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The use of Facebook by Ukrainian journalists in the post-EuroMaidan Ukraine: From public space to public sphere?

Mon, June 13, 9:30 to 10:45, Fukuoka Hilton, Kusu

Abstract

Keywords: EuroMaidan, Facebook, social media and protest, counterpublics, semi-structured interviews
Social media have seen a sharp rise in popularity across the world, reshaping not only media consumption but also relationships and communication between political elites and citizens. Transition countries, like Ukraine, suggest particularly interesting cases for exploration of the democratizing potential of social media and online communication, due to the dynamic and complicated political environment.
Ukraine has been undergoing dramatic changes since EuroMaidan revolution. Activities of Ukrainian Facebook users have not only reflected those challenges, but incited them too. During EuroMaidan protests, Facebook was simultaneously a major independent source of news, a central discussion platform and a site for protest mobilization and management (Barberá & Metzger, 2013). Following EuroMaidan, Facebook has further strengthened its role of an alternative public space in Ukraine, thus influencing and shaping political developments in post-Maidan Ukraine. Ukrainian journalists have been key actors in this new public space. Before EuroMaidan, many Ukrainian journalists turned to Facebook in response to increasing authoritarianism of then-President Yanukovych’s regime. Facebook, along with independent online news media, became a major platform for political dissent, which laid the ground for success of the protest movement (Szostek, 2014). The very fact that protests were perceived to be started by a single Facebook post of the journalist Mustafa Nayyem provides an expressive illustration of the significant role of journalists’ online communication in Ukraine. Following EuroMaidan, a lot of Ukrainian journalists found themselves empowered with the new communication instruments granted by Facebook and other social media and even increased their presence online. High level of engagement of Ukrainian journalists into public debate online is a distinctive feature of post-Maidan journalism culture in Ukraine; however, it remains largely under-researched.
The proposed paper is expected to fill the gap by exploring activities of Ukrainian journalists on Facebook in the broader context of post-Maidan democratization of Ukraine. In particular, the study explores through semi-structured interviews how Ukrainian journalists understand public debate on Facebook and their role as actors of the new public space in the complicated Ukrainian post-Maidan environment. Informed by the conceptualizations of ‘public sphere’, the paper discusses to what extent emerged online public space in Ukraine can transform into a public sphere.

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