How the Ukrainian media landscape has changed after February 24?

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has violated not only the state but also the country's information borders, drilling the national media landscape with propaganda weapons. Ukrainian media, which have faced challenges over the past decades, are facing new conditions and demands.

Based on the research of the past years and recent months, we tried to explore the trends and changes in the media market processes.

Historical context of Ukrainian media development

The history of media development in Ukraine, especially in the last decades, has a main tendency: it is formed under constant political influence, which varies depending on the policy of the ruling party, partnership agreements with other countries, and most often - on the influence of the Kremlin.

Even after the declaration of independence and self-sufficiency of Ukraine, the neighboring country Russia regularly encroached on state autonomy and tried to dictate its vision both indirectly and directly, by having access to influential Ukrainian media.

One of the first high-profile events, which became a kind of clash between pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian elites, was the Orange Revolution of 2004, caused by massive fraud in the presidential elections in Ukraine. Intimidation of voters, fraud - all this angered and dissatisfied the Ukrainian people, who eventually came out to protest en masse.

It is believed that the 2004 revolution was the first born on the Internet. While most TV channels supported the pro-Russian candidate, web resources covered the events without censorship.

Over the course of the decade, online media developed and became more widespread and influential among the population. At the same time, there was also technological progress that made the Internet even more accessible for mass use in all regions of the country. History repeated itself, but with different heroes.

In 2013-2014 Ukraine was going through difficult times in its independent history. The Revolution of Dignity (or the Maidan Revolution) began with a post on Facebook that incumbent President Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign a free trade agreement with the European Union. The first protests were peaceful and lasted for three months, but February 2014 changed everything significantly as the first blood was shed.

Violent orders of the current government led to the death of 100 citizens, dozens were injured. President Viktor Yanukovych fled the country. This led to an accelerated process of EU integration and internal reforms, particularly in the media. However, Russia refused to recognize the loss of power and continued its illegal actions on the territory of Ukraine, creating confrontations in the eastern and southern regions.

In March 2014, Crimea was annexed. Protests in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions later escalated into armed conflict and Russia's military campaign against Ukraine. In addition to these illegal orders, the Russian president continued to attack Ukraine in the media sphere.

For years, pro-Russian and Kremlin-backed TV channels, newspapers, radio stations and websites have been promoting anti-Ukrainian messages while officially not breaking the law and respecting media freedoms. From the time Russian forces first began their invasion of Crimea in February 2014 until the events of February 2022, the Kremlin's conflict with Ukraine was largely built and sustained through information warfare.

In order to counter Russian information influence, in 2014 the Ukrainian government blocked about 14 Russian TV channels. In 2015, the Verkhovna Rada banned Russian propaganda content on Ukrainian television. In 2017, the largest Russian social networks and Internet services were banned, including VK and OK, Yandex, Mail.ru, as well as Russian media companies RBC, Ren-TV, TNT, NTV Plus, Zvezda, Moscow 24 and Russia Today.

In March 2021, President Zelensky banned the operation of eight pro-Russian TV and media companies, including ZIK, NewsOne, 112 Ukraine. According to domestic and international experts, these media were anti-Ukrainian. Supporters of freedom of speech criticized Zelensky's actions, however, the events that started counting from February 24, 2022 added to everyone's understanding of the correctness of the head of state's actions.

Media background before the full-scale invasion

To understand what exactly changed after February 24, 2022, it is worth finding out what the state of the media market was before. According to the USAID-Internews Media Consumption Survey, which was conducted in 2021, the following trends stood out:

  • Social media and news sites have replaced television as the main source of news for Ukrainians, especially for those under 35. Ukrainians over 46 years old prefer television.

  • The audience of national TV and radio channels is declining.

  • Despite their small numbers, the audience of national print media, international websites and regional radio channels is growing.

  • Online news sites and internet messengers are becoming increasingly important at the local level in all regions of the country.

  • Facebook, YouTube and Instagram are the main social networks, while Telegram and Viber are the leading messaging services used to receive news.

  • Ukrainians' media literacy and ability to recognize disinformation is growing, and their trust in Russian media is low.

As we can see, Ukraine is on the path of media progress and development of independent, truthful media. However, a large number of channels still have politically interested owners; to a certain extent, oligarchy dominates the information space.

In general, regarding freedom of speech, it should be said that online media enjoy more freedom and are less dependent on the interests of their owners than television, radio and print media. However, there is no legislation on the transparency of online media in Ukraine, which in fact means that news websites can promote the interests of their owners, but do so in a behind the scenes manner.

Changes in the Ukrainian media landscape in 2022

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022, has changed the work of the Ukrainian media, which worked 24/7 days a week to provide all the necessary information to citizens in a timely manner: from air alerts and possible missile strikes to events on the frontlines. News feeds, roundups, news marathons became the main products of new media during the war. Information was mainly spread through social networks.

According to a KIIS study commissioned by OPORA and conducted in July 2022, Telegram, YouTube, and Facebook are the most popular social networks. 41% of total news consumption time is spent by Ukrainians on Telegram, 37% - on YouTube, 12% - on Facebook, 6% - on Viber.

From the very first days, the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine was waged not only on the battlefield but also in the information sphere, as Ukrainian media had to constantly fight against a powerful flood of disinformation spread by Russian propaganda publications, politicians and opinion leaders. Russian information sources caught the attention of 13% of Ukrainians, but 89% of them explained this by the fact that they wanted to check how information is presented in the aggressor country’s infopolis.

Social media also played an important role in supporting the Ukrainian army. Donation campaigns for everything that could be necessary for the military and those affected by the war were and still are relevant. One of the most famous and most discussed was the fundraising campaign organized by Serhiy Prytula's foundation, which was aimed at purchasing people's bayraktars (combat and reconnaissance drones). In a few days Ukrainians donated millions of hryvnias.

Ukrainian media has a long and difficult path of formation, which is still ongoing. Its complexity is due not only to the historical background, but also to the difficult present, which is building the media landscape of our country in a new way every day. This marathon of changes and its results largely depend on how the media will react to the events, whether their professionalism will be enough to adapt to the realities and lead Ukrainians lead Ukrainians to a future where transparency and truthful news are on the agenda.

This blog post is a guest article by Yanina Shabanova, Head of Communications at SocialBoost and 1991 Accelerator. In Ukrainian, the blogpost was published on the SPEKA platform.

REALIES - Strong civil society for a healthy information ecology. is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.

The text represents the opinion of the author and not automatically the view of the German Federal Foreign Office and the betterplace lab.

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