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olkyts | 3 years ago

I live in Ukraine. From 2015 till 2022 I didn’t read or watched news and no social media or blogs or analytics. Then war started. Now I follow news everyday, because I have to take care of my family’s security. I follow analytics of battlefields progress so if I see warning signs I would have to take decisions to move my family further to the western part. I follow news on volunteers who help military so I can take action and donate help. I follow politics, because corruption is still an issue and during war it’s like enemy inside. I follow local authorities media so that I get info on local issues, warnings or even when humanitarian aid is available, so I can notify my neighbors-refugees from southern part to go get mattresses and pillows or diapers (thanks unicef). I follow economic news so I can take action on my still little assets.

Seems too much. I have to dose and follow rules I set for myself. Some days I go off. Some are more filled with information.

People in Belgium watched news and decided to host my wife with infant during attack on Kyiv. Some journalists investigated that one judge had russian passport and citizenship. It created tensions and people pushed to president to solve the issue. Drop in an ocean and no guarantees of results, but it’s better than nothing.

I don’t praise media, but in my specific circumstances I need it.

discuss

order

belter|3 years ago

Stay safe. All the best for you and your family.

Slava Ukraini!

SanjayMehta|3 years ago

What sources of news are reliable on the conflict?

I can't find anything which doesn't reek of propaganda: Western or Russian.

ordu|3 years ago

In general case it is impossible to report news objectively. I personally do not mind propaganda per se anymore. I mean it is ok with me, if the source has a political agenda. I praise media who state their agenda clearly. But what I do not tolerate is the outright lying. I do not like hidden agenda, though it can be revealed by watching a source for some time.

Moreover propaganda-phobia is bad by itself. It can be a tool of a propaganda.

oezi|3 years ago

This seems to be a core problem of a lot of people. The inability to discern that not everything has an agenda and is propaganda.

Most western media (Murdock/Berlusconi type oligarch media aside) is fairly factual. It doesn't have 'spin' or 'agenda' in the sense that the journalists conspire to mislead (they don't have time for this).

koonsolo|3 years ago

Western media is not controlled by the goverment, so they are free to report on anything they want. I saw them interview pro-russian people in those regions right in the battle areas.

On YouTube I follow Denys Davydov, a Ukrainian pilot that reports about the war. A few days ago he showed a video of a Ukrainian helicopter flying close over traffic, and he was critiquing how irresponsibly and dangerous that was. He claims to know that road and that is was far from the battlefield. So even him as a Ukrainian is able to try and be as objective as possible.

News can be objective. The claim that western media is full of propaganda is just kremlin propaganda.

syrkis|3 years ago

I use understandingwar.org. to me it does not seem like western propaganda, but rather an attempt to convey accurate information. But then again, to me mainstream news (which I stay away from) seems sensationalistic, not propagandistic.

sofixa|3 years ago

Oryx (blog and Twitter) provides good raw open source intelligence data.

I've found The Guardian's reporting and FT's analysis to be quite good. They report based on verifiable facts and also claims by both sides, with explicit mentions if there's corroborating sources or not. The Guardian also have a daily "what's new" so that's useful to keep up.

culi|3 years ago

You're probably being downvoted because of the mere suggestion that Western propaganda is shaping the narrative but this is something that also irks me. I do not defend at all any of Russia's actions but the fact that it's just become commonly accepted that the war happened because "PuTiN iS cRaZyyy" is kinda scary. Absolutely no mention of the US' role in this or the fact that NATO specifically sent Boris to stop the peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia that would've prevented this or that Biden has been very explicit about a foreign policy to "weaken Russia" since taking office.

The complete lack of geopolitical and historical context in the media around this event has really shaken my trust. In the future I'll probably just be heading directly to the history books rather than trying to parse out the missing context from the media

orwin|3 years ago

I mean, my mother hosted georgians refugees when i was still in highschool, so i have talked to them (at least tried to, we all had broken english). To be honest, i have no problem at all believing the propaganda talking about rapes (including those targeting young kids, which aren't talked about in MSMs) and massacres from the Russian army.

I know i'm biased, but first, this is a belief i held in my formative years (that the Russian army was full of violent pigs), and it seems to align the the propaganda i'm seeing now. So perhaps there is some exageration right now, perhaps there was some exagerations 15 years ago, but to me it aligns perfectly.

I also know two ex-special force guys, one who worked in Africa against Wagner, and while Wagner seems to be less rape-happy than the average Russian military guy, massacring and trying to put it on their opponent is their MO. I think i can say it now because Wagner was recently caught and will be more carefull next time, but the French army decided to keep satellite + air surveillance over all their old bases and now put bodycams and surveillance on all sites that can be used to frame them.