Representation of women in Ukrainian online media

Abstract

The problem of gender balance is extremely relevant both for Ukrainian society in general and for the media sphere in particular. According to the Global Gender Gap Index, in 2022 Ukraine took 81st place, having lost 7 positions in the ranking compared to last year. In fact, society's attitude to this problem is reflected in the media, and the media translate them to society. Media content affects the formation of public consciousness, formats of public behavior, while working to spread and consolidate various stereotypes and prejudices in the mind. Despite the fact that the problem has a wide resonance in both scientific discourse and social practice, with the beginning of a full-scale war, the situation with the balance in media content has significantly worsened, which requires careful research. The purpose of the paper is to analyze the features of the representation of women in Ukrainian national online media. The study is based on the analysis of monitoring data of Ukrainian nationwide online media, scientific sources on the outlined issues, synthesis and generalization of the obtained data. The analysis of the snapshot of online media activities showed that the Ukrainian media space currently is replete with stereotypical ideas. A gender imbalance in Ukrainian media content has been established: the number of male experts and heroes in the materials significantly predominates over female, which is confirmed by the monitoring data of the national media. The forms of discriminatory coverage present in the Ukrainian media require changes, revision of the situation, and the search for ways to overcome the gender imbalance. One of the optimal way is to introduce into the journalistic standards not just a standard of balance of opinions, but also a balance of coverage of the activities of women and men in the media, breaking down gender stereotypes, consistent use of feminitives, etc.