The modern political discourse of Ukrainian mass media and the constraints of its formation and further development

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THE MODERN POLITICAL DISCOURSE OF UKRAINIAN MASS MEDIA AND THE CONSTRAINTS OF ITS FORMATION AND FURTHER DEVELOPMENT

Volodymyr Stotskyi,

PhD in Political Science

State institution

"The South National Pedagogical

University named after K.D. Ushynskyi",

Odesa, Ukraine

The article analyzes the process of establishment of a democratic political discourse of the media in Ukraine, because the rejection of authoritarian heritage is impossible without an analysis of the authoritarian nature of the Soviet political discourse and its comparison with the modern Ukrainian political discourse. The author highlights the next obstacles for Ukrainian media development: the absence of pattern in political and ideological structuring of the society, regional differences, lack of information. It is concluded that ambiguous changes in the Ukrainian political system are reflected in the contradictory nature of the media influence on democratization. The political discourse in our country is characterized by conditions of formation and development, which are in post-totalitarian transformation of the political and media environment in Ukraine. The modern political discourse of the Ukrainian media is undergoing significant changes. Ukraine's transition from one political system into another has led to the emergence of amount innovations; particularly in the political discourse both the authorities and the media. Through political discourse political ideas and power relations has been noted and displayed every day. The particular importance gets the studying of the political discourse of Ukrainian media in terms of postcolonial studies, determination of conditions for the functioning of political discourse in a totalitarian and post-totalitarian society.

Key words: mass-media, political discourse, informative-communicative code, a communist myth, Ukraine.

There is an axiomatic assertion that the media has always played the role of catalyst for social changes, by creating new discursive spaces, giving those semiotic characteristics of speech which help to shape certain texts in a given direction.

It is difficult to disagree that the establishment of a democratic political discourse of the media in our country, the rejection of authoritarian heritage is impossible without an analysis of the authoritarian nature of the Soviet political discourse and its comparison with the modern Ukrainian political discourse. Thus, the “totalitarian journalism as a political tool of the ruling party could not adequately reflect the actual course of events, and had consistently and strongly “urged” own people in that the communist chosen path was the right one. In a totalitarian journalism there were lost such qualities as truthfulness, honesty, humanity. Ukrainian post-totalitarian political discourse status confirms another vestige of authoritarian, totalitarian journalism - it's a large number of state media in Ukraine, indicating the close political, economical influence (or rather -a pressure!) of a public authorities to the media”.

The obstacles for the Ukrainian media development are: the absence of pattern in political and ideological structuring of the society, regional differences, lack of information. But the media should primarily perform another important function in a democracy - to be the guardian of public interest to control the activities of the various branches of government, putting the public through the state building topical issues, watching their performance, i.e. to take an active part in the political processes management. Other way, media, as it was under the totalitarian regime, will be only an instrument for the ruling elite policy implementation.

Among the most influential post-colonial myths in Ukraine there is still a communist myth, the balance of which is the national myth. After analyzing the current political discourse of the Ukrainian media, it is possible to argue that the political discourse of the Ukrainian media is interpretative, because it reflects the values and media releases, and interests of those who hold them.

The peculiarity of the current political situation in Ukraine and, accordingly, the political discourse of the media lie in the fact that our country is in both as a post-colonial and post-totalitarian situation and, responsibly, there are two types of political discourse in the Ukrainian media - the post-colonial and the post-totalitarian discourses. The colonial discourse absorbed or eliminated other Ukrainian discourses; the colonized culture was isolated from the outside world and had no possibility of dialogue with other cultures.

The liberation anti-colonial discourse led to the establishment of the historical truth, gave impetus to the national, spiritual and religious rebirth of Ukraine. The role of journalism at that stage was crucial. Until the restoring of the Ukrainian statehood, the anti-colonial discourse was intended to replace it, carry out its role. The purpose of this discourse of media was independence of Ukraine.

The informative-communicative code of the political discourse in the Ukrainian mass media is imminent, controversial, because there are private and public interests in its constant confrontation. That is why the modern political discourse of Ukrainian media is served by particular rhetoric, specific discursive practices. Language-style techniques of rhetorical code are the dominants of the Ukrainian political discourse of modern media. The rhetorical discourse of Ukrainian media is uneven, has its own ideological differences, a range of colors - from honest and noble intentions to outright fraud and manipulation.

The political discourse of the Ukrainian media is a kind of typologically, semantically and structurally complex phenomenon in the global information space. It is a catalyst and an indicator of the social processes and it reflects the state of the social consciousness of the transitional society, and this transition, ambivalence (old/new) permeates its structure, and semantics, ideology and rhetoric.

Defining a political discourse of the Ukrainian media, as an autonomous and synthetic factor of domestic and foreign policy, regulator and coordinator of the political processes in the country and at the same time their reflection, S. Onufriv gives the following basic characteristics of the political discourse of the Ukrainian media: democratic political discourse media

- Interpretationess, because it reflects both the values of media publications and the interests of those who hold them;

- still undefeated dependence from the Soviet political legacy, where the audience was served previously elaborated ideas and ideology, and the political will itself was carried out in the power “corridors”;

- post-colonialism and post-totalitarianism (unlike Russia, which only is experiencing a post- totalitarian period). Post-totalitarian status marked with a 70-year long survival Ukraine in a totalitarian system, and the post-colonial character marked with a position Ukraine as a colony of the Russian Empire at the end of XVII - the beginning of XX century;

- in Ukraine, the Ukrainian consciousness and its reflection in the media now there are available three types of discourse - a colonial one decreases and post-colonial one built up slowly. Still the anticolonial is very active because Russia continues to lead the imperial policies towards Ukraine;

- The lack of the information border in a political discourse of media, which undergoes the foreign information expansion;

- Direct and hidden engagement of the media from the state power or the oligarchic clans, because they lack the objectivity and independence \

Talking about the last point, there sustain active and heated debates among the experts and scientists, politicians and journalists on the role and functions of the media in Ukrainian society. The media (economical and/or political), controlled by power becomes merely echoes of the owners interests, and during the election competition their information weapons. In this case, the media acts as the translator of power discourse, and a political discourse media as a discourse representation of government and its policies, but not a separate phenomenon of social life. To the problems that hinder the democratic development of the media in Ukraine can be considered their economic dependence, low craft solidarity of journalists, underdeveloped print media (the task of the press lies not only in the informing, but also in analyzing), the consideration of the political issues in the format of TV shows, lack of the effective State policy in the sphere of information and so on. The most dangerous for the political discourse of the media in our country is a direct correlation of their political positions with the financial-economical groups, which reduces the audience's trust to the media, which is no longer perceived as an objective source of public opinion forming¹. Thus, according to A. Gritsenko, “in that clan forming there is the fundamental difference between the Ukrainian information space and Western democratic societies where newspapers and TV stations depend primarily on the information consumers who pay an adequate price for it and its very strength determine the advertising appeal of media” . It does not allow them to perform the inherent role in the development of democratic institutions, civil society. Consequently, in Ukraine there are difficulties in the mass media transforming to a new socio-political institution, which must not only inform readers, but also to consolidate the society.

Analyzing the quantitative parameters of the media in Ukraine, O.Grytsenko noted reduction in the last decade circulation publications, due to high costs associated with the production of newspapers. In addition, the commercialization and privatization significantly affected television and radio at both central and regional mass media. Thus, in 1990 years, after the Soviet Union collapse, in the territory of independent states emerged in the post Soviet place, including Ukraine, the new type of media has appeared the transition society media. This type of mass media essentially differs from the traditional Western media, and the media of the Soviet type. For the first time in its history in the years 1988-1992 they were against the state system, played a crucial role in the collapse of the USSR and carrying out deep reforms in all spheres of society. However, the nature of the processes which took place in the post-Soviet media, including Ukraine, was contradictory and ambiguous and an uncontrolled commercialization and monopolization of the media has become a fact of modern life; there increased the dependence of journalists not only from media-oligarchy, but also from the authorities (particularly at regional and local levels).

This crisis is largely due to the fact that liberalization and privatization have not provided any actual equality of citizens in receiving information, and any real freedom of speech. The result of it is a growing problem of alienation of citizens from the government and transforming of the elements of democracy such as competitive elections, political pluralism and freedom of speech of the means of distribution and privatization of undemocratic government.

According to Y. Hlystun, the analysis of the current Ukrainian political discourse in the dynamics of its development since Ukraine has got the independence, tells that if in the early 1990s the preference was given for the emotional argument, over time the Ukrainian politicians began to refer to its other types, namely "logical, which provides for recourse to existing values of the recipient; dialectical, reflecting changes in the value of benefits that the recipient re-value hierarchy; generative, which stimulates the renewal of values system, i.e. the replacement of new elements in the old recipient-categories minds” For the political discourse of Ukrainian media, which finds its verbal embodiment the political discourse is characterized by: “1) the formation of a new stylistic norm; 2) the constant and dynamic update of the political vocabulary; the bright metaphor and contrast of political speech; 3) the widespread usage of conversational reduced vocabulary; 4) Disciplinarian of terms and at the same time a tendency to their standardization; 5) The activation of borrowing (especially from English) 6) The content of education uncertainty, ambiguity caused both semantic and pragmatic factors; 7) esotericism of the political speech.

In Ukraine these global processes undergone significant transformations influenced by complex political and economic changes, which marked the transition. The current socio-political structure that can be defined as “corporate capitalism” and its interaction with the media had led to the appearance of the media-politic system. The objective of last was to develop the corporate ideology, verbalization and dissemination of corporate thinking outside the corporate mentality in the guise of significant public interest. Such media union became not simply a basic indicator of the presence of politicized investments in the media sector, but also kind of structure institutionalization of various centers of political power, representing parties and their leaders, forming and promoting the party programs and ideas, positioning them, providing a link with electorate, lobbying to take the necessary political decisions.

The basis of media political system which has been situational created by large media holdings, is an integrated communicational model which includes advertising, promotion and public relations. They create a kind of “force field” of society, where the political structures, and noted models have certain attributes of the public power. From here, it's not only functional, but also dysfunctional their role, as ones which actively facilitate and stereotype the political world images in the public opinion and the perception of politics by the mass audience as a whole. The investigation of the integration process, combining elements media-political system - the media, advertising and public relations, lead to the conclusion of convergence character as the essence of information relations policy is identical in the different channels of mass communication. This approach reveals the basis on which the communication combines with the social constructivism and political reality of society. This way of perception and understanding of mass communication can be considered as a means of social regulation of society and active influence on its political institutions.

Thus, the strengthening of the influence and role of the media in the Ukrainian society, significant adjustments in the relations of the media, the state and citizens, on the one hand, and the subsequent entry of Ukraine into the global informational space and activation of external influences - on the other, determine the number of problems concerning, in particular, on effectiveness of public administration in this area, coordinate their positions and powers it public, private and social sectors, national information security space.

The analysis of the history of the state policy in the field of media in Ukraine allows to talk about the formation of certain national traditions in the relations between society, government and the media. Practically during all historical periods media was primarily an instrument of power, they are not considered independent player politicians accountable to and controlled by the authorities.

Such way, typical for the modern Ukrainian information space, democracy is not only in freedom of expression, but also in the discursive accumulation of social intelligence, orientation of the mass media and their audiences on the development of political ideas discussed. Even a presence of multiple communication centers in such a system does not lead to pluralism and to the plurality of the extensive reliance on ideological motivation and attraction to public information monopoly.

Another situation is typical for democratic countries where pluralism is not limited by the positions of government institutions and leaders, and the media political discourse performs the important functions of freedom of speech, independent monitoring of government actions, and acts as a source of objective, unbiased information.

Thus, the ambiguous changes in the Ukrainian political system are reflected in the contradictory nature of the media influence on democratization. The political discourse in our country is characterized by conditions of formation and development, which are in post-totalitarian transformation of the political and media environment in Ukraine.

To the problems that hinder the democratic development of the mass media in Ukraine can be considered as their economic dependence, low craft solidarity of journalists, underdeveloped print media, the consideration of political issues in the format of television shows, lack of effective public policy in the sphere of information and so on. The most dangerous for the political discourse of the media in our country is a direct correlation of their political positions with the financial-economical groups, which reduces the audience's trust to the media, which is no longer perceived as an objective source of public opinion forming. The modern political discourse of the Ukrainian media is undergoing significant changes. Ukraine's transition from one political system into another has led to the emergence of amount innovations; particularly in the political discourse both the authorities and the media. It is through the political discourse political ideas and power relations has been noted and displayed every day. The particular importance gets the studying of the political discourse of Ukrainian media in terms of postcolonial studies, determination of conditions for the functioning of political discourse in a totalitarian and post-totalitarian society. In postcolonial studies there are three types of colonialism, such as political, economical, cultural, and the media function is in the facilitating of the transition from the colonial into the democratic discourse. The current political discourse of media, in this sense, should play a catalytic role of social democratic changes, creating new democratic discursive spaces.

References

1. Gricenko, O. M. (2003). Mas-media vprocesakh demokratichnikh transformacij ukrains'kogo suspil'stva (politiko- kul'turologichnij aspekt): avtoref. dis. ... d-ra polit. nauk: 23.00.03. Kiiv.

2. Onufriv, S. T. (2005). Politichnij diskurs ZMI Ukraini u svitovomu informacijnomuprostori: avtoref. dis. ... kand. filol. nauk: 10.01.08. Kiiv.

3. Serazhim, K. S. (2003). Diskurs jak sociolingval'nij fenomen suchasnogo komunikativnogo prostoru (metodologichnij, pragmatiko-semantichnij i zhanrovo-lingvistichnij aspekti: na materialipolitichnogo riznovidu ukrains'kogo masovoinformacijnogo diskursu): avtoref. dis. ... d-ra filol. nauk: 10.01.08. Kiiv.

4. Khlistun, G. JU. (2005). Etika zasobiv masovoi informacii v suchasnikhpolitichnikhprocesakh: avtoref. dis. ... kand. polit. nauk: 23.00.03. Kiiv.

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