Opinion poll: more than half of Belarusians learn political news from domestic state media
Food for thought
More than half of Belarusians learn political news from the domestic state media – according to a sociological research conducted by the EcooM Analytical Centre
Respondents were asked, “What sources do you mostly use to learn news about politics?” The answer provided by 53.5 percent was from ‘Belarusian state media’. Among the three most frequently heard answers, were also ‘relatives, friends, acquaintances’ (about 30 percent) and ‘Russian media’ (over 28 percent). Respondents could choose several answer options.
Sergei Musienko
Commenting on the results of the study, Sergei Musienko, Director of the EcooM Analytical Centre, stressed, “The high level of trust in state media shows that they have become better at their work. The timeliness has increased a lot. News items are interesting. There is a diverse agenda. The presentation of content is different: print press, television, Internet, and Telegram channels. These are all important elements that play a role.”
As for such a source of information as ‘relatives, friends, acquaintances’, this is a special trend to be studied, the analyst noted, “It is not the main source of information. It is trust in communication between relatives and friends, people began to communicate more at work. This is the first time we have discovered such a trend, and it needs to be further studied. This is encouraging, because people communicate with each other. In my opinion, it’s positive and great.”
Mr. Musienko noted that there is also a category of citizens who are not interested in political news, “They are apolitical, indifferent. We must think about how to stir them up…
Meanwhile, events such as the Unity Marathon, a truly nationwide flash mob — ‘НАДО!’ [It is Necessary!] — are just a way of probing and entering this category, which we have not yet reached through traditional media. This is an opportunity to include these people through other channels of influence."
Preference for quality
Polina Vasilyuk, a member of the Standing Commission on Human Rights, National Relations and Mass Media at the House of Representatives, notes that the results of the opinion poll speak about the growth of information culture of Belarusians, about the responsible attitude of our people to information sources, “And this tendency is not surprising: we all remember how with the help of destructive Telegram channels, unfriendly forces tried to manipulate the opinion and behaviour of Belarusians, wanting to sow chaos and plunge our country into the abyss of internecine war.”
People began to understand that lack of information hygiene means exposure to any fake news that has nothing to do with reality.
It is impossible not to notice a sharp decline in trust in non-state media, the level of which is now three times lower than the opinion of friends and acquaintances. In turn, the quality of the work of state media, including in the virtual space, has greatly increased: they began to work proactively, promptly debunking fakes and offering citizens exclusive content that is supported by facts and, as a result, inspires people’s trust.
Svetlana Aleinikova, an analyst at the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Research (BISR), pointed out that the surveys commissioned by the BISR generally confirm the trend of increasing trust of the Belarusian audience in state media recorded by the EcooM Analytical Centre, “The results of other opinion polls correlate with the EcooM Centre data. In particular, in our survey, respondents were asked about their preferences and trust in state media in the context of covering the historical policy of the state. According to the data received, about 70 percent of citizens give preference to state-owned media. Another question in our research concerned the priority feedback channels of society with the state and government structures. Over 40 percent of those polled also see state media as such a channel. In the public’s perception, this is the most effective channel of communication between the government and society.”
According to the expert, the positive trend in the growth of Belarusians’ trust in state-owned media is due to several factors.
The specialist noted, “The first is the rehabilitation of the information space. The second is the dishonest policy of the so-called independent media segment. People begin to see manipulation, fake news, one-sided presentation or distortion of information.
The most important factor is the improvement in the quality of work of journalists and the entire team of state media, the emergence of new formats and interesting features. This really revitalises the information field, and people are more than happy to give preference to state media."
Candidate of Legal Sciences, Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Theory and History of State and Law at Gomel’s State University named after Francysk Skaryna, Tatiana Senkova, stresses that more than half of the respondents mentioned state media as a source of reliable information about political life.
“In the current realities of Internet dominance, I would call this figure very high. And the next column ‘relatives, friends, acquaintances’ is partly related to the first one. People discuss the information they have already received, but they prefer this style of communication. Perhaps this is also the format that state media could offer to such people. The same applies to users of non-state and other news sources. Some want to get information faster, others try to compare facts and hear an assessment from the outside. Such a minimum percentage is and will be in any country,” Ms. Senkova noted.
According to her, 13.6 percent of apolitical people is also not such a high level to raise questions about the civic awareness of the population.
“But these same people are extremely difficult to use for destructive purposes, and many of them simply have everything so good in their lives that they have no desire to be interested in politics in general,” she noted.
By Yevgeny Kononovich, Yulia Demeshko, Dmitry Boyarchuk