By Oleksii Pivtorak, Sofia Skyba, Denys Shabanin
Українською читайте тут.
Since May 2022, Detector Media (DM) has been collecting data about individuals appearing on the air of the "United News" (Єдині новини) telethon (read the results for May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December of 2022, and January, February, March, April, May, June, July, and October 2023). DM prepared the previous day’s broadcast summaries daily in our column "Daily news". At the end of 2022, we summed up the results of the first ten months of the marathon.
In November, "United News" invited 1,769 guests to the broadcast, an average of 59 commenters daily. There were 681 unique guests among them. Therefore, the average marathon participant was invited to the air two and a half times a month. The number of unique guests decreased by 4% compared to October 2023.
The representation of women also decreased (even lower than it has already been). In November, 321 female commentators participated in the "United News" — 18.1% of the total guests. For comparison, 310 men named Oleksandr and Serhiy participated in the marathon. There were 177 unique commentators, 26% of the unique guests. It means that women are not only less likely to be invited in general, they are less likely to be invited again.
For the first time since January 2023, Natalya Humenyuk does not head the rating of the most popular guests of the "United News". After setting a record in October (54 appearances in a month!), in November, the head of the Joint Coordination Press Center of the Defense Forces "South" (Об’єднаний координаційний пресцентр Сил оборони «Південь») visited 27 broadcasts. It is exactly half as much and may be due to a change in her position and responsibilities. Now, Mrs. Natalya is the third most popular guest of the marathon.
Oleksandr Tolokonnikov, the head of the press office of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, "headed" the "United News" in November with 37 broadcasts. Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat is in second place with 35 broadcasts. Among the ten most popular guests in November, only two people did not hold public positions: the military (Oleksandr Musienko) and political (Volodymyr Fesenko) commentators of the marathon.
The ten most famous guests in November together commented on 259 broadcasts.
If one did not know that "United News" is a state channel, it would be enough to figure it out by looking at the schedule of political representation on the air. The first place goes to Mykhailo Podolyak, the de facto speaker of the President's Office, who statistically appears on the marathon air every two days. Representatives of the "Servant of the People" political party take the second and third places. Another splits the fourth place, speaker of the Office of the President, a member of the "Servant of the People", and two ministers.
For a long time, the first and last representative of the conditional "opposition" in this rating is Mykhailo Tsimbalyuk from Batkivshchyna, who was invited to the air five times during November. The most popular European Solidarity speaker was invited thrice on Suspilne’s air. Instead of the supposedly parliamentary TV channel Rada, Suspilne provides the marathon with at least the appearance of democracy and the representation of all parliamentary factions.
In November, European Solidarity, Batkivshchyna, and Holos representatives were invited to the marathon 19 times. It is almost as often as Mykhailo Podoliak alone. Of these 19 appearances, 14 were aired by Suspilne. The conditional opposition appeared twice on ICTV and once on the air 1+1. The parliamentary channel Rada invited Mykhailo Tsimbalyuk from Batkivshchyna twice in November, and... that's it.
Instead, only Rada invited representatives of the "Dovira" group four times during November and representatives of the "For the Future" group four out of six times. The latter appeared twice more on 1+1. One can make their own conclusions about who cooperates with whom and for whom the marathon operates.
Moreover - "Servants of the People" were asked to appear on the air 78 times during November.
The "fall" of Natalya Humenyuk was the telethon’s most significant change regarding the guests’ representation in November. Other more minor nuances included: the most popular guests on the Rada channel, not for the first time, were not the spokespersons, but two commentators — Volodymyr Fesenko and Oleksandr Musienko, for whom the channel provided half of the total appearances on the air. Other media, except 1+1, continued to bet on state officials. Also, the channels differ slightly in their approach to selecting experts. For example, Oleh Pendzyn was an economic commentator only on Suspilne. Also, Oleksiy Buryachenko was a political commentator only on Rada.
The most popular topic of the marathon was military operations and activities — 27% of conversations with guests were about it. Spokesmen Yuriy Ignat and Natalya Humenyuk commented on this topic the most. International relations occupied 21.6% of broadcasts, with a significant share of Volodymyr Fesenko's and other political commentators' appearances. The humanitarian situation was discussed in 15% of broadcasts, primarily by representatives of the regions. In particular, all 37 appearances of Oleksandr Tolokonnikov, the head of the press office of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, touched upon this topic. Internal politics of Ukraine was also discussed in 15% of conversations, and 1.7% of conversations were about culture; these numbers have not changed much throughout the marathon's existence.
