Connection with Ukraine: What information sources do IDPs use?

Among Ukrainians living abroad, there is a strong interest in events in Ukraine, both at the nationwide and region-wide levels. At the same time, Ukrainian political events are of greater interest, with 82% of respondents of constant interest. Instead, the local life of the cities or villages the respondents came from is of slightly less interest – 74% are constantly interested in what is happening in the places they left. The latest updates are those related to the full-scale invasion, people are constantly monitoring the situation with shelling, the situation at the front, etc.

These are research data on media consumption and socio-political activity of Ukrainians abroad, conducted from April 8 to May 19, 2023, in the UK, Israel, Spain, Germany, the Czech Republic, the USA, Hungary, and the UK.

During the presentation of the study, Olha Snopok, an analyst at the Civil Network OPORA, noted that most respondents choose messengers and social networks to receive information. Thus, 50% of respondents use messengers abroad, and 47% use social networks. The respondents use news websites twice as rarely (23%). Asking relatives, friends, or acquaintances in Ukraine for information and watching videos on YouTube is used by 22% of respondents.

Among the messaging apps for news Ukrainians abroad receive information from, Telegram won an absolute championship, with 89% of respondents using it. Viber came in second with 6%.

“This data differs slightly depending on the country. For example, in the US, 14% of respondents use Viber. But in general, Telegram has an advantage and an absolute majority in all countries, in all age groups, and virtually regardless of gender.”

The so-called news aggregator channels are the most popular on Telegram, while the news channels of specific media are used by fewer respondents.

Read more: https://mediacenter.org.ua/news