New Media in Ukraine

100,000 Tweets Do Not Make a Summer New Media Landscape in Ukraine Milan | Jan. 25th, 2010 paolocosta.net

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 paolocosta.net 2

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 paolocosta.net 3

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) paolocosta.net 4

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) paolocosta.net 5

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 paolocosta.net 6

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) paolocosta.net 7

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, …) paolocosta.net 8

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 paolocosta.net 9

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 ) paolocosta.net 10

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 paolocosta.net 11

Useful Websites • Institute for Mass Information • Human Rights in Ukraine • Reporters sans frontières • Freedom House • Maidan • Annaviva • Ukraynska Pravda • Matteo Cazzulani's web blog paolocosta.net 12

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New Media in Ukraine

by Paolo Costa

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