“Trust and reputation are journalists’ main assets,” Lina Kushch, after Lviv Media Forum

I appreciate media forums for the opportunity to meet friends and colleagues. The political situation in the world and the war in Ukraine are negatively affecting the media market. Ukrainian participants on the sidelines of the Lviv Media Forum talked about how they are restructuring their work and adapting to changing conditions. They are moving newsrooms, looking for new sources of funding, studying, and keeping in touch with the audience.

– Without panic, but with constant adaptation to new and new challenges. Even when it comes to promotion in social networks (oh, these changing algorithms).

– You need to assess the situation every day and change approaches almost every week. And security – including (this, by the way, was discussed during the presentation of the Truth Hounds study on the shelling of front-line hotels where journalists live).

– In such conditions, it is difficult to make long-term plans (more precisely, it is difficult to implement the plans made), but it is important to maintain trust and reputation.

– Trust and reputation are the main capital of journalists, which is accumulated over decades. Therefore, I am skeptical of calls to unite newsrooms and create one or two powerful media outlets for the entire region: the newly created newsrooms will still need to work under their name for a long time.

– Foreign partners asked about the safety of Ukrainian journalists, especially in conditions of aggravation on the front, as well as whether Ukrainian journalists who continue to work for independent media outlets remained in the occupied territories.

– This topic raises a question to which there is no clear answer: how will we return Ukrainians from the occupied territories, and what is the role of the media in this today? Is it even possible for those people who have been under the influence of powerful russian propaganda for over 11 years to return? What role can local media play in this return process?

– And about money. The situation with financing local media is sad, but most of those I spoke with in Lviv have recovered from the shock. They found options for 3-5 months, we’ll see what happens next. Most newsrooms have made cuts, and they didn’t cut back only where they had already cut staff to the maximum.

Those who remain will have to work more, but for the same money. Or less.

Lina Kushch

NUJU First Secretary