In today’s world, and especially in our country, the media space is not only a source of information, but also a powerful business. By accessing social media, the blogosphere, or visiting news sites, Ukrainians are subject to targeted and paid information campaigns, believing them to be an “independent view” that is in fact highly dependent on the dollar or other currencies.
In most countries of the world, media companies operate as commercial enterprises whose success directly depends on the revenue they receive from advertisers. This encourages the media to focus on the needs and preferences of their audience, because it is their attention that advertisers are fighting for.
However, the situation with the media business in Ukraine has its own peculiarities. A large part of the domestic media is non-profit. The key players in this market are often large financial and industrial groups, oligarchs, and new political forces interested in power, though not always legally registered. For these owners, media assets are not so much a source of profit as a tool to maintain and strengthen their political influence and control over public opinion. Their goal is to shape readers, viewers, or listeners to the point of view that suits their own interests.
In this context, the role of journalists is also changing. Their primary audience is no longer consumers of information, but media owners, who provide them with salaries and, accordingly, determine their editorial policy. The owner is, in fact, the main customer of information content.
In view of this, media literacy is of particular importance for Ukrainian society. It is extremely important for every consumer of information to understand the mechanisms of media functioning, to know their owners and their potential goals. When interacting with any media message, a conscious person should ask themselves a number of critical questions:
- Who is the author of this text or video?
- Why are they telling us this? What message are they trying to convey to the audience?
- What is the target audience?
- What words and expressions are used in this media text? Are they emotionally charged or manipulative?
- Who could have paid for it? What interests could be behind this funding?
- Who can benefit from the dissemination of this information? Whose interests does it support?
- Who can it harm? Whose positions does it weaken?
- What is not mentioned in this text? What important aspects of the topic are left out of the story? What information is intentionally or unintentionally withheld?
Developing the ability to critically evaluate media content, the ability to recognize hidden messages and analyze media texts to obtain an objective picture of events is a key task of media literacy in Ukrainian society. Developing critical thinking about information consumption is a key to information security.
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