Mention of certain articles in the media seems to be very indicative of trends in state and social development. First, it shows which articles of the Constitution the government itself refers to, encouraging the media to mention them in their materials. Secondly, it demonstrates which articles the media or civil society appeal to, defending certain rights and freedoms. The chronological framework of the study is limited to the term of office of the sixth President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi (from May 20, 2019 until the present).
Content analysis showed that the most frequently mentioned articles of the Constitution of Ukraine were 106, 80 and 85.
Article 106, dedicated to the powers of the President of Ukraine, became the most popular in the media for the whole period. It was most often mentioned in the second quarter of 2019 immediately after the inauguration of President Zelenskyi and his decree dissolving the Verkhovna Rada. It was also successful in the first weeks of work of the Verkhovna Rada, when the president took legislative initiatives.
Article 80, devoted to the responsibility of parliament members for voting and speaking, was actively reffered in the media in 2019 thanks to Zelenskyi's initiative to abolish parliamentary immunity.
Article 85, devoted to the powers of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, also became popular thanks to President Zelenskyi, who tried to change the provisions of the Constitution regarding the powers of the Verkhovna Rada. In particular, the President's bill on the Verkhovna Rada commissioners, which the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional, resonated here.
In 2020, the mention of certain articles of the Constitution of Ukraine decreased; this trend also continued in the first half of 2021.
It is noteworthy that in the first and second quarters of 2021, Article 10 of the Criminal Code became the most frequently mentioned in the Ukrainian media, in which it is postulated that the state language in Ukraine is the Ukrainian language. Its remembrance is connected with the Mother Language Day, with the scandalous interview of the Drahomanov University professor to the website "Strana", as well as with the statement of Yulia Mendel about the "Ukrainian Russian language".
The analysis was conducted on the basis of the 100 most popular Ukrainian media and included TV channels, Internet sites, the print media and radio stations.
During the selected period, 11,027 notifications were recorded in this sample, mentioning specific articles of the Constitution of Ukraine. From this array, 1000 media messages were randomly selected, which were analyzed and formed the basis of the study.
This allowed to clarify the most frequently mentioned articles of the Constitution of Ukraine in general for this period and in particular to demonstrate the quarterly dynamics of the last two years.
By downloading our full presentation, you will see the quarterly dynamics of popular articles over the past two years and what events have helped increase media attention to them.
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