37% of jeansa in regional online media ordered by local politicians: IMI research

Most of the stories with signs of political order were published by the online media in Dnipro, Kherson, Cherkasy and Poltava. These are the findings of research made by the NGO "Institute of Mass Information" in 10 regions of Ukraine in July this year. *

At the same time, the regional online media have the most materials with signs of order - about local politicians. 

Thus, the indicator of the news with signs indicating they have been commissioned in Dnipro was 4.4%, in Kherson: 2.7%, in Cherkasy : 2.6%, in Poltava : 2.4% from the total number of publications in the region. No news with signs of order have been found in online media in Kharkiv. The average rate of ordered news in all regions was 1.3% of the total number of publications.

According to the survey, 80% of the news items wich had signs of being ordered were complimentary for politicians and officials. Herewith, every fifth news with signs of ordering in the regional online media was a counter-propaganda. According to the monitoring data, the most counter-propaganda news items came out in the online media of Lviv (56% of the total number of newss with signs of ordering in the region) and Dnipro (45%). No counter-propaganda news were revealed in Donetsk, Mykolayiv, Odesa, Kharkiv and Cherkasy online media.  

Local politicians (37% of the total number of complimentary jeansa) and parties, including chapters (26%) would have commissioned news the most frequently in the online media. Complimentary commissioned materials about politicians of the all-Ukrainian level accounted for 14%, about local authorities - 10%, about public authorities - 8% of publications from the total number of jeansa.

As for the complimentary news with signs of ordering that spoke of main political forces, the regional mass media advertised the most the Zelensky’s team (mainly due to the promotion of the “Big Construction” project) - 30% of the total number ofcomplimentary news with signs of ordering about political forces and Opposition Platform for Life ( 13%). 6% of such news was about EU representatives, 3% of similar publications were about representatives of the Batkivshchyna party and the Radycalna Party.

* The study analyzed 9575 news items, including 121 news with signs of order, 97 complimentary materials with signs of order, 24 - counter-propaganda in 50 regional online media in 10 regions of Ukraine (Volyn, Dnipro, Donetsk (Mariupol), Lviv, Mykolaiv , Odessa, Poltava, Kharkiv, Kherson, Cherkasy). The monitoring included only news from the online media news feed, no article, journalistic investigation, analytics, blog, author's column, upcoming events announcements, etc.have been analyzed. 

The monitoring methodology included analysis of the number of publications with signs of order in the news feeds of regional online media, analysis of the number of complimentary jeansa and counter-propaganda, detecting of the main customers ofcomplimentary publications with signs of ordering (local level policies, all-Ukrainian level policies, political parties) local authorities, public authorities, etc.), analysis of the number of commissioned publications about party forces and their representatives.

Monitoring was conducted in the following media:

Volyn  (Volynsky Novyny, VolynPost, Volyn24, Rayon.in.ua, Konkurent),  Dnipro  (Vidkryty, Nashe Misto, Dniprovskaya panorama, Informator, gorod.dp.ua),  Donetsk  (MARIUPOL) (0629, Novyny Donbassu, Karachun (Slovyansk), Ostriv, MRPL.CITY),  Lviv  (Lvivsky portal Zahid.net, Vholos, Varta1, Tvoye misto), Mykolaiv  (Prestupnosty.NET, My gorod, Novosti-N, Inshe.TV, 0512),  Odessa  ( Dumska, 048, Оdesskaya zhyzn, USI.Odessa, Odessa online),  Poltava  (Poltavshchyna, poltavske.tv, OKIA Novyny Poltavshchyny, 0532.ua, Zmist),  Kharkiv  (ATN, Status Quo, Horod X, KHARKIV Today, 057.ua ),  Kherson (KhersonOnline, 0552, Lubimyy Kherson, Khersoshchyna za den, Kherson),  Cherkasy  (Vycherpno, 18000, Procherk, Zmi.ck.ua, Provse).