The use of military media to raise the political awareness of Ukrainian military personnel in the system of formal and informal education

Abstract

B a c k g r o u n d . The political awareness of military personnel is the basis for the formation of ideological beliefs and motivation for the armed defense of Ukraine. Since 2014, Ukraine has been repelling the armed aggression of the Russian Federation (RF), and starting February 24, 2022, the country is in the phase of a large-scale military invasion. General mobilization increased the Ukrainian army with non-professional military personnel. Political awareness formed on pro-Ukrainian positions is able to neutralize the informational and psychological influences of the enemy. Until 2021, pro-Russian media were present in the information space of Ukraine, which actively formed a distorted political picture of the world. Military media are part of Ukraine's information space; they can be one of the elements forming the political awareness of military personnel. The purpose of the study is to determine a list of materials that can be used to increase the political awareness of military personnel. The task is to monitor the media resources of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine (MoD) to identify materials that will expand the political awareness of military personnel. The object of the research is the websites of the Ministry of Defence and the Information Agency MoD "ArmiaInform". M e t h o d s . The methods of monitoring, thematic analysis, and content analysis of materials posted on the websites of the Ministry of Defence and the Information Agency ArmiaInform from February 24, 2022, to October 31, 2022, were used. 1237 materials were analysed. The materials were grouped by topic into categories to policy areas and, were applied a ranking method, where the quantity of publications was used as an indicator of rank. R e s u l t s . In the news of the Ministry of Defence, the topic of war is presented in the 1st place, foreign policy is in the 2nd place, domestic policy is in the 3rd place. In the Information Agency "ArmiaInform", the topic of foreign policy is in the 1st place, the war is in the 2nd place, the domestic policy is in the 3rd place, and analytical materials on historical topics are in the 4th place. Out of 1,237 monitoring materials, 32 can become additions to the thematic matrix of the formation of political awareness in military personnel. C o n c l u s i o n s . The key components of political awareness that influence the subject's political behaviour are political literacy, political competence, rationality, and objectivity of political choice. The media of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine can become part of a political awareness program by publishing materials that increase political literacy and political competence. News posted on the media resources of the Ministry of Defence can be used for political information.