TV language without halftones: patriots, activists, volunteers vs terrorists, saboteurs, mercenaries, militants

03.10.2014  

 

  • 55% of news stream during the second week of September is political news in Ukraine (in May the week before voting 61%, in April 63%). Together with the international news connected to Ukraine – three quarters (74%) of all stream;
  • 9% of messages with some points of view about the events (in May 11%, in April 21%);
  • war in the east of Ukraine is often mentioned as a main topic of messages. Elections to the Verkhovna Rada as the main event is present in 4% of news;
  • leaders of attention among institutions are security forces, among political associations – DNR, LNR, NU Batkivshchyna;
  • an imbalance of attention in favor of authorities: attention to the ruling majority is 10 times higher than to the opposition;
  • the share of direct speeches of the authorities is 6 times higher than the share of direct speeches of the opposition members;
  • the highest attention, in descending order, is for the representatives of the Narodnyy Front, Block of P.Poroshenko, Batkivshchyna, Samopomich Party;
  • the highest amount of direct speeches, in descending order, have the representatives of Batkivshchyna, Narodnyy Front, Block of P.Poroshenko, Samopomich Party.

News topics. during the second week of September 55% of news programs messages were related to political events in Ukraine. Most of them were transmitted on TRC “Ukrayina” - 62%, the less on Inter - 44%, where 28% of international news were not related to Ukraine. The war in east of Ukraine is often mentioned as the main topic of messages - 35%. 21% - international policy and international relations, 11% - internal public policy, government activity. The share of reports from eastern regions was 44% of the news stream (in May 43%, in April 40%). From the side of Ukraine among the participants of the conflict, most attention got the armed forces (41%), the state and its agencies (29%), volunteer battalions, wounded and dead - 10%. They were often called patriots, activists, volunteers - 21%. From the other side - to Russia and its authorities (23%), its armed forces (17%), the civilian population of the eastern regions and illegal armed groups of DNR and LNR - 11% each. They were generally called terrorists, saboteurs, mercenaries, militants - 21%.

Focus on Elections: Elections to the Parlament as the main topic appear only in 4% of messages and in 2% as an additional topic that is much lower than attention in the news for presidential elections in April - 6% vs. 13%. Most of them were mentioned in the STB news (10%) and Inter - 9%. If the elections are the main topic, in 4% of cases it refers to the legitimacy of the elections (in 96% of cases legitimacy is not mentioned); if the elections is an additional topic, the legitimacy is not put into question at all. Among the parties and blocs claiming for a place in the highest legislative body, are often mentioned the President and Block of P.Poroshenko (14% and 8%, respectively), Narodnyy Front (18%), Batkivshchyna - 6%, Samopomich - 4%. The independent representatives of the central government get high attention of 18%. Partiya Rehioniv is present in 3% of the messages, opposition block in 1%, supporters of DNR and LNR in 4%. Overall attention to the authorities is 10 times higher than to the opposition - 73% vs. 7% (the third week of May 3.8 times, in April 2.4 times higher).

News coverage standards:9% of messages were generally with multiple points of view (the third week of May 11%, in April 21%). Most of them were on Pershyy Natsionalnyy - 14% and Inter - 12%. 24 main events were discussed in the news of the second week of September from different perspectives (in the third week of May 15, in April 18). Elongation of N.Shtepa’s arrest, the army, the situation near Debaltseve were negatively evaluated. 41% of messages were accompanied by conflict and negative context (in May 57%, in April 65%). It was the higher on Novyy - 62%, ICTV (47%) and Inter (46%) and the lowest on Channel 5 - 26%. The positive context on average is 9% (in May 8%, in February 12%), the highest on Channel 5 - 18%. Public organizations and volunteers of Ukraine (24%) are positively rated, Ukraine and public authorities (12%) as well as volunteer battalions (11%) often got negative and ironic assessments. Civilians in the East is evaluated positively (7%) or neutral (90%) and illegal armed formations (75%), DNR, LNR, Novorosiya (64%) – mostly negatively.

Political institutions, parties and persons. Attention to political parties, political persons and political institutions was 26%, 48%, 89% respectively (during the third week of May 32%, 42%, 75%, in April 32%, 53%, 80%). Among the political institutions are often mentioned law enforcement agencies - 44% (37% in May, 35% in April) and Ukraine - 26%. Doubtful and negative assessments are often addressed to the National Bank (25%) and the Ministries - 16%. Positive assessments had often received “Ukraine” - 12%. Political institutions most critically evaluated news on Inter - 15% and ICTV - 14%. Leaders of attention among the political organizations in the news programs of September were DNR (6%), LNR (3%) and NU Batkivshchyna - 2% (the third week of May DNR (8%) new authorities and CEC - 5%, in April new authorities - 10% and Partiya Rehioniv - 7%). NU Batkivshchyna was mostly mentioned positively while DNRand LNR - mostly negatively. In the news of the second week of September, most attention was paid to P.Poroshenko (15%) A.Yatseniuk (7%) and A.Lysenko - 6% (the third week of May to O Turchynov and A.Yatsentyk - 6% each). Ironic and negative assessments were often addressed to N.Shtepa (66%), V.Yanukovych (46%) and V.Heletey (44%). .

Direct speech in news: Six weeks before the elections the share of politicians’ direct speeches was 11061 seconds (the third week of May 11700 seconds). P.Poroshenko (13%), A.Lysenko (9%), R.Chubarov (5%), P.Klimkin (5%) have the biggest shares of direct speeches. Central government employees have the biggest share of direct speech - 25%. The representatives of Batkivshchyna have 13% of direct speech, Narodnyy Front - 10%, Block of P.Poroshenko - 7% (together with leader’s direct speeches - 18%), Smopomich - 4%. Politicians of Partiya Rehioniv have 4% of direct speech, Partiya Rozvytku Ukrayiny - 2%, Opposition block - 1%. Overall, the share of comments and messages of the authorities is 6 times higher than the share of direct speeches of those who belong to the opposition - 68% vs 11% (during the third week of May 4.1 times higher, in April 2.6 times higher).

Content analysis was provided by the Academy of Ukrainian Press (AUP) together with the researchers of the Sociology Institute of MES of Ukraine.

Research was made possible thanks to support of International Renaissance Foundation. Opinions and conclusions contained in this report belong to the authors.

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

[03.06.2014 ] Monitoring TV news programs, September 2014

TV language without halftones: patriots, activists, volunteers vs terrorists, saboteurs, mercenaries, militants
• 55% of news stream during the second week of September is political news in Ukraine (in May the week before voting 61%, in April 63%). Together with the international news connected to Ukraine – three quarters (74%) of all stream;
• 9% of messages with some points of view about the events (in May 11%, in April 21%);

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