Sociologists: Ukrainian TV in Ukraine is watched, trusted and not checked

The vast majority of Ukrainians watch Ukrainian TV channels, do not really believe them, but do not check the information they receive. At the same time, the majority of Ukrainians do not trust Russian media and do not watch them.

This is evidenced by the results of a sociological survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

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The vast majority of Ukrainians (86%) receive information about the situation in the country and the world from Ukrainian TV channels. 27% of respondents receive information from Ukrainian Internet sites, 24% - from social networks, 18% - from their personal social circle - relatives, neighbors, colleagues, etc.

No more than 8% of the population uses other sources. In particular, only 5% of respondents noted that they receive information about the situation in Ukraine and the world from Russian TV channels. Of these, two-thirds watch Russian TV channels via satellite, 13% watch broadcasts on the Internet, 12% watch using an analog antenna and 8% watch using cable television.

At the same time, 57% of Ukrainians watch exclusively Ukrainian media. In eastern Ukraine this figure is 52%. Almost everyone who receives information from Russian media also receives information from Ukrainian media. Only 0,2% of Ukrainian residents receive information exclusively from Russian media. In eastern Ukraine this figure is 0,6%.

“The majority of the population receives information from relatively one channel,” Anton Grushetsky, deputy director of the institute, commented on the survey results.

57% of respondents trust information about the armed conflict in the east received from Ukrainian TV channels (in the east of Ukraine this figure is 46% versus 54-61% in other regions), and 14% trust information from Internet sites, 13% trust information from social networks. At the same time, only 27% of Ukrainian TV viewers believe that Ukrainian channels really provide objective information about events in Ukraine and Donbass, 43% are convinced that the information is not true, 30% could not answer the question.

35% of respondents claim that if they received information from the Ukrainian national, Russian, local media or LDPR media, then they check it in the media of the other side. At the same time, slightly more than half (52%) do not check the information.

“It is obvious that the culture of verification is not very widespread among the population,” comments Anton Grushetsky.

At the same time, in the case of conflicting information from various sources, 58% give preference to Ukrainian national media and only 1% would prefer Russian media or LDPR media, which indicates a low level of trust in the latter. At the same time, every third Ukrainian (38%) in such a situation does not know which media they can believe. If among the residents of the west of Ukraine 27% do not know who to believe, then in the center - 37%, in the south - 47%, in the east - 48% (at the same time, in all regions it is the Ukrainian media that are leading).

On average, an adult Ukrainian watches 3 Ukrainian TV channels, but when it comes to events in Ukraine and the war in Donbass, he trusts only half of them.

Most often, Ukrainians watch TV channels “1 + 1” (61%), “Inter” (48%), “Ukraine” (44%), ICTV (39%), STB (36%), “New Channel” (18% ) and channel “112” (15%). At the same time, “1 + 1” is trusted by 35% of viewers, “Inter” and “Ukraine” - 22% each, on ICTV - 20%, on channel “112” - 8% and “New Channel” - 6%.

“1 + 1” is the leader of trust in the west and center of Ukraine, “Inter” and “Ukraine” - in the south and east. ICTV has more or less the same audience in all regions, while STB is watched more in the south and less in the east.

The study was conducted from February 5 to February 21, 2018, commissioned by the NGO “Media Detector” in all regions of Ukraine controlled by the Kyiv authorities. 2 thousand 43 respondents were surveyed.

The statistical sampling error does not exceed 3,3% for indicators close to 50%, 2,8% for indicators close to 25%, 2,0% for indicators close to 12%, 1,4% for indicators close to 5%, 0,7% – for indicators close to 1%.