Academy of Ukrainian Press presents regular results of the content analysis of the news (the beginning of the project – October 2003) on the leading Ukrainian TV channels for November 2005 within the project “Monitoring of political news”.
The method of research is the content analysis of media materials for one full week of every month (7th – 12th November). The object of observations are the news programs in prime time on the following channels: UT-1, 1+1, Inter, New channel, ICTV, STB, TRK Ukraine, 5th channel, Tonis, NTN.
The project is carried out by the scientific groups of the Academy of Ukrainian Press and the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation. Project managers are Nataliya Kostenko, Doctor of Sociological Sciences, and Valeriy Ivanov, Doctor of Philological Sciences.
POLITICAL NEWS OF THE LEADING UKRAINIAN TV CHANNELS
(19th wave)
In November the share of the news concerned with the internal policy has approached the start level of the presidential campaign 2004. The comparison of the indices with October 2005 demonstrates a decrease in number of the news without reference to the source of information and an increase in news reports that give two points of view. Every third news report on STB covers two points of view (35%), Inter has the smallest part of such reports (14%). That index is considerably higher in political news reports – 27% (22% in October), first of all due to the news of STB and Tonis (where that index comes to 52% and 47% respectively). As to other tendencies, the following is noteworthy: the conflict context has become more obvious, almost the half of reports on STB and TRK “Ukraine” is still discussing in the conflict context (48%).
Positioning of the power has taken place both on the channels and in the society: “the newest” vs. “new” vs. “old”. In November the attention to the power was presented mainly by the attention to the President. He remains the main figure on the TV screen. On the whole, the power dominates as to attention and direct speech of the news programs, however, the obvious imbalance in favour of it established in October evens slightly out. The Government and the Secretariat of the President have become the leaders as to ambiguous estimations – they have the highest level of ironic estimations (21%, 17%). The General Prosecutor’s Office has become the leader of negative estimations (7%).
The character of the November air is the following – the parties create actively different informational occasions, but almost nothing deals with the essential aspect of the elections – with discussion and presentation of the election programs.
If we talk about the main subject priorities of the month, the main events in November were the following – new appointments in the power, particularly, of the heads of the Regional State Administrations (4.5%), activity of the President (4.3%) as well as preparation for the future elections (4.1). The activity of V. Yushchenko prevailed in the news of Inter and New channel (9% and 8% respectively), it was mentioned most of all in the context of other events (total – 7.2%, 16% in the news of ICTV). Attention of the channels to parliamentary elections has increased slightly: it came to 15% of main reports in November (4.5% of complementary reports), in October – 12% (including 6.8% of complementary ones). As to political institutions, the attention to the power departments (from 15% to 24%), ministries (from 12% to 21%) and the President (from 38% to 43%) has risen in comparison with October.
People’s Union “Our Ukraine” is the leader of attention to political parties – 8%, CPU is mentioned in 4% of reports, Party of Regions and YTB are mentioned in 3% of reports. A number of parties has also entered “top ten of attention” in the news. They did not take these places earlier but they have created special informational occasions this week (CUN, UNA-UNSO, “Pora”, “Gromada”).
Attention to the President V. Yushchenko is considerably higher than attention to the Prime Minister Y. Yekhanurov: 30% vs. 8% (in October: 36% vs. 16%). The third place is taken by the leader of YTB Y. Tymoshenko – 7%, the fourth – by the speaker of the Supreme Council V. Lytvyn (5%), leader of the Party of Regions V. Yanukovych is on the ninth place (3%). The half of mentions of V. Lytvyn is accompanied by his direct speech. Direct speech of Y. Yekhanurov is given also almost in the half of mentions (42%), direct speech of V. Yanukovych – mere in a fourth of all mentions (25%), of Y. Tymoshenko – in the fifth part (22%). It should be noted that Y. Tymoshenko did not appear a single time in the news of ICTV, and V. Yanukovych – in the news of New channel.
The President V. Yushchenko remains an indubitable leader as to direct speech in the November news. He possesses 24% of direct speech of politicians (1155 seconds), he speaks on all channels (from 258 seconds in the news of Inter to 30 seconds on Tonis). The leaders of parties and blocs that pretend to surmount a 3% hurdle during the elections 2006 had following volumes of direct speech: Y. Tymoshenko – 203 seconds, V. Yanukovych – 195 seconds, V. Lytvyn – 190 seconds, P. Symonenko – 71 seconds, O. Moroz – 42 seconds.
If attention to the President Kuchma totaled to 10% in November 2004, then the President Yushchenko has a 35% index of attention in the year 2005.
It should be mentioned that the channels give the news air to the leading politicians in a very differentiated way. Y. Tymoshenko had direct speech in the news on UT-1, New channel, STB, Tonis. At the same time V. Yanukovych did not have direct speech on those channels. ICTV and 5th channel did not give direct speech of these both leaders. On the contrary, NTN give the floor to both of them. V. Lytvyn did not also have direct speech in the news on New channel, STB, Tonis, NTN. O. Moroz had direct speech only on two channels – UT-1 and TRK “Ukraine”.
On the whole, the share of attention in the news to the representatives of the present power comes to 65% of the total attention to politicians, the share of direct speech amounts to 59% of the total direct speech of politicians (in October – 57% and 80% respectively).
Political institutions remain the main subjects in the news about Ukraine – 79%, political persons came to 59%, political parties – to 29%. The President remains the indubitable leader among political institutions. Attention to him has increased from 39% to 43%, the Government is at the same level – 20% in October vs. 19% in November, attention to ministries has risen significantly from 12% to 21%. The estimation of activity of the main political players remains on the October level, mere the share of criticism of the Secretariat and the Government has increased noticeably.
On the whole, we can assert that “the newest power” is the leader of coverage in the news programs according to all indices, both as to index of attention, index of rating and number of direct speech. Some fluctuations of ratings are caused by the presence of certain specific events that took place on the 6th-7th of November and cannot be considered as a steady progress of certain party institutions. Therefore the situation in the media space can be estimated as a quasi-democratic one, when everybody pays attention to the “newest power” and will patronize own favourite.
However, one should ascertain that journalists have become more considerate towards fulfilment of their professional duties and pay more attention to such incontestable rules as reference to the source of information and coverage of different points of view.
