Between Professionalism and Activism: Ukrainian Journalism after the Euromaidan

Abstract

A crucial benchmark in Ukraine’s recent history, the Euromaidan protests triggered many transformations across Ukrainian society. Ukrainian journalism has affected and has been affected by these changes and their challenges. Journalists’ activism emerged as one of the major features of Ukraine’s post-Euromaidan media landscape but remains understudied. Informed by the concepts of “journalism culture” and “journalism professionalism,” this article explores journalists’ perceptions about their activism, the boundaries of their professionalism and their experiences confronting the activism versus professionalism dilemma. It identifies journalists’ competing approaches to the new challenges and their complicated context and discusses these approaches’ implications for the Ukrainian media and journalism.