Media discourse on the topic of "the population census in Ukraine" as a manipulative element in the formation of legitimacy

The media discourse regarding the conduct and results of the last census in Ukraine in 2001 clearly demonstrates the dominant perceptions in Ukrainian society about the essence and significance of the census. When considering the main approaches characterizing the established opinions in Ukrainian society, it is important to pay attention to the role of the state and citizens in interpreting linguistic and ethnic categories, as well as the mechanism for maintaining an objective representation of the event. To this end, we examined two discursive practices: the conduct of the census and the topics raised in connection with this event, as well as the announcement of the census results. The first discursive practice created an image of the event as important and routine, while the second represented it as uninteresting but necessary knowledge. We analyzed the similarities reflected in the metaphors of Ukrainian journalists and speakers regarding the census and the related social processes using materials from Ukrainian media that sharply differed in their presentation style and authorial assessment of these processes. Sociological surveys are limited by ready-made concepts and are not intended to clarify the social significance of ethnic categories and ethnic phenomena. The positivist approach requires the establishment of simple indicators that would allow researchers to isolate a limited number of characteristics and features from social reality that are then analyzed over time. According to them, identity in the Ukrainian SSR and modern Ukraine differ. In general, Ukrainian media portrayed the census results as irrefutable knowledge about objective reality, thus contributing to the lack of alternatives in this perception within society. Media practices corresponded to the overall direction of centrist discourse regarding ethnic issues in the context of normalizing ambivalence. The 2001 population census delineated the Ukrainian nation as a community of state citizens and adjusted the inherited Soviet-era knowledge about the number and structure of the population. It is important to note that the authorities did not react to the obtained results. Thus, no new adequate approaches to the identified situation were formulated in specific areas of governance. On this basis, the refusal to formulate census results in terms of legitimization and, consequently, transformation of the political course called into question the continuity and pointed to the unaltered continuation of the inconsistent policy of the Ukrainian regime.

population census, discourse, language categories, ethnic categories, normalization of ambivalence, media practices, metaphor, essentialism, massmedia, communication