Newspaper periodicals in Ukraine in 1991 - 2013: formation, development trends

Abstract

Means of mass communication, in particular periodical newspapers, in the system of social relations between the government and society, play a key role in the formation of democratic institutions and the construction of a civil society. The Ukrainian experience of forming a national post-colonial media field is marked by the priorities of oligarchic groups and does not always correspond to democratic traditions and fundamental principles of information sovereignty. The analysis of these issues is the main purpose of the research. The chosen boundaries of the study allow us to analyse the sphere development during a peaceful period of the history of the independent state, which was interrupted by the Russian aggression in 2014. The methodological basis of the research is a comprehensive source-based analysis of historiography, archival materials on the topic, statistical data, based on the main principles of historicism and scientific objectivity, modern conceptual approaches to systematic and comparative analysis. The scientific novelty of publication is the proof of the hypothesis on the interdependence of publishing newspapers on the state of development of economic institutions, freedom of speech, the level of politicization of society, patriotism of state power, and foreign influence. Under the conditions of the social relations transformation, mass media perform not only informational and recreational functions, but also value-oriented, worldview functions. At the same time, both post-colonial, national and historical factors of the Ukrainian society are taken into account. The Conclusion. The history of the Ukrainian newspapers development is inseparable from the history of its people. The real creation and development of national newspapers became possible only after gaining independence in 1991. The most productive years were 1996 – 2002, when the potential of the newspaper sphere was accumulated at the expense of new, mainly private, publications. The research on the analysis of the relationship between the press journalism and financial, political factors under the conditions of a transitional society is of a theoretical and practical interest to both scholars and relevant state bodies.