Only 4-5% publications in local mass media of South and East are about ATO zone — research by ІМІ and GfK

Forty four per cent of Donbas residents consider the war the most urgent problem of their family, but at the same time, only 4-5% of materials in local mass media are dedicated to this topic.

These are the results of joint survey of the Institute of Mass Information and GfK Ukraine with support of Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative (UCBI), that was conducted in Zaporizka, Dniprtopetrovska, Kharkivska, Donetska, Luhanska and Odeska oblasts.

According to the IMI monitoring, the most news, publications and stories about ATO are in Kharkiv local mass media — 13% from all published materials, in Dnipropetrovsk mass media— 7%, in Odesa, Siverodonetsk and Zaporizhzhya mass media — 5% each, in Kramatorsk — only 4%. In addition, of 1-4% materials relate to the topic of internally displaced people.

At that, the sociological survey of GfK Ukraine shows that the topic of the war in the East of Ukraine is one of the top topics in the news that are of the most interest to local people. In particular, it lists as the most interesting for people in Dnipropetrovsk (38%) and Zaporizhzhya (35%), 31% for Luhansk and Kharkiv residents, 27% of Donetsk region people, and 22% of Odesa residents.

People who feel the lack of information about the events in the East the most are in Zaporizhzhya (20% respondents) and Luhansk region residents (18%), the least — Odesa residents (9%). The main topic that the local residents marked as lacking coverage is combating corruption on local level (from 40% in Dnipropetrovsk region to 63% in Zaporizhzhya).

The most urgent problem for their family now, according to 46% of Donetsk region residents and 42% Luhansk region residents, and also 36% of Zaporizhzhya residents, is war. At that, more people call an urgent problem lcak of money for food, utilities and other basic needs (from 48% in Donetsk region to 63% in Kharkiv).

--------

* Research of media preferences and political views of population of six oblasts of Ukraine was conducted by the company GfK Ukraine as commissioned by Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative (UCBI), with the support from USAID. About 1500 individual interviews were conducted at respondents’ residencies in each oblast in the territories under the government control. Also, in separate inhabited localities of each oblast and in rural areas of each oblast additional booster samples were collected; for them, data about the size of the general sample for the oblasts are provided in separate presentations for each oblast. The sample presents the population of each oblast by age /sex / size of the inhabited location. The field stage of the research lasted from November 27 till December 25, 2015.

*Research of the content and assessment of the media situation in 6 oblasts was conducted by the NGO «Institute of Mass Information» as commissioned by Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative (UCBI), with the support from USAID. The total number of 8363 materials was processed; these materials were published in local media outlets during the monitoring month (from September 15 to October 15, 2015, in Kharkiv, Odesa, and Zaporizhzhia; from October 15 to November 15, 2015, in Dnipropetrovsk, Siverodonetsk, and Kramatorsk). Qualitative and quantitative monitoring covered all materials that were published during the mentioned period in ten local media outlets from each of the studied oblasts (two TV stations, four printed and four online media outlets).