The research of political information in the regional media of Ukraine

Abstract

Introduction. Political issues in journalism, despite its importance in the media space, are currently the least studied segment. This is most likely due to the complexity of politics itself as a means to achieve goals in society. However, in general, this issue is not raised in relation to the media that operate at the regional level. In particular, this applies to the Volyn media. The relevance of the article. Therefore, the question of how regional media approach the coverage of political information is now relevant. The aim of the research is to find out the feature of the of political issues’ publication in the Volyn media. Methods. The basic method is content analysis, which allowed to quantify the presence of political issues in the studied publications and to monitor the quality of links to related sources of information. Empirical data were obtained through observation, study of documents and sources. The method of modeling (as a variant of schematic reconstruction of high-quality mass media), as well as comparison, analysis, and synthesis helped to identify exemplary and low-quality aspects of mass media involvement. Results. Regional media, as well as national ones, form a political picture and influence public opinion. This is especially true of online media, which, due to their technical components, cover a larger number of respondents. The most rated Volyn mass media are the «VolynPost» and «Volyn News» agencies. For example, «VolynPost» does not sufficiently inform readers about world political events. Most of the information is taken from other media resources. As for domestic political information, it is mostly biased in accordance with the interests of the owner. The online media «Volyn News» similarly covers political events of a domestic nature: often the materials refer to the activities of the People’s Deputy, who is the owner of this media. However, there are also positive points: political information of an international nature is presented more widely, the publication comprehensively covers conflicts, offers different views and refers to official sources. Conclusions. Regional media in the context of coverage of domestic policy are biased, require compliance with journalistic standards, in terms of coverage of international political aspects require additional knowledge about the specifics of presenting such information.