exclusion of LGBT population; • To analyse argumentation within the media discourse that creates the image of the LGBT population as a social threat, thus providing an alibi for banning the Pride Parade and related events in the name of safety concerns; • To compare analysed materials (from 2013 and 2014) and to give an insight into the improvement of media reporting on LGBT topics, and into the culture of public dialogue in the Western Balkans. The research tries to contribute to a serious and qualified academic approach to the topic. It aims to highlight in which way the media are perceived as crucial in the process of shaping the public discourse on LGBTTIQ population and doubly marginalized gender minority groups in Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia; to map the media mechanisms of misrepresentation and exclusion of LGBT population and doubly marginalized gender minority groups; to analyze argumentation within the media discourse which creates the image of LGBT population as a social threat, providing an alibi for banning the Pride Parade and related events in the name of safety concerns; and to compare analyzed materials (2013 and 2014) on the regional level, giving us an insight both into the improvement of media reporting on LGBTTIQ topics and into the culture of public dialogue in the Western Balkans. The periods in which data have been collected are 2013 and 2014. Official web site: http://www.genderminoritygroups.org/

The research has found that although the media broadcast a considerable amount of content directly connecting human rights and the needs of members of marginalized groups, representatives of gender minority groups (GMG) are rarely and misleadingly presented in the media. This means that GMG are hindered from gaining full freedom of speech to present their “voice” in the media and to shape the public discourse according to their real needs. The conducted research points out that discursive production deploys several main strategies, including: hyper-sexualization of nonheterosexuality, masculinization and westernization of GMG, Othering GMG as a process of generating them as a constitutive outside necessary for the normalization of heteronormative identities, normalization of non-normative GMG, pathologization of GMG and de-legitimization of GMG activism.