Only a minority of leading Ukrainian online publications publish reports from the battlefield or after shelling, despite the importance of this genre for documenting war crimes and providing a deep understanding of the situation at the front. The number of such materials remains limited, it says research Institute of Mass Information (IMI) conducted in September 2024 among 18 popular online media.
According to the results of the research, reporting materials were found on only seven sites: Suspilne, Radio Svoboda, “Ukrainian Pravda”, “Rubrika”, “24 Kanal”, NV and TSN. Suspilne became the leader in the number of such publications, while other publications, in particular TSN and Channel 24, publish reports much less often.
Public events in support of the army and commemoration of fallen soldiers became the main topics of the reports. A smaller part of the materials relates directly to hostilities, military training, or the consequences of Russian shelling of Ukrainian cities. Among the recorded topics were also reports from the rear, elimination of the consequences of attacks, as well as stories of heroism of the military and civilians.
As noted in IMI, reports from the frontline are rarely published due to the complexity of their production and the risks for journalists. At the same time, such materials require significant resources, which is a challenge for many editorial offices. Larger media outlets with television divisions can more often afford reporting, while smaller online outlets choose other formats.
“Although small in number, the reports add an important emotional component to the dry figures of official reports, helping the audience to better understand the realities of the war. They also clarify and detail the official data, making the picture of the war more vivid and in-depth. These materials are important not only for domestic audiences, but also to support the attention of the international community to the events in Ukraine”, — noted IMI media analyst Dmytro Barkar.
IMI emphasizes that reports remain an important tool for recording the war and conveying true information, although their number is limited due to the complexity and resource-intensive nature of their creation.
Monitoring was carried out on September 29-30, 2024 among such media as Suspilne, “Espresso”, Hromadske, Radio Svoboda, “Babel”, “Ukrainian Pravda”, Liga.net, Ukrinform, “Censor.Net”, “Rubrika”, ” Channel 24″, LB.ua, ZN.UA, “Telegraf”, “Gordon”, NV, “Korespondent.net”, TSN.
We should add that in 2024, the transparency of the leading online media of Ukraine increased by 10%, reaching 78% compared to 68% in 2023. This happened due to the fact that the media began to reveal more information about their leaders.
