Indiana University’s s Media School hosted a panel Wednesday night to better understand the news reporting and messaging coming out of Ukraine. Panelists included former Ukrainian journalist Sasha Yaroshchuk, IU journalism professor Elaine Monaghan and retired IU professor Steve Raymer.
A former IU Fulbright Scholar, Sasha Yaroshchuk, who is currently in central Ukraine, noted that journalists in Ukraine are united in how they are reporting on the war.
“We don't have every TV channel saying different things about what's happening,” Yaroshchuk said. “We have all the TV channels working on and providing information together, we call this a national megaphone.”
Monaghan was the bureau chief in Ukraine during her tenure with Reuters. Monaghan said journalism is extremely important at this time, and journalists face numerous challenges safely and accurately reporting what is happening.
“Obviously if you're in a war zone situation, trying to work as the correspondent, it can be extremely difficult for the same reasons as you will see on social media,” Monaghan said. “There's lots of dismissive information coming at you.”
Raymer, who studied Soviet and Russian affairs at Stanford University before becoming a professor of journalism at IU, provided a historical context to Russia’s ongoing issues with Ukraine being an independent nation. As a photojournalist, Raymer said it was his job to humanize war and conflict through photography.
According to the Associated Press roughly 874,000 people have fled Ukraine and the U.N. refugee agency warned the number could cross the 1 million mark soon. Countless others have taken shelter underground.
