After the beginning of a full-scale invasion of the territory of Ukraine by the russian federation on February 24, Ukrainian society has been monitoring news, the updates from the front, and official statements of the Ukrainian authorities, and foreign leaders.
People are constantly consuming the news and live in several informational flows simultaneously. Which changes appeared in the media consumption? Which sources do Ukrainians use to receive the news? The answers to these questions can be found in the results of the poll Kyiv International Institute of Sociology hold from May 3, to26, 2022, commissioned by the Civil Network OPORA.
The most popular source of information in the last two months was social networks — 76.6% of Ukrainians use them to get news updates. The second most popular source was television, with 66.7% of votes, the third place went to the Internet (not including social networks) — 61.2% of users. Currently, about 28.4% of Ukrainian citizens listen to the radio, and only 15.7% of respondents read the printed media.
It is important to note that some questions had several answers possible.
The most notable differences are in the consumption of news by age. Thus, more than 92% of respondents between the ages of 18 and 39 consume news on social media, the same as over 64% of consumers between the ages of 40 and 69. At the same time, older people prefer television (more than 78% of users over 60 years old) and radio (more than 36% of users over 60 years old). More than 60% of users from 30 to 59 years old use the Internet without taking into account social media as a source of news, and more than 20% of users above 60 years old use the printed media.
Along with this, women are more likely to receive the news from TV than men, who, in turn, use Internet more.
There are also minor differences in the consumption of news by users from villages and cities. In particular, residents of rural areas are more likely to watch television (71.3% versus 64.4% in cities) and read printed media (21.5% versus 12.7%). Conversely, social media as a source of news are most actively used in the southern part of Ukraine (77.8% of respondents), most of those who read online media live in the east of Ukraine (63.2%). The West has the largest share of users who watch television (73.5%), read print media (23.2%), and listen to the radio (34.6%).
Media Consumption of Ukrainians in a Full-Scale War. OPORA Survey
The survey was commissioned by OPORA and conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology from May, 3 to 26, 2022. Computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI) surveyed 2,009 respondents living in all regions of Ukraine (except AR Crimea) using random sampling of mobile phone numbers (with random generation of phone numbers and subsequent statistical weighting). The survey was conducted among adult population (aged 18 years and older) of Ukrainian citizens who at the time of the survey lived in Ukraine (within the boundaries controlled by the Ukrainian government before February 24, 2022). The sample did not include residents of territories temporarily outside the control of the Ukrainian government before February 24, 2022 (the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the city of Sevastopol, some districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions), as well as citizens who left abroad after February, 24, 2022. The field phase lasted from May, 19 to 24, 2022. The statistical error of the sample (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.1) does not exceed: 2.4% for indicators close to 50%, 2.1% – for indicators close to 25%, 1.5% – for indicators close to 10%.