How fast does the war in Ukraine disappear from the news

Tomorrow is Ukraine’s day of independence. At the same time the date marks six months since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Since then there have been a lot of discussions on whether and in what way diminishing reporting on the war might have negative consequences for Ukraine. This is because for Ukraine this reporting is necessary for survival. This is because without continuous reporting there will potentially be fewer shipments of weaponry which would make it harder for Ukraine to continue to defend itself against Russia. A reconquest of currently lost regions also seems impossible without further weaponry.

Putin vs. Zelenskyy

The presence of the Ukrainian president at the beginning of the war has surely helped the easterneuropean country tremendously. His daily video updates are still strongly present in the media and he is therefore able to secure himself and his country a lot of attention and help with national defense. Since the start of the invasion he has been present in the media each day which was not the case prior to the war. His speech in the German Bundestag on 17.03. led to a large number of articles, although the bizarre transition to the daily agenda surely also played a minor role in that.

Despite Zelenskyy's frequent appearances in the media, our data sample showed the Russian president Putin being mentioned 2,5 times more often than the Ukrainian president. But the focus on the strongest man in Kreml has been decreasing steadily ever since the beginning of the war. Zelenskyy on the other hand is nearly constantly mentioned in headlines and teaser texts. This is favorable from an Ukrainian point of view.

The general reporting on the topic

This phenomenon is similar for the number of articles published about the war. In the early stage of the war there were the most articles. With the increasing duration of the conflict the reporting has decreased. The matter of decreasing attention on the topic has been extensively discussed on social media platforms like Twitter. One thing is certain: the decreasing attention on the conflict in Ukraine leads to the war slowly disappearing from the forefront of the minds of the German population. This is followed by less and less pressure on politics for further supply of weaponry and the support for Ukraine slowly diminishes. That would be a very unfavorable development of circumstances for Ukrainian citizens as their pain and suffering would also slowly fade out of the common awareness.

The reporting has been decreasing ever since the 24. February but it seems like a kind of plateau has been reached. Nonetheless the amount of reporting still continues to lessen. The decrease of articles per week is visible in the next diagram. In the beginning of the seventh calendar week the reporting strongly increased. But ever since then the number of articles has been decreasing with very few exceptions. From an Ukrainian point of view the only positive aspect is that there is no increasing rate of decrease in articles.

Number of lead articles

A lead article is the top position on a news page. The articles there are seen as the most important by the editors and are read most by the audience. The Ukrainian war is very present there. Ever since the start of the war 23,32% of all leads dealt with the subject making it very predominant. Nonetheless the reporting on the war is also lessening quickly. Some days there are less leads about Ukraine than in February before the war!

This means the subject is losing its relevance for publishers and other subjects displace the reports on the war. Instead of emphasizing the suffering of Ukrainian citizens in their reports there is an increasing focus and debate on what consequences the war has on Germany.

Other subjects increase

The war itself is becoming less and less of a topic in the media. Rather, debates about the gas and energy crisis are now taking over as the impact of the war on Germany. The following chart shows the number of articles with the topics 'gas' and 'energy'.

The debate about the war itself is increasingly becoming a debate about the consequences of the war. This reduces the pressure on politicians to support Ukraine with more weapons.

Summary

This report shows the declining coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The number of articles, as well as the number of lead stories, has steadily declined in the six months since the war began. This is partly due to the fact that the debate about the war itself is increasingly becoming a debate about the consequences of the war. This reduces the pressure on politicians to support Ukraine with more weapons.

Methodology

For this report, the headlines and teaser texts of five significant publishers in Germany were evaluated from January 1, 2022 to August 22, 2022. The five publishers are BR24, Der Spiegel, Zeit Online, FAZ.net and Tagesschau.de. These publishers were chosen deliberately because they include both public and private publishers and thus provide a broad picture of reporting, away from the boulevard.