ELITE TRUST THE INTERNET AND WATCH EURONEWS

Polling among leaders and experts has given incredible results. It has turned out that over a half of the elite trusts the Internet sources rather than traditional mass media. (See Table 1).

The Internet incorporates enormous number of informational and entertainment resources. This global network is fairly compared with the library, yet it has one vital distinction – no owner as such. Art masterpieces and bletcherous works, scientific data and phony texts, news and fraud, facts and lie are published in the Internet as equal. It has no filter that would separate wheat from tares. This is what a user navigating a web site should do himself/herself. This is freedom – freedom of opinion, freedom of information distribution and freedom of choice. We think that this very freedom has become a determining factor for the Belarusian elite when they made their choice in favor of the Internet. Also, this is the speed of news which matters. Nothing will compare in this respect with the on-line journalism born by the Internet (its comments are by far more prompt than TV materials). In addition, the Internet gives an opportunity to compare interpretations of events in different sources, get introduced to the background of an issue, offers hypertexts and prompt feedback which is all very important for opinion leaders.

These peculiarities of the Internet journalism are as well important for the population but they are less accessible for it. While the majority of the elite use PC’s and the Internet, common people using PC and the Internet are by far less. According to the latest nation opinion poll, around a third of common people uses PC’s and about 23% – the Internet, but the number of regular users is almost twofold lower. This is why, unlike the elite, common citizens gave the lowest mark to the Internet as well as to the mass media (8.8%). This is an argument in favor of the opinion that on-line journalism will not oust the traditional press and electronic mass media in the near future. At the same time, it should be noted that the number of PC and Internet users in Belarus has grown twofold over the past five years. This means that the role of the Internet as the source of information and a means of communication will be going up rapidly. In this regards, the elite point out to the direction in which the Belarusian society in general will develop.

The most trusted traditional mass media among the Belarusian elite are European and other Western mass media (39%). However, comparison in sectors shows that public and private leaders and experts have very different priorities. Thus, private sector employees give preference to non-state mass media and their colleagues from the public sector – to the mentioned above Western mass media. Unlike the elite, over a half of common citizens trusts the state-run mass media. As for the Russian mass media traditional for the Belarusian public, polling among the elite shows low degree of trust to them – 10% (none from private sector and 20% of respondents from public sector mentioned these media). Perhaps, we’ve got this result because the Russian mass media are taken as engaged by the Belarusian politics on the one hand and their presence is decreasing at the Belarusian media market on the other hand. Alongside, the nation public opinion poll put Russian mass media in the second place after the Belarusian state-run media in the degree of trust (35.2% and 58.2% respectively). Apparently, common people are more conservative in their likings as well as less demanding than the elite.

The Western media in Belarus are first of all presented by the following short-wave radio stations: Belarusian and Russian services of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Russian service of BBC channel, Russian service of Deutsche Welle (from November, it broadcasts the program Belarusian Chronicles in Russian and Belarusian languages), Russian service of the Voice of America as well as Belarusian and Russian services of the Radio Polonia. Cable network users usually have the TV channel EuroNews broadcasting its programs in Russian and some also have CNN, BBC, and TV Polonia. In addition, TV channels TVP1 (with the weekly Belarus Today) and TVP2 broadcasting news with captions in Belarusian are available in the areas bordering with Poland. Citizens in boundary areas can also receive radio channels Białystok, Lietuvos radijas (with a daily program in Belarusian), programs in Russian from the Latvian radio Domskaya Square, Lithuanian TV channel LRT and Latvian – LTV as well as Ukrainian radio channel Promen. Remarkably, only 12% of respondents from elite said they don’t and 46% said they daily do watch Russian-language EuroNews channel. As for the common citizens, 67.5% of them never watch EuroNews and 7.2% watch it daily.

To sum it up, a Belarusian citizen willing to get alternative social and political information, can do this if he/she buys a short-wave radio set, gets access to the Internet or sets up a satellite dish. An average person not interested much in politics usually listens to the news on FM radio stations as well as draws them from the Belarusian state-run electronic mass media. However, in the times of burst interest to the politics or in emergencies a part of the Belarusian citizens – like in the Soviet times – turns to the Western radio. However, it is usually the minority which regularly listens to the foreign radio; this is why, quite naturally, a high percentage of elite representatives as well as common citizens found it difficult to answer the question whether foreign radio truthfully covers living in Belarus. (See Table 2).

As the Table 2 shows, the opinion that foreign radio untruthfully covers living in Belarus is prevailing in the nation opinion poll (among those who determined their attitude). The elite are more inclined to the opposite viewpoint (39% of respondents). In the private sector, 55% of leaders and experts think that news of the foreign radio stations are reliable and in the public sector – only 23%, but in both cases this viewpoint is dominating. However, both foreign radio and TV stations are hardly accessible for the Belarusian citizens: the first – because of unstable and poor quality of programs in a shortwave range, second – because of the cost for satellite dishes and control of the state over the content of cable TV.

When asked if they want to receive independent radio and TV programs on a regular basis, an overwhelming number of respondents among the elite and common citizens said “yes” (See Table 3).

Analysis of results of both opinion polls shows that the elite have a greater desire to get such an opportunity (74%) as compared with common citizens (49.9%). It is especially strong among private sector employees (81%), yet two thirds of experts and leaders from the public sector would also like to have such an opportunity (67%). Clearly, for common citizens access to alternative sources of information isn’t vital (about a third of respondents said “no”). Remarkably, approximately the same number of common citizens thinks that foreign radio is not reliable. It is no wonder though that an overwhelming majority of the elite (82%) and only 22.4% of common citizens assessed reliability of Belarusian mass media when the latter cover activity of Western countries as “unreliable.” Thus, foreign radio and TV are still inaccessible for the majority of Belarusian citizens. The elite satisfy their informational hunger in the Internet mainly as well as daily watch EuroNews transmitted in Russian. The majority of common citizens still remain prisoners of the Belarusian television.

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