Scholars' Attention to Ukraine: the Same Problems as in the Mass Media

There are two main problems with scholarly research on Ukraine, and they are roughly the same as the problems with the attention to our country from the mainstream world media. The first of these is common to most other nonleading countries: most publications remember them only when something extraordinary happens there. For example, the largest war in Europe since World War II. The second problem is more specific: Russian strategic narratives, or, in other words, Russian propaganda, can infiltrate scientific articles. After all, scientific journals are also media. They disseminate information about the real world, and therefore they can also set an agenda or present one’s own interpretation of events

The Influence of the ‘Tomos Narrative’ as a Part of the Ukrainian National and Strategic Narrative

One of the most prominent parts of the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election was the mediatized topic of achieving Ukrainian church independence, and its symbol, the tomos document received from the Ecumenical Patriarch in January 2019. This process was a part of incumbent president Petro Poroshenko’s electoral campaign. Narrative analysis of this topic showed that it had a structure similar to that of classic Hollywood plots. It is unlike most other media narratives present in the information space. We prove that this topic had a major influence on its audience: media attention to the topic of Tomos was found to be closely correlated to Google search data associated with the ‘tomos’ search term and with electoral support for Poroshenko. However, this narrative`s audience was limited to the patriotic electorate, thus Poroshenko did not win the election. Nevertheless, the Tomos story became so influential that it can be considered a part of national and strategic narratives

EVALUATING THE SOCIAL IMPACT OF INTERNET MEDIA NEWS

The goal of the research is to develop a method for measuring topical social information impact on active people through monitoring the dynamics of social networks users interaction. We introduced the concept of interactive potential which can be determined through dynamics curve analysis in order to interact with information. Regular measuring of news’ interactive potential allows tracing the dynamics of social interest in some topics. We used the method to analyze trending topics in Ukrainian media and to describe the dynamics of people’s concern with political life and their readiness for public protests

Viešųjų ryšių pranešimų analizė kaip naujas kiekybinio ir kokybinio komunikacijos kampanijos tyrimo metodas

Communication practitioners often seek fast quantitative and qualitative analysis of the information campaign outcomes in the media space. Such analysis is required by PR departments of commercial brands, by political technologists, and by experts in information wars and ideology. A new approach for the analysis of information campaign outcomes is introduced in this paper. Using PR messages as a category for analysis of media coverage of information campaigns provides a framework for credible efficiency evaluation, as well as for the deep analysis of the factors contributing to achievements or failures. This method allows the campaign organizers to understand what message it is better to disseminate in the media. In other words, through the messages of what kind the opinion of the campaign initiator or their opponents is conveyed to the media audience more effectively. We consider a message to be a judgment in which an object or predicate relates to the substance of the information campaign. Using it as a category for analysis and several types of the message as subcategories of analysis allows us to combine qualitative and quantitative approaches and, at the same time, avoid many restrictions of content analysis, discourse analysis, and narrative analysis. We show how the method works on the example of the failed information campaign that promoted a lobbyist and populist bill in the Ukrainian parliament. We showed that only our method could explain the reasons for its failure and provide the best way to improve the communication.Komunikacijos specialistai dažnai siekia greitos kiekybinės ir kokybinės informacinės kampanijos rezultatų analizės žiniasklaidos erdvėje. Tokios analizės reikalauja komercinių prekių ženklų viešųjų ryšių departamentai, politikos technologai ir informacinių karų bei ideologijos ekspertai. Šiame straipsnyje pristatomas naujas požiūris į informacinių kampanijų rezultatų analizę. Viešųjų ryšių pranešimų naudojimas kaip informacinių kampanijų žiniasklaidos analizės kategorija suteikia pagrindą patikimam efektyvumo vertinimui, taip pat nuodugniai veiksnių, prisidedančių prie pasiekimų ar nesėkmių, analizei. Šis metodas leidžia kampanijos organizatoriams suprasti, kokią žinią geriau skleisti žiniasklaidoje. Kitaip tariant, per kokio tipo kampanijos iniciatorių ar jų oponentų pranešimus nuomonė efektyviau perduodama žiniasklaidos auditorijai. Mes manome, kad pranešimas yra sprendimas, kuriame objektas ar predikatas yra susijęs su informacinės kampanijos esme. Naudodami jį kaip analizės kategoriją ir kelių tipų pranešimą kaip analizės subkategorijas, galime derinti kokybinius ir kiekybinius metodus ir tuo pačiu metu išvengti daugelio turinio analizės, diskurso analizės ir naratyvinės analizės apribojimų. Mes parodome, kaip šis metodas veikia žlugusios informacinės kampanijos, kuri Ukrainos parlamente propagavo lobistinį ir populistinį įstatymo projektą, pavyzdžiu. Mes atskleidėme, kad tik mūsų metodas gali paaiškinti jos žlugimo priežastis ir suteikti geriausią būdą, kaip pagerinti komunikaciją

METHODS FOR DETERMINATION OF INTERNET MEDIA FUNDING MODELS BY OBSERVING ITS CONTENT

Content of any media resource is closely related to goals the media aimed to reach as well as to its funding model. Nevertheless, peculiarities of this relationship had not been described in scientific literature before, especially in the context of Ukrainian informational share of the Internet. Our goal is to indicate and describe these peculiarities, and, on that basis, to form methods of determination of a funding model for a certain Ukrainian Internet media. We discovered that the interdependence between a funding model and its content primarily consists of its orientation towards financial attractiveness. If there is no such an aim, there can be dysfunction resulting in subsidization. Determination of these subsidies’ origin is usually quite easy, because the stateowned, grant based and crowdfunding media do not tend to hide their funding sources and only sponsor’s subsidies are usually kept secret

When Fact-Checking and ‘BBC Standards’ Are Helpless: ‘Fake Newsworthy Event’ Manipulation and the Reaction of the ‘High-Quality Media’ on It

Fact-checking and journalists professional standards usually are considered to be the best fail-safe against manipulations in media. However, we found that newsmakers are able to manipulate even the audience of so-called ‘high-quality media’ who practice all mentioned approaches. To prove this we have refined the concept of ‘pseudo-event’, introduced by D.J. Boorstin, by defining the term ‘fake newsworthy event’ as an event created by newsmakers, that is high-profile and attractive for media, but the only or particular aim of these actions is an agenda-setting, and this aim is not obvious from the origin of the action. Namely, the member of parliament may file some bill realizing that it cannot be adopted and trying just to shape the public opinion. Or some person may claim against a celebrity or businessman having no chance to win at trial. On the example of Ukrainian ‘high-quality media’ we showed that journalists usually do not take into account whether some topics are launched just for manipulating agenda-setting. To prove that we gathered the data about publications focused on such topics in Ukrainian ‘high-quality media’, we provided their discourse analysis, and compared the result with experts’ evaluations of ‘media quality’ and ‘artificiality rate’ of the topic. We have not found correlations between ‘artificiality’ of the topic and the number of publications. Recommendations were elaborated for the media workers if they want to avoid this type of manipulation

When Fact-Checking and ‘BBC Standards’ Are Helpless: ‘Fake Newsworthy Event’ Manipulation and the Reaction of the ‘High-Quality Media’ on It

Fact-checking and journalists professional standards usually are considered to be the best fail-safe against manipulations in media. However, we found that newsmakers are able to manipulate even the audience of so-called ‘high-quality media’ who practice all mentioned approaches. To prove this we have refined the concept of ‘pseudo-event’, introduced by D.J. Boorstin, by defining the term ‘fake newsworthy event’ as an event created by newsmakers, that is high-profile and attractive for media, but the only or particular aim of these actions is an agenda-setting, and this aim is not obvious from the origin of the action. Namely, the member of parliament may file some bill realizing that it cannot be adopted and trying just to shape the public opinion. Or some person may claim against a celebrity or businessman having no chance to win at trial. On the example of Ukrainian ‘high-quality media’ we showed that journalists usually do not take into account whether some topics are launched just for manipulating agenda-setting. To prove that we gathered the data about publications focused on such topics in Ukrainian ‘high-quality media’, we provided their discourse analysis, and compared the result with experts’ evaluations of ‘media quality’ and ‘artificiality rate’ of the topic. We have not found correlations between ‘artificiality’ of the topic and the number of publications. Recommendations were elaborated for the media workers if they want to avoid this type of manipulation

Serum Levels of VEGF-A and Its Receptors in Patients in Different Phases of Hemorrhagic and Ischemic Strokes

Vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGFs) are important regulators of angiogenesis, neuroprotection, and neurogenesis. Studies have indicated the association of VEGF dysregulation with the development of neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular diseases. We studied the changes in serum levels of VEGF-A, VEGFR-1, and VEGFR-2 in patients at various phases of ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes. Quantitative assessment of VEGF-A, VEGFR-1, and VEGFR-2 in serum of patients with hemorrhagic or ischemic stroke was performed by enzyme immunoassay in the hyper-acute (1–24 h from the onset), acute (up to 1–7 days), and early subacute (7 days to 3 months) phases of stroke, and then compared with the control group and each other. Results of our retrospective study demonstrated different levels of VEGF-A and its receptors at various phases of ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes. In ischemic stroke, increased VEGFR-2 level was found in the hyper-acute (p = 0.045) and acute phases (p = 0.024), while elevated VEGF-A and reduced VEGFR-1 levels were revealed in the early subacute phase (p = 0.048 and p = 0.012, respectively). In hemorrhagic stroke, no significant changes in levels of VEGF-A and its receptors were identified in the hyper-acute phase. In the acute and early subacute phases there was an increase in levels of VEGF-A (p p = 0.006, respectively) and VEGFR-2 (p p = 0.012, respectively). Serum levels of VEGF-A and its receptors in patients with hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke indicate different pathogenic pathways depending on the phase of the disease

Ukrainian Studies in Social Sciences

This issue presents commentaries on “Ukrainian Studies in Social Sciences” in the context of Russia's large-scale war of aggression. After an introduction by Gwendolyn Sasse, the Science at Risk Emergency Office provides an assessment of the war's consequences for Ukrainian science. Contributions by Yulia Kurnyshova, Inna Melnykovska and Artem Zakharchenko describe the war’s impact of the war on subfields: International Relations, Comparative Politics, Media and Communication Studies. The issue concludes with contributions by Tamara Martsenyuk, a team of authors organised by Vox Ukraine, and Roman Horbyk on failures of Ukrainian Studies that have become apparent now.Diese Ausgabe präsentiert Kommentare zu Ukraine-Studien in den Sozialwissenschaften im Kontext des großflächigen russischen Angriffskriegs. Nach einem einführenden Überblick von Gwendolyn Sasse bietet das Science at Risk Emergency Office eine Bestandsaufnahme der Kriegsfolgen für die ukrainische Wissenschaft. Anschließend beschreiben die Beiträge von Yulia Kurnyshova, Inna Melnykovska und Artem Zakharchenko aus ihrer Sicht den Einfluss des Krieges auf Teilbereiche der Sozialwissenschaften: Internationale Beziehungen, Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft sowie Medien- und Kommunikationsforschung. Den Abschluss bilden Beiträge von Tamara Martsenyuk, einem Autorenteam organisiert von Vox Ukraine sowie Roman Horbyk zu Fehlentwicklungen in der sozialwissenschaftlichen Forschung zur Ukraine, die durch den Krieg offensichtlich geworden sind.ISSN:2941-71