Alla Yarova, associate professor of the department of journalism and philology of the FРSС of Sumy State University, media expert of the Pylyp Orlyk Institute of Democracy, took part in the presentation and discussion of the research of the Lviv Media Forum “Networks” team on countering the narratives of russian propaganda about Ukraine in Western media.

Looking for answers to the questions of how narratives are born, penetrate Western media and influence the global context, researchers interviewed 17 newsrooms and 6 media specialists from Germany, Italy, Hungary, Latvia and France during December 2022 – March 2023. Foreign specialists confirmed that the topic of the russian war against Ukraine is important for their publications and countries, and the intensity of coverage depends on the events at the front and international politics. However, the position of Ukraine is often not fully represented in the materials, because journalists do not know where to get it.
What problems prevent you from covering the topic fully and objectively? The first is the lack of “first-hand” information and contacts with sources and experts. In particular, there is a lack of public speakers and experts who know the national languages of these countries and can participate in broadcasts, presenting the Ukrainian point of view.

The second is that the traditionally problematic journalistic standard – the balance of opinions – is presented in a distorted manner. Western media “balance” the Ukrainian position in russian. Although the manipulative nature of this position seems to be clearly understood. Thus, in France, in order to comply with the standard of equal representation of all participants in the conflict, politicians of the aggressor country and pseudo-experts-propagandists are often given the floor.
Alla Yarova, who is currently a member of an international expert group studying russian disinformation in Germany, adds:

– In the German segment of the Telegram platform, hundreds of channels have been created promoting russian aggressive narratives towards Ukraine. All of them form a stereotype that Germany is an undemocratic country, because it allegedly violates the fundamental norm of democracy – freedom of speech and the right to a different opinion. And this other opinion is the justification of Russian aggression. Under a barrage of undemocratic accusations, the official German media, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the Greens, Social Democrats, Christian Democrats, the police, in short, all those who are against the russian invasion, support the provision of arms to Ukraine and limit those who glorify the aggressor.

Among the options for improving the coverage of Ukrainian events in foreign media, the participants of the discussion proposed the following: form and provide a database of contacts of experts and journalists who speak foreign languages; create and distribute content in English and other European languages; work more actively with the governments of Western countries, national media regulators, and media associations to clear the information space of russian disinformation.

And students, taking this into account, should already today realize the importance of understanding the political situation, learn to be media literate and insist on learning foreign languages, because #media_space_leads_to_the_universe, which is really multilingual.