Survey: 81% of Ukrainians turn away from Russian media

Up to 81% of Ukrainians have completely stopped consuming Russian-made media products, Rubryka reports, citing the Ukrainian Media Literacy Index study conducted by the Detector Media NGO.

Due to the Russian full-scale war, many Ukrainians listened to popular Russian music and consumed Russian TV shows and films online.

Between 68% and 81% of respondents said they had completely abandoned Russian-made media products (including music), official and opposition socio-political content. We see evidence of this, for example, in YouTube trends. There is really no more Russian music or Russian liberal bloggers in the top 10 of Ukrainian YouTube, said Halyna Petrenko, Director of Detector Media, during the presentation of these results.

She added that some entertainment content, such as Russian Comedy Club show, can still be found in the top 10 rankings.

Petrenko explains this with both the habit and certain inertia of consumption and the lack of a good supply of new Ukrainian entertainment content, which the market lacks the funds to produce.

Some 63% of respondents said they had started, or started more often, consuming content of Ukrainian origin. Around 48% said they became more interested in Ukraine's history and culture, the same number started consuming socio-political content of Ukrainian provenience, and 61% began listening more to Ukrainian popular music.

The results showed that the level of the overall media literacy index has changed significantly over the two years from 2020 to 2022. The share of the audience with an above-average level of this indicator increased from 55% to 81%.

The survey was carried out with a 1,200-respondent sample, represented in terms of age, sex, and region, but excluding residents of the temporarily occupied territories.