Yazova Anna

Dnipropetrovsk National University Oles Honchar, Ukraine 

The image of Ukraine in the UK’s press under international law

 

In our time the positive international image of any country assumes the high standard of living, level of education and culture level.

No wonder a famous essayist and journalist D. Olshansky argues that the image of country is a mental image of any state is formed in the minds of citizens and foreign audiences. It is created in the communicated process between the subjects of economic, social and political life within the country and outside its borders [2, с. 166].

The image of Ukraine depends on different factors: the contents, nature and coordination of state organizations in activity on the international arena. To become the part of global information universe Ukraine is to have a good legal terrain like international laws. All Ukrainian laws are based on The Constitution of Ukraine. But also exiting another laws: the Ukrainian laws “About information” 1992, “About printable mass media (press) in Ukraine” 1992. These documents formed the legal basis for the development of mass media of Ukraine. Also in 2009 the Cabinet of Ministers accepted “A state program for the formation of a positive international image of Ukraine for the period until 2011”. It was a successful program, but it had a bad funding.

The state reflects political, economic, social, cultural component in the media (Internet, newspapers, TV), because an effective media helps to formulate an opinion about the state. As British journalist D. Stamper said about this: “The newspapers are owned by certain people, and these people have their point of view” [4]. So, what readers have is the possibility to get in the Western media, usually representing only a fragmented view of Ukraine situation.

During the study two leading publications in the UK have been analyzed: The Daily Mirror and The Independent.

Over the past two years 1395 articles mentioning Ukraine (549 articles in 2013 and 846 in 2014 have been published). However, the study showed that only half of them related to events that are directly associated with Ukraine, other materials were only a
dip into an
individual aspects of the Ukrainian sports, politics or culture in the context of British news. Article publication “The Daily Mirror” small volume (4-5 paragraphs) and contains a lot of illustrations (photographs, animations in GIF format).

549 materials in 2013 year were organized under such categories as: "Football" (444), "News" (47), TV (29), Games (8), "Boxing" (6), "lifestyle" (4), Special (3), the "Other sports" (3), "Tennis"(2). It is obvious that the majority  of materials were placed in the sections devoted to sport. The most popular tags of the article were: "English football team", "Football fans", "World Cup Qualification".

In 2014, the situation did not change significantly. The only difference was that sports life of Ukraine faded into the background. It gave place to the political developments in the state (Ukraine has been presented as a buffer area, which from ancient times was the area of power distribution between stronger neighboring countries). It was also revealed that in 2014 most of the articles were published under tags: "The crisis in Ukraine", "Politics", "Ukrainian protests", "Plane crash". Almost all the news was posted under the tags containing information about negative events occurring in Ukrainian society.

Over the past two years in the publication of “The Independent” 2427 articles mentioning Ukraine were published. Articles of the newspaper “The Independent” were different in size (4-5 paragraphs; 10-15 paragraphs) and contained a lot of illustrations (photos, videos).

588 publications were found in the website of the electronic edition in the process of the necessary materials in 2013research. The main theme of articles of the first half of 2013 was sport (football competitions and boxing matches), the second part contained materials about the political situation in the state and the actions of the Ukrainian politicians and public authorities. Basic tags publications in 2013 were "News", "Sports", "Arts & Entertainment", "Voices".

The number of articles mentioning Ukraine rose in more than three times in 2014. This process is explained by the fact that the events which occurred on the Ukrainian territory directly influenced the political situation in the countries of the European Union. Also in 2014 the number of articles published under the tag of "Voice" rose. These articles contained quotes of famous politicians, publicists, journalists about the situation in Ukraine.

During the comparative analysis of two leading British publications, it was found that a major theme that attracts the attention of journalists of Great Britain is Ukrainian sports (mainly football and boxing) as well as Ukrainian athletes: Eugene Konoplyanka, Vitali and Volodymyr Klitchko. Most of the materials about sport are positive, although materials about politics are negative. There was more news about politics than the one about sport, so articles that contained negative information about life in Ukraine prevailed. Most of the social aspects of Ukrainians daily lives remained completely undetected by British journalists.

In “The Daily Mirror” and “The Independent” (despite different owners) Ukraine is presented as a state that does not currently have the ability to withstand the effects of both the European Union and Russia.

E. Dzyuba in his “Media-image: Ukrainian perspectives in foreign media” suggests that, based on the nature of the information in the foreign press reports, Ukraine appears as a state of “post-Soviet” as a country “gray zone” between Russia and the European Union. In addition, it (country) is offended by the new world order, by the fact that it has no place in Europe. Concerning the inner life, the aliens consider Ukraine corrupt and imperfect democratic, calling the independence of Ukraine “fragile”. Some articles about the social life of Ukrainians are only about illegal migration, human trafficking and AIDS [6].

It is difficult to characterize the state of the research problem of this study due to the lack of relevant researches on the subject, but finally it has been determined that Ukraine dependents on foreign information agencies that provide their interests in certain fields of knowledge through intervention in the Ukrainian media space. Now Ukraine is unable to resist the intervention.
                   Ukrainian politicians, statesmen, journalists need to take seriously the problem of insecurity of the Ukrainian information space and the problems of forming the external image of Ukraine, otherwise in the near future the situation is unlikely to change dramatically.

 

References:

 

1.     Бойко О. В. Зовнішній імідж України в світлі англомовної преси / О. В. Бойко. // Наукові записки. Сер. Політика і етнологія; Ін-т політичних і етнонаціональних досліджень НАН України. – К., 2001. – №16. – С. 291–307.

2.     Ольшанский Д. В. Политико-психологический словарь. – М.: Академический Проект, 2002. – 576 с.

3.     Сапунов В. И. Функционирование зарубежных информационных агентств в современной медиасистеме : автореф. дис. на соискание уч. степени канд. фил. наук : спец. 10.01.10 "Журналистика" / Сапунов В. И. – Воронеж, 2007. – 38 с.

4.     Вплив ЗМІ на імідж України у світі [Електронний ресурс] // Центр Медіареформ. – 2004. – Режим доступу до ресурсу: http://www.mediareform.com.ua/article.php?articleID=148.

5.     Семченко О. Спортивний імідж України / Олександр Семченко. // Освіта регіону. – 2012. – №4.

6.     Дзюба Є. Медіа-імідж країни: українська проблематика в іноземних ЗМІ / СП «АДЕФ-Україна», 2006 – 210 с.