IMI study: Smear content spikes in Ukraine's online media

Illustration by the IMI

The amount of so-called "smear content" – that is, material aimed at damaging the reputation of the customer's opponent or competitor – has grown in Ukraine's online media. The share of such content reached 18% of all potentially commissioned articles.

These are the findings of the quarterly study by the Institute of Mass Information, which covered 23 leading news outlets in Ukraine and was conducted on August 14–16, 2024.

According to the study, content aimed to discredit commercial competitors makes up 14% of all news items with signs of being commissioned that were identified by the monitoring. The share of commissioned materials targeting individual politicians amounted to 4% of all discovered jeansa.

According to the findings of the IMI study for the second quarter of 2024, commercial and political smear content accounted for only 11% when taken together. In the third quarter of the same year, there was a sudden spike in such content. Meanwhile during 2023, the amount of smear content in leading national online outlets was statistically insifnificant. Today's share of black PR in the media was not recorded even in pre-election periods, according to the study.

The content aimed at smearing businesses or politicians were discovered on the following websites: Channel 24, Focus, Telegraf, RBC-Ukraine, UNIAN, and Gordon.

*The monitoring was carried out on August 14–16, 2024, in 23 leading online news outlets: "Suspilne", "Babel", "Hromadske", ZN.UA, "Ukrainian Pravda", "Espreso", "Rubrika", Liga.net, "Novynarnia", Ukrinform, NV, LB.ua, RBC-Ukraine, "Censor.Net", Interfax-Ukraine, TSN, "Korespondent.net", "Focus", UNIAN, "Channel 24", "Gordon", "Telegraf", Obozrevatel. The sample included all consecutive news that appeared on the websites during the specified period.