Habits of a news junkie

Yuriy Kupinskiy is a freelance web-developer living in Poltava in central Ukraine. He used to own a small record shop before, as he jokes, it "was eaten up by Internet." Now Yuriy, who has a programming degree, works from home developing and supporting websites for his clients. Here's his media story.

"My media consumption is strongly connected to my daily routine. I love watching news on the TV news Channel 24 while I'm having breakfast. Then I start working on my computer and check what is happening in the world from time to time.

I have two quite effective methods for that. One is RSS feed and I've also been using Inoreader [a cloud-based RSS content reader] since Google Reader was closed down. I subscribe to the online media I like and get their updates. These are collated from various types of media – news sources like the news agency Unian, business news from Liga or Radio Svoboda [the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty] as well as professional websites or professional news sources like the technology and innovation website, ain.ua.

In addition to Inoreader, I also use Facebook in a similar way. I am not very active and don't have many Facebook friends so most of my Facebook updates are from media pages. It is a place where I can find a lot of educational information, such as interesting features, photographs or factual information. I like to read these types of things.

In the evening, I usually listen to rock music on Radio Rocks. It helps when you have to wash the dishes. Then I watch a TV show online or sometimes my wife and I drink a glass of wine and watch YouTube – video by video – remembering our younger days. Occasionally I buy magazines like "Focus" or "Novoye Vremya" but only when I travel. It turns out I get most of my information for free.

Of course, I use the Internet. I wouldn't be able to do my work properly without it. Luckily, here in Ukraine we enjoy one of the best Internet connections in the world and it is cheap.

I spend about five to six hours a day on media including the time devoted to e-learning. I subscribe to several online courses. Web-development is a competitive market and it demands constant self-improvement. I only work with small clients and have never taken on huge orders but I still try to keep up with the industry.

I use media in Russian and Ukrainian but when something big happens and I want to track the news to its source and double check it – I go to English language websites, such as Reuters or BBC.

The most important information for me is professional, educational and news. I am not really keen on sport and entertainment. Apart from rock music – it still matters.

Media help me to be aware of what is happening in the world and in my country, to follow the things that can change people's lives. Maybe it helps me to understand where my place is on canvas of the big world.

The media have a huge impact on people especially in Ukraine. Here the news can become the basis of how you see the world; it can influence your life position. Based on what is happening in society and what is reported, we have to decide who we are and whom we support.

Information influences lives, friendships and relationships in a very direct way. For instance, those who have relatives in Russia are going through hard times, especially when they don't share populist views.

I believe information to be trustworthy if I find it on a resource I trust. It should be a professional news website with a good reputation which hasn't been involved in scandals or schemes. I used to read Korrespondent but when it was sold [to Serhiy Kurchenko, a fugitive gas tycoon who fled Ukraine after the fall of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych] I stopped using it and don't consider it a proper news site anymore.

There is no censorship in Ukraine. You can check any information using any source without any problems [although the transmission of pro-Russian TV stations is banned - eds note].

I don't feel something is missing in my media habits. Maybe I just think it is time for good local or regional journalism to appear. I would probably read or watch some local investigations. We currently don't have anything like this in the place where I live.

The media industry is changing and developing. The Internet plays a bigger part every year. I see that print media are dying but this is a universal tendency, isn't it?"

Background to the media in Ukraine
The average Ukrainian spends 5-7 hours a day consuming media. Television is the most popular medium, watched by more than 80 percent of the population. The Internet is also popular, with 58 percent of Ukrainians having used the Internet at least once a month in 2015.

Ukrainians do not have problems with access to media of any kind - with one exception: there is a ban on the transmission of pro-Russian TV stations. There is no limitation, however, on the sale of Russian newspapers and magazines, and Russian websites aren't blocked either.

One of the major challenges facing freedom of the press in Ukraine, however, is that almost all the big media outlets, whether TV stations, websites, newspapers or magazines, belong to political or industrial groups. On the one hand, having wealthy players invest in media allows for a degree of pluralism and diversity. On the other hand, it means media outlets are often used as tools by their owners to further their interests. Thus, media consumers have to use several media to get an accurate picture of what is happening. (You can read more about who owns Ukraine's media here.)

The economic crisis has greatly influenced the advertising market, making it even more difficult for media outlets to survive. Independent media are especially suffering, as they don't have the financial cushioning available to outlets owned by oligarchs. Many of them exist on grants.

Ukraine enacted a law in 2014 to reform Ukraine's former state-owned broadcaster into a public broadcaster. While this process has faltered, the recent signing of a public broadcaster law gives hope that Ukrainians will soon have an alternative to oligarchic media. A similar law concerning state and communal print media has also been recently passed.