Communicating News in Wartime Ukraine

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 marked the first time industrial countries had fought a major war since 1945. This offers a unique opportunity to observe how news and communication change under the impact of a war. The Ukraine UNESCO Portulans study asked a representative sample of 2,014 Ukrainian mobile phone users about their news, information, and communication patterns in August 2024. The preliminary findings indicate that the war has fuelled a dramatic increase in the importance of news and information. Individuals have reconfigured their news consumption, 86% indicate they consume less Russian content. The most trusted sources are friends and family, followed by online search, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, and internet media including social media. Traditional media like TV and print media are less trusted than internet media. When respondents want to check information they say they first ask friends and family, followed by using online search. Media literacy is high with 49% rating their ability to accomplish online tasks as good or excellent. Around 90% say they pay attention to the source of news and they check other sources to help judge the trustworthiness of news. The centrality of online search and willingness to check other sources underlines the general pattern of sourcing information across multiple information and communication channels. People are cautious in part because most understand communication as a national security issue. There is no evidence of a ‘spiral of silence’ in Ukraine, as arguably there appears to be in Russia (Nolle-Neumann, 1984). Friends and family are among the most trusted sources of information. Sourcing information on- and offline and sharing with friends and family seem to be at the core of this smart nation. These are preliminary themes that we will expand and put in a theoretical context for the full paper.