Ukrainian Journalists of North America (UJNA) met in mid-May at Soyuzivka Heritage Center in Kerhonkson, N.Y., for their fifth professional conference. Participating were journalists of print, broadcast and digital media from various Ukrainian media outlets in Canada and the United States who came to share with and learn from their colleagues about the various challenges they face in today’s world.
Significantly, the topic of this year’s UJNA conference was “The Future of News.” It’s a future that is uncertain, as journalism faces multiple perils.
Besides “fake news,” there is misinformation and downright disinformation reminiscent of the Soviet era. There is widespread partisanship and bias in various “news” media, and the level of discourse has sunk to new lows as opposing opinions oftentimes are hatefully targeted. That, of course, leads the public to question what is the truth and, indeed, what is truth. Social media have now become news sources for much of the population, while traditional print and broadcast media decline. Moreover, these days everyone’s a journalist. No qualifications, knowledge, professionalism or ethics required. It’s a dangerous world out there, as the consumers of news – or what they deem to be “news” – become less and less truly informed. The marketplace of ideas, whereby the free competition of ideas separated falsehood from facts, has been replaced by an echo chamber, in which alternate opinions are not heard and a person’s views are merely reinforced by those of like-minded individuals.
In this climate, newspapers are dying off or merging; newspapers and magazines are becoming online-only publications; and media conglomerates are acquiring more and more “properties.” The days when cities had more than one newspaper are quickly coming to an end, and those newspapers that do remain are losing their individuality, becoming more and more homogenized.
The Ukrainian news media, which serve a niche market, face many of these same issues plus others. The intensely loyal readers who traditionally supported Ukrainian newspapers are aging, while younger generations don’t seem to be interested – unless they want to publicize their particular event or project. Thus, the number of subscribers is declining. Production and distribution expenses – including the cost of mailing publications to a geographically dispersed readership – are constantly rising.
Sadly, the number of Ukrainian American and Ukrainian Canadian print media has decreased markedly. Gone are such U.S. newspapers as America (Philadelphia) and Narodna Volya (Scranton, Pa.); The Way (Philadelphia), once a print weekly, is now a biweekly in digital format only; Canada’s New Pathway (Toronto) and Ukrainian News (Edmonton, Alberta) have merged into one bilingual weekly. New Pathway-Ukrainian News, Svoboda and The Ukrainian Weekly have online versions in addition to their print editions.
And still, despite all odds, Ukrainian news media continue their mission, striving to serve new generations of Ukrainians in North America. These mainstays of our community deserve our support via paid subscriptions, donations and advertising dollars.