Attention Span And Return On Investment

Michael Hedges March 28, 2022 - Follow on Twitter

Editors weigh carefully the allocation of resources. There is a pattern to sports and election coverage, even the Eurovision Song Contest. Well-established formulas, monitored by clever accountants, dictate personnel requirements to the minute. Every other cost is detailed. Executives weigh all of this against return; advertising, subscriptions, even reputation. Wars change the calculation only somewhat.

“Some journalists have told us directly that interest in Ukraine is declining,” said Ukrainian journalist and publisher Ekaterina Pereverzera to Helsingin Sanomat (March 25). “Similarly, the media no longer need so many people to tell what is happening in Ukraine. Everyone is getting tired and the problems in Ukraine are becoming problems (only) for the Ukrainians.”

The war in Ukraine has entered its second month, longer considering the initial build-up of Russian Federation troops and matériel on the borders. The operation, universally understood, was to blitz Ukraine affecting a swift take-over. It failed; certain to be studied at war colleges for a generation. It is now a daily grind of death and destruction. Reports in recent days have suggested possible end-games. These are from optimists.

Ms Pereverzeva and a small team publish Ljuk, an online urban culture magazine originally in Kharkov, now from Chernivtsi in southwest Ukraine. “We write about how the lives of the people who appeared in our publication have changed,” she said. “We write about people who volunteer.” They also set up online portal UABrave that sources English-speaking experts and witnesses for foreign news media including CNN, CBC, ZDF, BBC and others. Demand for the service, she said, has waned over time.

French news organizations have sent about 10% of the estimated 2,000 foreign reporters, photojournalists and technicians covering the war in Ukraine. In addition, local Ukrainian “fixers” have been employed per diem as translators, drivers, guides and organizers. Their numbers are impossible to estimate, reported Les Echos (March 25) as budgets for such as a “well-kept secret.”

Public TV network France Télévisions has about 50 staff and crew on the ground, news agency AFP about 40. “We have never had so many teams on the field of war,” said Radio France news director Vincent Giret,” and it’s likely to last.” That view was seconded by television broadcaster TF1 editorial director Guillaume Debré. “We’ve settled in for a long conflict.”

Threats to safety are real and well-reported. Most French news crews received specific security briefings before being deployed. "We avoid being close to the military as much as possible so as not to be targeted,” said news TV channel BFMTV Poland correspondent Jérémy Normand, currently in Ukraine. “Similarly, the choice to leave the car is not insignificant. With our equipment, it's not easy to run: you have to anticipate everything.”

Last week (March 25) international press freedom advocate Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) graphically detailed the torture of a Ukrainian Radio France interpreter (name withheld) at the hands of Russian Federation troops. “He was beaten with an iron bar, tortured with electricity, and subjected to a mock execution.” Ukrainian reporter for newspaper Novy Den Oleg Baturin told a similar story of being kidnapped, held for a week and tortured before being released. Most insidious was the kidnapping of newspaper Golovna Gazeta Melitopola editor Svitlana Zalizetska’s 75 year old father by Russian soldiers held until she “turned herself in.” His whereabouts are still unknown, reported NPR (March 25). RSF has reported these details to the International Criminal Court.

"Ever since the start of the war in Ukraine, the Russian armed forces have been bullying and threatening journalists and local media in the conquered territories to prevent them reporting the facts and get them to spread Kremlin propaganda,” said an RSF statement (March 25). Internationally well-known Ukrainian photojournalist and documentary filmmaker Maks Levin remains missing after two weeks, reported Kyiv Independent (March 25). RSF and other sources count seven journalists killed in Ukraine since February 24, when Russian Federation forces attacked.

“European audiences are especially fascinated because Ukraine is on their doorstep, and they, too, fear Vladimir Putin,” observed The Economist (March 26). “It is the case that for the first time, Estonian media has had to cover a war that is geographically so close, and so relevant, to Estonia,” said Estonian public broadcaster ERR ethics ombudsman Tarmu Tammerk (March 27). “There is a natural psychological reluctance to face the horrors of war on the part of audiences and journalists alike.”

The horrors in Ukraine have been described as a “social media war,” typically by the TikTok enthused. Like every other over decades it’s a bullets and bombs war covered by reporters with traditional tools. The striking difference, spoken by Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky, is new: “We are all here.”

See also...

• Hot Topics - Media in Ukraine

• Hot Topics - Conflict Zones

• Hot Topics - TV News