Ukraine’s Media: A Field Where Power is Contested

Public management, 2019

The dynamics of up-to-date information transformations, the introduction of the most recent innovative technologies and the European integration vector of the national development, now more than ever help to improve the national media. However, the study of the outlined industry characteristics in the context of the social and communication paradigm has been confirmed by the existence and further development of negative trends that can include, among others, the following: 1) fragmentarity and low quality of journalistic education; 2) extremely large amount of media (glut) and low barriers to entry the market; 3) lack of independence; 4) fast food journalism trend; 5) use of intimidation linguistic elements in the middle of news and information texts; 6) imperfect media research; 7) daily disclosure of fake news; 8) lack of responsibility for poor-quality media content; 9) nonavailability of the media to implement effective marketing foreign concepts and practices; 10) archaic regulation of the media industry, and so on. In terms of the subject of the article the question of legal basis of current media organizational work has been considered and the main issues have been con

In this analysis of the Ukrainian media landscape and its preconditions, the author maintains that "a situation, when people have plenty of rights on paper but cannot employ them in reality has largely persisted in the post−Soviet space. The only substantial difference between the post−Soviet states and the Soviet Union is that the latter had had a compulsory ideology". Rather than painting a negative or positive future in conclusion, he reminds that there is a future yet to be shaped.

East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies

Book review of Natalya Ryabinska. Ukraine’s Post-Communist Mass Media: Between Capture and Commercialization. Foreword by Marta Dyczok, ibidem-Verlag, 2017. Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society 162, edited by Andreas Umland. 186 pp. Tables. Bibliography. Name Index. Subject Index. €29.90, paper.

Media Reform: Democratizing the media, democratizing the state. Eds. Price, M., B.Rozumilowicz, and S.Verhulst. - London, New York: Routledge, 2002

Media legislation in Ukraine guarantees media freedom and autonomy and promotes pluralism. The presence of a broadcasting law and regulatory broadcasting agencies are notable. They mark a positive exception to the laws and regulatory systems in other CIS republics. Certain ground rules, regarding the founding of a mass media entity, state registration, state support and economic relief, are applied in actual practice. Meanwhile, mass communications legislation has laid one of the foundations for the development of the media in Ukraine. If its provisions are observed and enforced, Ukraine will possess one of the most politically independent media systems in the former USSR. In this transitional period, both the state and legal institutions are, on the whole, too weak and incompetent to be truly effective. A well-functioning market economy, non-existent in Ukraine, is prerequisite for the development of political democracy and to the economic freedom of non-state broadcasters and journalists. It is hoped that in the future, such a properly functioning market economy will provide the basis for a fully functional political democracy and that effective legal institutions and law-enforcement mechanisms will be established. Only then will media legislation be capable of defending freedom of speech in word as well as in practice.

Demokratizatsiya, Vol. 22, No. 2, 2014

This paper reframes conventional views of Ukraine by showing how global trends of cultural and media convergence are influencing its identity. It looks at how the country's media system developed after independence, particularly television, and how this reveals the ongoing struggle to define what it means to be Ukrainian. Media representations illustrate that three visions coexist: a cosmopolitan, pro-Western one which embraces the forces of globalization; a residual Soviet Ukrainian one that is open to change but has a strong cultural affinity to Russia; and a new/ old Ukrainian identity that draws on deep-rooted local (national) values, which coincide with universal ones such as democracy, with a contemporary flavor and without a Russian dimension. It argues that despite certain unique features caused by "the Russia factor," the new/old country is also being strongly influenced by globalization through mass media, and is part of larger worldwide trends where identity, values, society, and political practices are in flux. 1 U kraine became independent when modern globalization went into high gear. 2 Thus the new country with an ancient history has been

Problems of Post-Communism, 61(2), 2014

Europe-Asia Studies, 2018

Business AS Usual: Continuity and Change in Central and Eastern European Media, 2003

A chapter in the 2003 book (eds. Paletz, D.L.; Jakubowicz, K.) on continuity and change in the media of CEE countries. Reviews its legal foundations, regulation of the press and broadcasting, ownership, licensing, and financing issues, the rise of private broadcasting and the fall of the printed press, describes media/government relations, including language instruments as a tool vs Russian media, accountability and professional ethics, ending with searches for post-communist identity.

Problems of Post-Communism, 2014

Despite relatively progressive laws on the books, Ukrainian media have been "captured" by the state and by private business owners who use their outlets in pursuit of political ends.

The seeming intractability of the conflict in East Ukraine can be explained by more than one factor. The paper argues that this war is based on the discursive construction of an enemy and much helped by demonization of the opponent. Ethnicization of political and economic differences between Ukraine’s regions makes compromise more difficult to reach. The invocation by the Ukrainian side of the identity markers of a savage, beastly outgroup, a “scum”, “subhumans,” “bastards,” when referring to the Donbass separatists, cannot but confirm the worst worries of those who might still be leaning to the idea of devolution and power sharing. The threats of legal punishment propel continued resistance. The author reaches a conclusion that an attempt to build a new Ukrainian nation by vilifying its Russophone constituents will fail. Political mobilization against the “Russian aggression” can be, at best, a temporary solution to the problem of the country’s unity. While the war against Donbass separatists consolidated Ukraine’s political nation, it has also demonstrated that the pro-Russian activists do not fit in there. It is still possible that meaningful devolution will help to heal Ukraine’s ethno-regional wounds. However, to assure such an outcome, Kiev and the West both need to stop molding an enemy figure out of Russia and Ukraine’s own Russian citizens.