Monday, March 16, 2015

Ukraine's media war ~ Battle of the memes

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21646280-russia-has-shown-its-mastery-propaganda-war-ukraine-struggling-catch-up-battle-web?fsrc=scn/tw_ec/battle_of_the_memes

Ukraine TV audience share
Ukrainian journalists have been struggling with how to carry themselves in a war where the media plays an outsize role. Inside the newsroom of 1+1, one of Ukraine's top television stations, Ukrainian flags signed by soldiers hang on the walls. Spent shells rest on bookshelves, and on the floor lie fragments of the ruined Donetsk airport. Next to a target-practice mannequin dressed in a separatist uniform and labeled "Putin", a donation box calls out: "Help Protect Ukraine". Aleksander Tkachenko, chief executive of 1+1 Media, says journalists have found themselves "participants in a war. Not physically, but a new type of war."