Lviv Media Forum studied the political orientation of Ukrainian media

The research team of Lviv Media Forum has selected and classified publications for the upcoming View Spectrum service, which will compare media materials with different political positions. The goal of the project is to simplify the journalists' lives and improve the media culture of the audience.

How did we succeed?

It was not easy to compile a list of media outlets that represent opposing positions in their coverage of major political events. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, the media have become less politicised and more restrained in expressing their sympathies. Nevertheless, we managed to find a solution.

"We received a really interesting task from our clients," comments Olga Bilousenko, head of the Research Department, "to categorise Ukrainian media so that in the future readers could understand how each of these categories covers different socially important topics. As an example of categorisation, we had the concept of the American media outlet The Ground, which divides the media into centrist, liberal and republican. This is really relevant for the United States, but not for Ukraine. Given the current situation on the Ukrainian media market, we decided that the most relevant division is into neutral, pro-government and opposition media.”

The catalogue includes the 50 most popular online resources among the Ukrainian audience (online publications, TV channels, radio stations, print media, etc.) covering political topics. In each of the 50 media outlets in the sample, we reviewed all materials — authorial and editorial, including news — that covered, analysed and commented on certain events.

You can read the main theses of the study and follow the launch of the startup on the View Spectrum social media page.