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By tackling topics like domestic violence and single motherhood during the lockdown, Hromadske Radio appealed to its majority female audience.
This case study is part of Resilience Reports, a series from the European Journalism Centre about how news organizations across Europe are adjusting their daily operations and business strategies as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.
In a nutshell: Reliable COVID-19 news and human interest stories kept Ukrainian citizens in the capital and the east of the country up-to-speed during the pandemic
In March, Hromadske Radio — one of Ukraine’s few nonprofit radio stations — faced an issue: Citizens in the country didn’t care much about COVID-19.
Despite widespread coverage of the spread of the virus and serious restrictions put in place by the government, polling showed that citizens thought the coronavirus was just the fifth-biggest problem — after corruption, unemployment and other societal issues.
To help combat this perception, the 70-person station secured donors to create four new programs. Focusing specifically on its female audience, topics included domestic violence and child care as well as daily COVID-19 statistics and key public health messages. A regular schedule of podcast releases and new home setup for some of its talk show hosts helped bring in over 300,000 people to its website in April and thousands more to its FM frequency.
The European Journalism Centre’s Tara Kelly breaks down Hromadske’s approach to covering COVID-19 and what it learned from centering women over the last four months.
Established in 2013, Hromadske Radio is a public radio
Read more here: https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2020/how-a-ukrainian-radio-station-put-women-first-in-its-coronavirus-coverage/
