June 30, Telekritika announced the results of the sociological study on the people’s attitude to the mass media, media reforms and the propaganda in the course of the Donbas conflict.
The study was conducted by KIIS, commissioned by Telekritika, as Media Sapiens reports.
According to the study, 72% of Ukrainians get news content mainly from the Ukrainian television and the Internet. Only 43% of them watch TV, and 29% also visit web sites. 22% of Ukrainians regularly monitor both the Ukrainian and Russian media. 9% of them prefer exceptionally TV. 6% of people are near-indifferent to the news of any of the above sources.
According to Vladimir Paniotto, the CEO of KIIS, the key idea of this study was to identify the main messages of the Kremlin propaganda and to monitor their impact on the Ukrainian territories. In general terms, these messages can be described as follows:
Euromaidan was organized by the Americans, it resulted in forming the Ukrainian government of nationalists that threatened the Russian-speaking people. It was managed to save the Crimea and Donetsk residents rebelled. Junta, which came to power, has been waging a war against its own people.
The results, obtained by the Ukrainian regions, are listed at the rate from 0 to 100. The highest rate is 100. It stands for a full support of all the Kremlin propaganda cliches, and the rate 0 stands for the total lack of support.
The highest impact rate was recorded in the Donetsk region – 50. In the Lugansk region it was 38, but it’s worth mentioning that the opinion survey was conducted only within the territories controlled by Ukraine. Quite a high rate was also recorded in Kharkiv and Odessa regions.
According to the CEO of KIIS, the Ministry of Information Policy is to address such a situation. He stresses that the Ukrainian authorities underestimate, for some reason, the informational component of the current war. And this is while Russia allocates about 80% of the funds directly to the information fight.
According to the study, near the entire population of the country has been giving up gradually its confidence in both the Ukrainian and Russian media. 65% of respondents have not changed their attitude to the Ukrainian mass media. 19% of respondents treat them worse, while 11% of respondents declared their attitude better.
As for the Russian mass media, 60% of respondents have worsened their attitude to them, 28% of respondents have not changed their opinions, and just 1% of respondents have improved their attitude.
The survey was conducted by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology from May 20 to June 2. There were personally interviewed adult Ukrainians, except for those in the annexed Crimea. The study was also conducted in the Donbass, but only in relatively safe areas. The total of 2022 Ukrainians participated in the survey. The maximum sampling error is 3.45%.
