THE ROLE OF MASS MEDIA IN THE POSTCOLONIAL DEVELOPMENT OF UKRAINE

Abstract

Propaganda campaign performed by Russian Federation during the post-colonial period is an important but often neglected issue. The author identifies features of Russian propaganda campaign during the postcolonial period. This campaign is aimed at forming anti-Ukrainian sentiments both in Russia and Ukraine. Author studies forms and methods of informational impact made by various Russian media outlets on the citizens of Ukraine with the assistance of anti-Ukrainian NGOs. The research is made through the prism of the scholarly postcolonial methodology, employed by international thought in the field of Humanities when analyzing the Politics, Culture, Literature, History of former colonial countries. This article elaborates on the current problems and future prospects of postcolonial studies in modern Ukrainian social and humanitarian sciences. Author examines the main provisions of postcolonial theory. Ukrainian mass media are considered in the context of postcolonial studies. The article describes the phenomenon of hybrid information space of postcolonial Ukraine that combines institutions of civil society, political nation and imperial neocolonial practices. Author analyzes current experience of transition to political statehood in Ukraine taking into consideration security concerns and the need to preserve subjectivity in international politics. In this regard such hybrid political space allows facing foreign and domestic challenges. However, such a hybrid system may result in the erosion of Ukrainian statehood. Colonial policy of Russia has always been carried out with the use of a strong ideological basis and tools of mass propaganda. The article analyzes the phenomenon of cultural imperialism in the context of information security. Some problematic aspects of this interpretation are interpreted using postcolonial theory. The article discusses the importance of this issue for postcolonial society. Its main focus is on the importance of adequate responses to the challenges of postcolonial era by society. The author tries to conceptualize Russian-Ukrainian relations on the basic of the Ukrainian and Russian Mass-Media as two confronting discourses. The similarity between present-day Russian imperial discourse and expansionist discourse of the “classical” colonial empires is evident. The article analyses categorical status of the term «postcolonialism» in the information sphereб specifies its essence and main features. The term incorporates the phenomenon of ambiguity, vagueness and polysemy in postcolonial theory. The author offers promising directions for further research.

Key words: colonialism, empire, imperialism, postcolonial studies, political subjectivity, information space, imperial discourse, postcolonial discourse, Russia, Ukraine.