Has Ukraine lost modern media war?

By Yaroslav Markevych (Ukraine), Daryna Mykhayliv (University of Leeds), Oleksandr Talavera (University of Sheffield).

The power of mass-media has been widely recognized. Goebbels mentioned in his speech to Nazi party members in Berlin in 1928 “Propaganda is not a matter for average minds, but rather a matter for practitioners. It is not supposed to be lovely or theoretically correct. I do not care if I give wonderful, aesthetically elegant speeches, or speak so that women cry. The point of a political speech is to persuade people of what we think right.” Nowadays, distribution of news is almost instant, thousands of journalists look for sensations to attract wider audience of readers and watchers. Furthermore, the same event could be presented in a number of ways so that attitude of audience might be manipulated. This results in information wars in which different parties are fighting for influence over wider audience. Apart from the armed conflict, Ukraine and Russia have a fierce media war.