Research framework and broader academic knowledge base
Serbia: documented application of the same framework
How does a government control the media without formally banning them?
The government does not have to formally prohibit the media in order to influence what it publishes. Control can go through the owners, state advertising, permits, tax and other inspections, expensive lawsuits, access to officials and information or business interests related to the state.
The editor sees over time which topic brings the loss of ads, court costs or problems to the owner, so he avoids the risk himself. Thus, self-censorship is created, and the government can still claim that no news is banned. Similar content in the media can arise due to the market, savings or the search for the audience. Political control is more reliably seen when financial or regulatory reward and punishment follow the attitude of the media to the government, and the critical redaction of the system.
Similar media content can be created due to the market, savings or the desire for an audience. For political control, money, pressure or different treatment of the media should be shown.
Works supporting this answer, with their evidence type and an explanation of how they relate to the claim.
Explain how the system works
Gehlbach, S. i Sonin, K. (2014), „Government Control of the Media“, Journal of Public Economics 118: 163–171.
- Contribution to this answer
- Gehlbach and Sonin show that the government does not have to shut down or ban the media in order to influence what people hear: it can affect its bias, ownership and economic incentives. Full control is not always the best for the government the media that the audience finds obviously propaganda loses some of its ability to persuade or move people.
Explain how the system works
Petrova, M. (2008), „Inequality and Media Capture“, Journal of Public Economics 92(1–2): 183–212.
- Contribution to this answer
- Petrova shows how the media can lose independence even without a state ban: when rich and powerful actors can pay to influence the information being published, economic inequality increases the space for “capturing” the media. The work is not specifically about the authoritarian state, but about the economic mechanism through which the private media can become less independent.
comparing several countries or cases
Schiffrin, A. (ur.) (2017), In the Service of Power: Media Capture and the Threat to Democracy, CIMA/NED.
- Contribution to this answer
- This collection shows how modern “press capture” often looks much more subtle than censorship: political and economic elites use ownership, financial dependence and other leverage to make private media formally free, while their space for independent journalism gradually narrows.
Explain how the system works
Guriev, S. i Treisman, D. (2020), „A Theory of Informational Autocracy“, Journal of Public Economics 186: 104158.
- Contribution to this answer
- Guriev and Treisman explain the model in which the government survives by convincing citizens that it is capable: it invests in propaganda, censors independent information and co-opts informed elites that could break the image. Information control can therefore replace a large part of open violence.
review more research
Rosenfeld, B. i Wallace, J. (2024), „Information Politics and Propaganda in Authoritarian Societies“, Annual Review of Political Science 27: 263–281.
- Contribution to this answer
- Rosenfeld and Wallace show that propaganda is not a simple technique that automatically “brainwashes”: its effect depends on the content of the message, the political environment, the attitude of citizens towards the source and their previous attitudes, and it should be viewed in conjunction with censorship and other ways of managing information.
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