Due to quarantine 22% of journalists face financial troubles – IMI’ research

During quarantine, 22% of media professionals have got problems with salary arrears and cuts. At the same time, the media saw a 20% increase in audience attention to their publications.

These are the results of an anonymous poll conducted by the Institute of Mass Information on March 19-24, 2020 *.

14% of respondents media workers said they have already experienced a decrease in media activity, another 11% said their editorial orders have been decreased. The poll found that 8% of journalists were faced with abandonment of existing editorial orders, and 9% did not receive any new orders at all. 

At the same time, IMI interviewees believe that the effects of quarantine will lead to increased audience attention and media influence (23% of respondents) and reformatting activities and finding new solutions in the online media sphere ( 22%). At the same time, 18 % of journalists expect a pay cut or delay, and 10.5% of media people fear that because of quarantine they will be out of order.

Only 6.5% of respondents expect their media to be suspended, and 5 % expect the closure of the media they work with.

65% of IMI responders said that the media they work for has transmuted to homeworking, but 18.5% of journalists keep going outside to fulfil their journalistic tasks.

81.5% of those surveyed feel that they needed to improve their skills under conditions of quarantine.

* The study was conducted by the method of anonymous questionnaire. A total of 200 responses were received from journalists, of whom 64.5% were female and 35.5% were male. 60% were journalists from all regions of Ukraine, 40% were journalists from Kyiv. The study was conducted during March 19-24, 2020 .

This research was made possible by the support of the American people through the USAID Media Program in Ukraine implemented by the international organization Internews Network. The content of the material is under the sole responsibility of the NGO Institute of Mass Information and does not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, the US Government, or the Internews Network.