Some figures about media landscape, Internet and politics in Ukraine

1. 100,000 Tweets Do Not Make a Summer
New Media Landscape in Ukraine
Milan | Jan. 25th, 2010
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2. Stats on Media Consumption (*)
(*) InternetWorld Stats, Sep. 2009; State Statistic Committee of Ukraine, Oct. 2009; Yandex, Jan. 2010
• Population: 45.7 million
• Internet users: 10.4 million
• Internet penetration: 22.7%
• Internet subscriptions: 2.4 million
• Cable TV subscriptions: 3.4 million
• Mobile phones subscriptions: 55.2 million
• Mobile phones penetration: 120%
• Twitter users: 17,000
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3. Internet Penetration in East-EU (*)
(*) InternetWorld Stats, Sep. 2009; State Statistic Committee of Ukraine, Oct. 2009
68,3
64,8 65,3
61,4
59,0 59,2 59,3
51,7 52,0 52,0
50,0
43,7 43,9 44,7
36,7
32,2 32,2 33,4
31,2
22,6
19,7 20,6 20,9
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4. Top Ranked Websites (*)
(*) Alexa.com, Jan. 2010
• Google.com.ua (1), Google.com (3), Google.ru (12),
Search engines Meta.ua (28)
• Vkontakte.ru (2), Odnoklassniki.ru (9), Vk.com (13),
Social networks Facebook.com (25)
• Mail.ru (4), Yandex.ua (5), Yandex.ru (6), Ukr.net (10),
Omnibus portals & IPS Livejournal.com (12), Narod.ru (23)
Video sharing • Youtube.com (7)
P2P file sharing • Torrents.ru (14)
Wikis • Wikipedia.org (8)
News • Korrespondent.net (24), Pravda.com.ua (31)
Micro-blogging • Twitter.com (33)
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5. Mainstream News Websites
Ukraynska Pravda ProUA
 Launched by Georgy  The newspaper for
Gongadze in 2000 professionals
 At the vanguard during
the Orange Revolution
 Funded by the National
Endowment for
Democracy, USA
 English edition suspended Korrespondent
 Online outlet of the
leading Ukrainian
weekly magazine
 Published by KP Media
Kanal 5
 Controlled by Petro
Poroshenko, currently
minister of Foreign
Affairs (pro NATO Obozrevatel
membership)
 Internet tabloid (sport,
 English edition business, photo
suspended since 2005 galleries, humor, and
politics)
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6. Mainstream News Websites
• Korrespondent.net
top-rated news site
in Ukrainian Internet
• Pravda.com.ua still
popular (ranked 31
by Alexa)
• 2 to 10% traffic from
USA Source: Alexa.com, Jan. 2010
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7. Grassroots Websites
• Maidan.org.ua
– An Internet Hub for Citizens Action Network in Ukraine
– Mainly user ruled, animates the community with news and rumors
– Solicits funds via Visa and MasterCard
– English version available
• Zakon404.pp.ua
– Reference destination for the civilian protest of bloggers and media
against violence of rights for free press, media and democracy
– On Twitter as well (#404uanet)
• Electua.org
– A project to help the election appear as transparent as possible
– Provides additional sources of information
– About 100,000 tweets generated up to now (#elect_ua)
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8. Watchdog Websites: Telekritika.ua
• Founded by Natalia
Ligacheva, who
played a crucial role
in Orange Revolution
• Highlights lack of
quality in the media
landscape (self-
censorship,
accommodating
attitude, caution, …)
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9. Candidates Websites
• Sites are poor, traditional
and with few traffic
• Sergey Tigipko is on
Facebook, but has just
155 fans
• Yanukovych is on Twitter,
but has protected his
tweets
• Tymoshenko has a
channel on YouTube Source: Alexa.com, Jan. 2010
(152,882 total upload
views)
• Everyone have a blog, but
not a single politician
posted anything
themselves
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10. Critical Issues
• Low penetration makes Internet “a bonus for plugged-in
professionals but little influential to ordinary citizens” (Natalia
Ligacheva)
• Political communication in Ukraine is affected by paid news
coverage (jeansa, “marchetta”), accommodating journalist,
and pressure on media
• Internet is still secondary to more traditional media
• Namely television remains the main medium for political
propaganda (Sergey Tigipko’s campaign proves it: competent
use of traditional media and outdoor advertising)
• Internet is currently used more as “a tool against political
opponents” (Natalia Ligacheva )
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11. References
• Negotiating the News: Informal State Censorship of Ukrainian Television,
“Human Rights Watch”, March 2003, Vol. 15, No. 2
• Marta Dyczok, Was Kuchma’s Censorship Effective? Mass Media in Ukraine
before 2004, “Europe-Asia Studies”, March 2006, Vol. 58, No. 2, 215-238
• Myroslaw J. Kyj, Internet Use in Ukraine’s Orange Revolution, “Business
Horizons”, 2006, No. 49, 71-80
• Joshua Goldstein, The Role of Digital Networked Technologies in the
Ukrainian Orange Revolution, The Berkman Center for Internet & Society,
December 2008, No. 2007-14
• Eberhard Sandschneider, Five Years after the Orange Revolution in Ukraine:
Back to the Future?, “DGAPaktuell”, October 2009, No. 7
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12. Useful Websites
• Institute for Mass Information
• Human Rights in Ukraine
• Reporters sans frontières
• Freedom House
• Maidan
• Annaviva
• Ukraynska Pravda
• Matteo Cazzulani's web blog
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