8.5% of political news in regional online media do not refer to any source of information: IMI survey

8.5% of political news in the regional online media don’t have any reference to any source of information at all. At the same time, the regional media have 26.4% of its own political articles comparing to total number of stories. Such are the findings of the research that the "Institute of Mass Information" NGO held in 10 regions of Ukraine in June. * According to the results of the monitoring, the regional online media have been using data from social networks (14.8%), official websites (13%), press services (10%) as its sources of information. This being said, the regional online media in Cherkasy produced the largest number of its own news covering politics (24% of the total number of sources of information in the political news in the region), the Zaporizhzhya online media cited the social networks as the main source of information in political news for (28.5%), and the most of political news not referring to any sources of information was published in the online media of Ternopil (36%). Most often in the regional political news they wrote about local and national politicians, herewith the media were either producing its own news, or were using information from other media. According to IMI survey, the most common themes or protagonists of political news are local policy-makers: 103 news about them came out through the period of this monitoring (or 32.5% of the total number of political news). 90 news (or 28.5%) covered the politicians of national level. The least of all political news covered public authorities: 34 publications (or 10.7%). At the same time, the front-runners as to coverage of the local politicians were the online media of Cherkasy (20 news or 52.6%) and Chernivtsi (20 news or 44.4% of the total number of political news in the online media of each region). As to the national level politicians, the mostly they have been covered by the online media of Lviv (22 publications or 53.6% of the total number of political news in the online media of the region), the news dealing with the parties and their branches have been covered  in Chernivtsi (20 publications or 37%). The local authorities most often have been covered in the online media of Chernihiv (11 publications, or 24% of the total number of political news in the online media of the region), and public authorities have been covered by Cherkassy online media (8 materials, or 21% of the total number of political news in the online media of the region).   * Within the framework of this survey, 2,500 news in 50 regional online media were analysed in 10 cities of Ukraine (Zhytomir, Zaporizhzhya, Lviv, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil, Cherkasy, Kharkiv, Chernivtsi, Chernihiv). The survey treated only political news from the online news lines of the online media, no articles, or journalistic investigations, analytics, blogs, author's columns, etc. have been analyzed. In a total, 316 political news have been passed through in the framework of this monitoring. The monitoring methodology is based on an analysis of the quantity of political news, its topics and sources of information for the political news that were published in the news lines from 9:00 a.m. on June 3, 2019. In general, during the analyzed period, the following topics / protagonists of political news were: the national politicians, the local politicians, the party (including the its territorial organizations), public authorities, local authorities, and as well the sources of information: its own information, social networks, official websites, other mass media, press services, no sources quoted, other. Monitoring was conducted in the following media: ZHYTOMYR (Zhytomyr magazine, Zhitomir.Info, Zhytomyr online, Fresh news, 20 minutes.Zhitomir), ZAPORIZHZHYA (061.ua, Zabor, Forpost, Zanoz, Accent), LVIV (ZIK, Zahit.net, Vlada, Varda 1, Your city), RIVNE (Radio track, OGO, Rivne 1, Rivne Evening, ALL, RivneMedia), SUMY (Dankor Online, 0542.ua, Sumy Debates, SumyToday, The Sumy Post), TERNOPIL (0352.ua, Galas, Teren , Real, Za Zbruchem), CHERKASSY (Vycherpno, Center of Cherkasy media, InfoMist, Procherk, Nova Doba), KHARKIV (ATN, Status Quo, City X, KHARKIV Today, 057.ua), CHERNIVTSI (BukInfo, Young Bukovinitsy, ACC, Time, 0372.ua), Chernihiv (Horod.CN, 0462.ua, Chernihiv Time , Events and comments CheLayn). The survey was made possible thanks to the support of the American people, which was provided through the USAID "Media Program in Ukraine" project implemented by the international organization Internews. The content of the materials is solely the responsibility of the NGO "Institute for Mass Information" and does not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, the US government and Internews