Despite Ukraine's strong IT industry, many media outlets struggle with innovation.

Key Findings

— Ukraine has a world-class IT sector, with the United States as its most important export market.
— Most media outlets are too weak financially to tap into the potential of Ukraine's world- class coders and IT experts.
— A very active civil society is a driving force for innovation in the media sector.
— Coders have in the past donated their labor for projects they consider worthwhile.
— Most of the research on journalism is conducted by non-governmental organizations instead of by universities. There is little research on the future of journalism.

Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv, is a five-hour train journey east from Kyiv. Surrounded by the Ukrainian steppe, its IT industry is deeply intertwined with the sector's global workflows. Some 95 percent of its orders go abroad, with the US as the most important export market followed by the EU. Ukraine's IT sector is one of the country's success stories. Employing roughly 200,000 people, its share of GDP is growing rapidly. It could provide a solid foundation for an innovative media sector, but most media outlets are financially too weak to profit from the country's world-class coders and IT experts.

As a result, the level of innovation in the Ukrainian media sector remains rather low. "Media managers are not able to assess one important thing," says Mykhailo Koltsov, senior lecturer in journalism at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, one of Ukraine's flagship universities. "Is it worth investing in new technology? Will that help them move forward? So, they continue to work in the traditional way."  Many new media outlets are founded as special interest media, says Koltsov. "But they are not innovative with regard to technology or even form."

Open source is vital for financially weak Ukrainian media

In Ukraine's difficult economic environment, open source is vital for many media houses, says Koltsov. "Media outlets are not ready to pay for any kind of software. Sometimes, they lack the financial means; sometimes, the understanding for why they need it."

Innovative media houses rare, but high quality

Nakipelo press conference

There are exceptions to the rule however. Platfor.ma is an independent Internet platform reporting on innovation and culture using design thinking. It is constantly experimenting with form, technology, distribution, and viability. Texty.org.ua is a data journalism resource that specializes in interactive visualizations. Voxukraine.org, a web-portal run by economists and lawyers with a mission to improve the level of the economic debate in Ukraine, engages in the fact checking of statements made by Ukrainian politicians, while Stopfake combats Russian propaganda. In Kharkiv, Nakipelo is working to find new ways of doing local journalism.

Civil society is driving innovation in the media sector

The fact that most of these projects were initiated by civil society is not a coincidence, says Iryna Solovey, head of Garage gang, a civil society organization focused on social innovation and the development of Ukrainian society. "Whatever kind of innovation is happening in the media, those behind it consider themselves a part of civil society."

Most media outlets hire coders when they need them for a specific project. "I think IT people are not very open to becoming co-founders of such projects, because in Ukraine most of them are just implementers," says Solovey. "They don't want to sit and think about the ethical aspects of data exchange. They just say give us the data." In her view, this does not necessarily limit the potential for innovation. "People are quite open to consult or coach you before a project. So, then you can write a proposal and then you hire them once it is approved."

Coders donate their labor to civil society media projects

At a Nakipelo trainer camp

As the IT sector works mainly for the global market, media houses find it difficult to compete with the salaries paid in the industry. However, some specialists see consulting on media projects connected to civil society as part of their own civil society activism. "When we started and needed to develop our website, an IT firm gifted us a month of their labor," says Roman Danilenkov from Nakipelo. "This was right after Maidan and they liked what we were doing. Afterwards, we continued working with them on a fee basis."

There are hackathons where IT specialists and civil society activists come together, like the Open Data Challenge, to collaborate on data based solutions for societal innovation. In 2018, the competition had 190 applications from 27 Ukrainian cities. At the same time, there are many co-working spaces in Kyiv and other major cities of the country; UNITCity, in an old factory compound in Kyiv, is one of many important start-up incubators.

Business skills not taught in journalism school

Most of the research on journalism is conducted by non-governmental organizations like Detektor Media, instead of by the universities, says Koltsov, although there are some high-profile scholars at his own institution. While contemporary Ukrainian journalism is well analyzed, there is little research on the future of journalism.

A few journalism faculties include coding skills in their curricula, but that is very far from being the rule. At the same time, there seems to be a lack of instruction on how to use programming for journalistic innovation. Business and management skills are rarely taught, says Koltsov. "This is a big problem. When young journalists start a new media outlet, they think they have to do only two things: Write and distribute their articles via social media. But the problems start after that."

What experts say:

Mykhailo Koltsov, senior lecturer for journalism at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, sees a discrepancy between the importance of open source software for media houses and the quality of the open source scene in Ukraine: "Open Source is very important in Ukraine, since media houses are not willing to pay for software. At the same time, open source programs are mostly international. There is no open source scene in Ukraine that works on open source with a special focus on the needs of the media."

​​​​​​​Iryna Solovey, head of Garage Gang, a civil society organization focused on social innovation and the development of Ukrainian society, sees the need for more collaboration between journalists, civil society activists and coders: "We need to work more on a CivTech scene, and we need to look more at the combination of data and storytelling. If we were able to tell stories through data, our stories would get better and we would get better data. And I hope this will bring us beyond the current reporting of who said what."

​​​​​​​Maria Fronoschuk, CEO of Platfor.ma and media consultant, says that there is already a good basis for growth in the CivTech scene. "There are many co-working spaces. Ukraine has a big community of socially active people. And all social innovation and change is triggered by this community."

Recommendations

— Capacity building for innovation management
Managing of innovation in media companies is one of the most important tasks for media managers in the digital age. Management skills should therefore be included in the curricula of journalism programs – where possible in cooperation with the universities' business schools. Mid-career media managers should attend training programs to gain these skills.

— Network building
​​​​​​​Most innovation in the media landscape is driven by Ukrainian civil society. The CivTech community needs stronger connections between journalists, activists, and coders.

— Open source is vital for regional media houses
Especially for poorer regional media houses, open source is vital for their successful development. They have a strong need for the creation of a vibrant open source community to help them surmount the challenging environment.

The #speakup barometer is a DW Akademie project that examines the connection between digital participation, freedom of expression and access to information. Learn more at www.dw.com/barometer