Pre-election campaign in the times of military action: top TV news in May

• Political domestic news constitutes 59% of the whole news flow (April – 63%). This is a very high figure – characteristic for the election time.
• The sharp decrease in one of the journalism standards is observed: balanced coverage. 12% of news stories include several viewpoints: two times less than in April (21%).
• The attention to Presidential election has grown from 13% in April to 18% in May.
• The legitimacy of election is not contested in the news: if the election constitutes the lead event, legitimate character of the election is mentioned 6 times more often than their illegitimacy. This legitimacy prevails over illegitimacy by 2.5 times if the election is mentioned as a side event.
• The enforcement agencies are leaders among institutions in terms of media attention; DPR (Donetsk People Republic) is the leader among political associations.
• The misbalance is observed in terms of media attention for the government vs. opposition: the media attention to the ruling coalition prevails over the that of the opposition by 2.3 times(April – by 2.4 times). The share of attention to “anti-maydaners/federalists” is 9%.
• The characteristic feature of our television: the government strongly prevails, especially in the course of election. But there is a new phenomenon: third part of media attention and direct speech is allocated for non-Parliament groups. This has not been observed before. The share of the direct speech allocated for the government exceeds that of the opposition by 2.3 times (in April – by 2.6 times). 5% of the direct speech is allocated for “anti-maydaners/federalists”, the third of the direct speech in the news is allocated for those politicians who do not associate themselves either with the government or with the opposition.
• Top speakers among Presidential candidates are as follows: P. Poroshenko, D. Yarosh, P. Symonenko, Yu. Tymoshenko, O. Bohomolets, S. Tyhypko (in the order of the direct speech allocated)); most of them were provided with air time at 5 of 8 channels, D. Yarosh and O. Bohomolets had an access at 1 channel.
• The media attention and direct speech allocated are substantially lower than those granted to Presidential candidates in 2009 (2014 – media attention is 13% vs. 31% in 2009).

News topics. The May’s second week 59% of news packages were related to political events in Ukraine (in April – 63%, in February – 39%, in December – 63%). Novy Channel featured the highest share – 70%, Inter – the lowest – 46%. Inter’s every third news report is an international one, not related to Ukraine. The news’ prevailing topics were: 30% - domestic politics, the government’s actions (in April – 40%, in February – 39%, in December 2013 – 64%), 13% - international politics, 10% - terrorism, 9% - Presidential election in Ukraine. The events in the Eastern regions were most frequently mentioned (18%) followed by Counter-Terrorism Operation in Donetsk oblast (5%) and Presidential candidates’ activities (4%). The share of the news reports from Eastern regions constituted 45% of the news flow (in April – 40%).

Attention to elections. The attention to the presidential election constituted 18% (in April – 13%); ICTV and TVi featured the biggest shares of such messages (31% and 28%, respectively); the lowest share belongs to Novy Channel – 7%. If the election was a key topic, in 6% of the stories its legitimate character was mentioned, 1% of the stories mentioned that they are not legitimate (in 97% of the news stories legitimacy vs. illegitimacy was not mentioned). If the election was a side event, 10% of the reports branded it as legitimate, 4% - as illegitimate, 3% included both. The attention to Presidential candidates in May was 13%, in April – 16%, in November 2009 it was 31%. It was P. Symonenko, P. Poroshenko and Yu. Tymoshenko (4% each) who were most frequently mentioned among Presidential election candidates: it is 4 times less than attention to attention leaders in November 2009. Just as in April the May news reports have never mentioned A. Hrynenko, V. Konovalyuk, V. Kuybida, O. Klymenko, M. Malomuzh, Z. Shkiryak and V. Tsushko. Doubtful and negative comments were related to P. Symonenko (35%), A. Hrytsenko (13%), Yu. Tymoshenko (12%) (in April - O. Tsaryov (64%), P. Symonenko (43%) and D. Yarosh (40%)). The candidates receive the most prolific coverage by TRC Ukraine (8%) and Inter channel (4%). In May the direct speech by the candidates exceeded that in April by 1.1 times: 1943 sec vs. 1743 sec. Direct speech was allocated for 11 candidates in the news (the second week of May), the April’s figure was 14 candidates. The biggest share of the direct speech was allocated for P. Poroshenko – 20% followed by D. Yarosh – 17% and P. Symonenko – 14% and Yu. Tymoshenko (in April – P. Poroshenko (21%), Yu. Tymoshenko (16%) and M. Dobkin (15%). Most of them had access to airtime at 5 out of 8 channels; D. Yarosh and O. Bohomolets – at one channel.

News standards. 12% пof the news reports included several viewpoints (April – 21%, February - 15%). Inter features the highest (18%, in April - 29%) followed by STB and 1+1 (17% each). Just as in April 18 key events were discussed in news from different viewpoints (February’s number was 20). The mixed reports were mostly related to referenda in the East, the initiative on banning the Communist Party of Ukraine, and the National all-Ukrainian round table. 62% of the reports were presented from conflict and negative perspective (in April - 65%, in February - 48%). 1+1 featured the highest share – 67% (in April it was STB – 67%). Positive context in May just as in April is 6% (in February – 12%). STB features the highest share – 11%.

Political institutions, parties and figures.Attention to political parties, political figures and political institutions constitutes 35%, 46%, 76% (in April - 32%, 53%, 80%, in February - 35%, 46%, 72%). Enforcement agencies are most frequently mentioned among political institutions – 33% (in April - 35%, in February - 27%). Negative and doubtful comments are mpost often addressed to the Cabinet of Ministers (18%) and local government bodies – 16% (in April – the Supreme Court – 53% and the Constitutional Court - 44%, in February – the judiciary system – 24% and the Cabinet of Ministers – 47%). It was Ukraine (in general) that received the positive comments – 27%. Inter’s news were criticizing the political institutions the most – 19%.

Media attention rating. DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic) was the attention leader in May (11%) followed by the New Government and the Party of Regions - 6% each (in April – the New Government – 10% and the Party of Regions – 7%, in February – the Opposition in general – 12% and VO Batkivshchyna – 9%). The attention leaders have the balance in positive and negative mentions, however, these comments are mostly addressed to DPR – 6% and 7% respectively. O. Turchynov (8%) and A. Yatsenyuk (6%) were allocated with the biggest shares of attention (in April – A. Yatsenyuk and O. Turchynov – 8% each, in February – V. Yanukovych – 16% and A. Yatsenyuk – 6%). O. Tsaryov, V. Yanukovych and V. Bolotov received the most negative and doubtful coverage (92%, 67%, 56%).

Direct speech in the news. Direct speech allocated for politicians in May constituted 13038 sec: exceeding that in April by 1.2 times – 11378 sec (in April – 1.9 times more than in February; in December it was 8597 sec). O. Turchynov was allocated the biggest share of direct speech (8%) followed by A. Mahera (7%) and A. Yatsenyuk (6%). 20% of all the mentions about politicians are related to VO Batkivshchyna politicians (in April – 24%, in February – 19%, in December – 15%), 20% - to Party of Regions representatives (in April – 20%, in February – 31%, in December – 35%). 9% of the attention constitutes that for antimaydaners/federalists (in April – 4%). In general, the attention to the government representatives exceeds that for the opposition by 2.3 times – 44% vs. 19% (in April it was 2.4 times more – 55% vs. 23%, in February – 2 times). 23% is the share of the direct speech allocated for VO Batkivshchyna faction members and party members (in April – 21%, in February – 24%, in December – 13%). Party of Regions’ figures – 18% (in April – 21%, in February – 28%, in December – 49%). 5% of the direct speech is allocated to antimaydaners/federalists (in April – 6%). In general, the share of the direct speech allocated for the government representations exceeds that of the opposition by 2.3 times – 48% vs. 21% (in April it was 2.6 times more – 55% vs. 21%, in February – by 1.6 times, in December 2013 – by 3.1 times).

The monitoring survey covering TV news broadcast by eight most popular Ukrainian channels in April 2014 is the part of the on-going media monitoring conducted by Academy of Ukrainian Press since 2002.

The presented survey was conducted by the AUP with engagement of the researchers of the Institute of Sociology, NANU. The content analysis methodology has been applied focusing on prime time news broadcast by eight most popular Ukrainian TV channels – Inter, 1+1, Novy Channel, Ukraine, STB, ICTV, Pershy Natsionalny and TVi.

The survey was made possible due to support of the International Renaissance Foundation. The donors’ consortium on support for the election’s monitoring includes U-Media Program, Internews-Network and the British Embassy in Ukraine.

Conact info: Oksana Voloshenyuk, AUP Director
Phone number: (067) 504 9802
e-mail:info@aup.com.ua
www.aup.com.ua

	[ 27.05.2014 ] Monitoring TV news programs, May 2014
	Pre-election campaign in the times of military action: top TV news in May - Political domestic news constitutes 59% of the whole news flow (April – 63%). This is a very high figure – characteristic for the election time. - • The sharp decrease in one of the journalism standards is observed: balanced coverage. 12% of news stories include several viewpoints: two times less than in April (21%). Download file (3 062 Kb)