Mediatization of the political process in Ukraine: cinematographic aspect

Abstract

Introduction. Any political process uses documentaries and feature films to promote and impose the policies of the ruling party. In the last two decades, political series about the activities of presidents and their administrations have become widespread. At the same time, such series appear during the presidential campaigns and long before their beginning to form voter tolerance for the new type of presidents. The purpose of the article is to find out the role of political series and films (including the political series «Servant of the People») in strengthening the mediatization of Ukrainian politics.

Relevance of the study. In Ukraine, in a single country, the political series not only influenced the election results, but was embodied in reality, which indicates the intensification of mediatization of the political sphere. The research methodology is based on the application of analytical-synthetic method (for analysis of cinema features with further comparison and generalization of the obtained results), descriptive method (for description of interaction of political and media systems in Ukraine) and comparison method (for analogies between Ukrainian political series and USA political series). Results. It has been found that the media, in particular cinema, are able not only to reflect reality, but also to create it on their own. This is facilitated by such features of the media as mobility, accessibility, high speed of dissemination of information to a wide audience, and so on. The special features of cinema that distinguish it from other media and determine its influence on the political consciousness of the population is its ability to influence the emotional sphere, pretend to be real, evoke empathy, divide the characters into «bad» and «good». For this reason, the cinema of the USSR, the Third Reich and the United States pays great attention to the formation of images of heroes who are identified with the political system of the country. At the same time, the United States has repeatedly used TV series to create a loyal attitude to the new type of president on the eve of the election and long before it. Conclusions. It is concluded that the mediatization of the political sphere in Ukraine has only deepened, as evidenced by the fact that only in Ukraine the script of the political series was realized. The success of The Servant of the People is a testament to the effectiveness of the United States soft power policy and the widespread use of mythology in American cinema.