Jeansa in online media. Monitoring report for 2nd quarter of 2020

The main sponsor of jeansa in the online media for the second quarter in a row in 2020 would be the party "Opposition Platform - For Life". It accounts for an average of 31% of materials with signs of ordering, while all other political forces together had 12% of news items of the kind.

Such are the figures of the study the NGO "Institute of Mass Information" conducted in March 2020 in 20 online media, the full sample was more than 22 thousand news items*.

In second place among the main customers of jeansa in online media are commercial companies, which accounted for 30% of such materials. Compared to the previous monitoring period, the number of ordered media materials from commercial companies decreased by 2%. 

During the monitoring period, the ratio of political and commercial jeansa was 64% and 36%, respectively.

Znay.ua (88 news items), NewsOne (63 news items detected during the monitoring week, mainly in favor of OPFL), 112.ua (48 news items, mainly in favor of OPFL) became anti-leader sites for placing news items with order signs.

No jeansa was found on the sites "Liga", "Ukrinform", "Ukrainsky Tyzhden", "Ukrainska Pravda", "Novoe Vremya", "Bukvy" and "Suspilne" (Public broadcaster).

In total, 90% of the news items with the signs of the order were considered as jeansa, and only 10% were conventionally marked as advertisement with a wide range of specific marks.

8 out of 19 surveyed sites used incorrect tags for advertising. Such marks do not comply with Ukrainian legislation, so these publications are classified by IMI as improperly labeled. The most incorrect marking was recorded on the UNIAN website (12 materials under the headings "NK", "Up to the minute", "Window", etc.). NV's site improved its score, and began to label advertising materials with the phrase " NV can earn a commission for the sale of goods mentioned in this article," to inform the audience about a possible conflict of interest. The "Partner Material" tags were recorded in five materials on the "Bukvy" website. Five materials were also posted on the Liga.net's website, each of which was marked twice - in the title with the letter "P"(as publicity), and additionally under the title "sponsored content". As of the monitoring period, the Liga website showed the best and most clear advertising material labeling compared to other sites. Three incorrect tags were found on the Gordon website, and one each on the TSN, Segodnya, and Ukrinform websites.

OVERVIEW OF MAIN CUSTOMERS OF JEANS

"Opposition Platform - For Life"

IMI monitoring includes two resources (112 and NewsOne), the owner of which, Taras Kozak, is associated with the "Opposition Platform - For Life" and Viktor Medvedchuk, who is intensively present on the air of these media. On both sites, the strong influence of one political force (OPFL) on editorial policy is clearly visible. Both sites have become party mouthpieces, where most political material is somehow aimed at supporting and spreading the ideology of a single political force.

The main messages that Medvedchuk promoted in the controlled online media were:

1. The need for dialogue with the occupied regions:

• Medvedchuk: Kyiv should have a direct dialogue with Donetsk and Luhansk, and not appoint representatives of deplaced persons to the TCG (Trilateral contact group) 
• Medvedchuk: If the Minsk agreements are not fulfilled, Donbass will be lost to Ukraine forever 

2. Weakness of the current government:

• Medvedchuk: I see no real reason to improve the situation in Ukraine 
• Medvedchuk: The current government of Ukraine is extremely unprofessional and does not meet the tasks set before it 

3. US external influence on internal processes in Ukraine:

• Viktor Medvedchuk: External management will never allow Ukraine to lift debt bondage 
• Medvedchuk: Ukraine fully complies with any US instructions to the detriment of its economic interests 
• Medvedchuk: Saakashvili's appointment in Ukraine is an element of US external governance 

4. US laboratories in Ukraine:

• Medvedchuk: Foreign bacteriological laboratories zere going to check for Azarov 
• Medvedchuk: OPFL sent a request to the UN regarding 15 US bacteriological laboratories in Ukraine 

Note that paragraphs 3 and 4 completely coincide with the messages of Russian propaganda.

Another speaker from the OPFL was the party's ex-candidate in the presidential election, Yuriy Boyko, who used social and industrial topics for his PR.

• Boyko: Restoration of shipbuilding is a task of strategic importance for the domestic economy 
• Yuriy Boyko: The government has left companies alone facing the crisis 
• Yuriy Boyko: Almost one and a half million children in Ukraine need help 

In total, 31% of the total number of ordered materials was placed in favor of this political force.

Commercial companies

According to the results of IMI monitoring, commercial companies accounted for 30% of the total number of news items with signs of being ordered. 

Customers of these advertising materials in this category were quite diverse.

These are mobile operators, banks, online stores, new buildings, etc.

However, most of the materials in this category were recorded with signs of ordering in favor of regional gas companies, which are owned by oligarch Dmitro Firtash.

According to Insider , Mr Firtash owned the largest number of regional gas companies, namely he owned 24 such enterprises.

IMI experts recorded news items in favor of Chernivtsigaz, Mykolaivgaz, Vinnytsiagaz, Khmelnytskygaz, Volyngas, Zaporizhgaz.

• Chernivtsigaz has listed the cost of gas delivery to more than 19,000 consumers
• Since the beginning of quarantine ADS "Nikolaevgaz" made more than thousand departures
• Chernihivgaz received over UAH 650,000 in compensation for damage to gas pipelines
• Khmelnytskygaz Zbut: 59% of participants of the "Your Energy Independence" campaign left funds for further payment
• During the quarantine period, 92,000 Khmelnytskygaz customers paid for gas delivery online

Most of these materials were posted on the RBC-Ukraine website.

Anti-PR and smear campaigns

The category of "anti-PR" accounted for 15% of news items with signs of being ordered.

Such materials were recorded on the websites of Channel 112 and NewsOne (targetting Andriy Sadovy), Obozrevatel (targetting National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) Director Artem Sytnyk), Znay.ua (targetting Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko, MP Mykola Tyshchenko, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Energy and Housing utilities Andriy Herus, Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyy).

Andriy Sadov is blamed with excessive quarantine restrictions, Lviv garbage dumps, schism of the Svoboda faction in the Lviv City Council, obedience to national government and the destruction of local self-government.

• The Lviv Prosecutor's Office has dug into Sadovy's garbage - it smells like a grand crook business
• Lviv residents are sweating in hellish queues to get transport, we have to wait it for hours - "Mr Sadovyy, where are the minibuses?"
• Lviv residents got cheated: Sadovyy knuckled down to Zelensky, promising media support and obedience to Holos party

Mykola Tyshchenko is mocked out for his mayoral ambitions:

• The odious Tishchenko decided to get to the chair of the mayor of Kyiv through a subway car
• Kiev residents are preparing an uprising against Tyshchenko: instead of taking selfies in minibuses, he would deal with the problems of the district

Anti-PR against Andriy Herus focuses on the so-called Herus schemes regarding Ukrzaliznytsia.

Other political forces

In addition to the OPFL party, which took the first position as a PR customer, the news items to one’s benefit were ordered by Oleh Lyashko (leader of the Radical Party), Petro Poroshenko (leader of the European Solidarity party), Yulia Tymoshenko (leader of the Batkivshchyna party) and regional politicians: most of them are the mayor of Dnipro Borys Filatov.

In total, this category accounts for 12% of materials with signs of being ordered.

Kyiv mayoral election

Currently, the following politicians have launched their unofficial election campaign aimed at the Kyiv mayor's seat: MP Mykola Tyshchenko, businessman Andriy Palchevsky, politician Mykola Tomenko, and incumbent Mayor of Kyiv Vitaliy Klitschko.

In total, 6% of materials with signs of an order were dealing with the Kyiv mayoral election.

Charitable foundations of politicians and oligarchs

Politicians keep actively promoting themselves by means of the coronavirus pandemic. The foundations of Vadym Novynsky, Petro Poroshenko, Rinat Akhmetov, Oksana and Viktor Medvedchuk, and Bohdan Hubsky, whose information about charity and beautiful pictures of whom frequently published in mass media, were particularly up and doing in this sense. Charitable foundations accounted for 5% of all materials with signs of ordering, which is 3% less than in the first quarter of 2020. PR on the coronavirus is no longer as popular as it was at the beginning of the pandemic - politicians and media owners are gradually switching to other topics. 

The material was prepared based on the results of monitoring conducted on May 25-29, 2020 in 20 popular Internet media: "Obozrevatel", "Znay.ua", 24 Kanal, "Gordon", "Ukryaiska Pravda", "Novoe Vremya", UNIAN, "Segodnya", TSN, 112.ua, NewsOne, RBC.ua, "Liga.net", "Ukrainsky Tyzhden", Interfax-Ukraine, Ukrinform, "Strana", "Censor", "Suspilne", "Bukvy". The sample covers all news in a row that appeared on the sites during the period (more than 22 thousand news).

This study 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 contents are the sole responsibility of the Institute for Mass Information and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, the US Government or the Internews Network.