Oligarch-owned broadcasters decided Ukraine coverage by owner self-interest

Evidence

Social media was important from the beginning, and early demonstrators were largely middle-class and well-connected. But television was important too. Media in the country was controlled by oligarchs, often with television channels identifiably linked with a certain man and his business interests. Yanukovych had angered some (but not all) of this class by placing his own clan at the top of this system. From the beginning, outlets like Hromadske (funded by the Netherlands, the US, and George Soros)—this is where Mustafa Nayem worked—and Channel 5 (owned by chocolate industry magnate Petro Poroshenko) backed the uprising, while stations run by other oligarchs went back and forth as events unfolded, apparently in line with their owners’ personal interests. But if you were far from Kyiv and watching Russian television (as many Ukrainians did over the following months), you would have ended up with an entirely different idea of what happened in the square. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 486

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes media-control dynamics of the Egyptian and Brazilian protest chapters in this same book. — connects to: Global sympathy for Ukraine was driven primarily by race, not realpolitik — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1182; Whiteness, not realpolitik, drives Western solidarity with Ukraine. — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1182; Mainstream media framed Ukraine as more civilized than Iraq or Afghanistan — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1792 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Whiteness shapes journalistic framing; liberal and right-wing media shared racist Ukraine framing #expands (0.78) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1202
• Mainstream media framed Ukraine as more civilized than Iraq or Afghanistan #expands (0.75) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1792
• Disparate media coverage of Ukraine exposed the low global value of Muslim bodies. #expands (0.75)
• Western media framed Ukraine as civilized partly because it is European #expands (0.74) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1792
• Global sympathy for Ukraine was driven primarily by race, not realpolitik #complicates (0.72) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1182
• Whiteness, not realpolitik, drives Western solidarity with Ukraine. #complicates (0.72) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1182
• Whiteness drives the urgency of solidarity with Ukraine #complicates (0.72)