LVIV REGIONAL MEDIA AND THEIR CONTENT FROM/FOR THE “PRIMARY CLIENT”

Over the years, experts from the Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy (POID) have been conducting quantitative and qualitative monitoring of Ukraine's information space at the local level. By selecting certain regions, as well as print and online media in each of them, particular groups provide not only accounting and description of content – their task is to compare the results of regional newsrooms’ work. Separate mission of POID specialists is the separation of illustrative cases and preparation of professional recommendations for editorial offices in order to give another chance for their audience to avoid contact with low-quality or harmful content. The subject of the research: the content of four newspapers of Lviv region “Vysokyi Zamok”, “Express”, “Lvivska Poshta” (all – from Lviv) and “Novyny Prybuzhzhya” (city of Chervonohrad) (517 articles in total during the monitoring periods of May 10-16 and September 13-19 2021), as well as four online media – on particular sites “Vgolos”, “Gal-info”, “Zaxid.net”, “Lviv portal” (800 materials in total during the mentioned above weeks of May and September 2021). Methodology: main methods used for the research are quantitative, qualitative and content analysis with the focus on media standards abidance, presence of propaganda or hidden advertisement as well as themes, genres, tonality and originality of the enlisted media’s content. Results: taking into consideration formal devotion to the professional standards local print and online media of Lviv region is facing some visible difficulties. Main challenges in its chase for the audience attention and advertising budgets force it to have a specific definition of the primary client. The question of media ownership or other kind of control over particular media outlets also plays not the last fiddle in terms of influence on the media content quality. The article contains several vivid examples of possible media standards violations or at least cases that may be called a content from the “grey zone” of normative theory of contemporary journalism.