Similar stories, dissimilar news coverage: Ukraine and Venezuela

Considering how far apart the two countries are, the civil unrest in Venezuela and Ukraine shares striking commonalities. So why is Ukraine getting significantly more media coverage than Venezuela?

Venezuelan protests against President Nicolas Maduro came to a head in mid-February, with anti-government protestors fighting for a regime change from Maduro’s leftist government and despairing over the country’s deepening economic crisis. In Ukraine, anti-government protests also began in mid-February when President Yanukovych decided to reject closer ties with the EU. Opponents argued that the president was serving his own needs and stifling the Ukrainian economy.

SEE ALSO:Venezuela’s protesters lose their clothes

Despite those similarities, the Ukraine crisis has received the bulk of English-news coverage since protests began, with Venezuelan protests being pushed to the back burner. Ironically, social media metrics suggests that Venezuela is actually of higher interest to the general public.

Theories for the coverage disparity include limited space on news programs or sites, higher fatalities in Ukraine, apathy on the part of neighboring countries, or a more direct U.S. interest in Eastern European political involvement. Some have also suggested that the dearth of news on Venezuela is due to a conscious or subconscious devaluing of Latin America.

Media coverage by the numbers

Though there hasn’t been a comprehensive study on news coverage of Ukraine versus Venezuela, several reporters have compiled data suggesting that the latter country is losing the headline battle.

After receiving criticism for its lack of coverage on Venezuelan protests, The Washington Post published an article analyzing news attention given to the country. In mid to late February, when both Venezuela and Ukraine exploded into protests, an analyst found that while there were “10 articles in The Post that featured the word ‘Venezuela’….the same search for ‘Ukraine returned 28 results. The same search for the Times returned 12 for ‘Venezuela’ and 25 for ‘Ukraine.’”

Similarly, a compilation of news stories on Mediaite showed that there was a significant disparity of coverage on February 20^th, when significant clashes in Kiev’s Independence Square left dozens of protesters dead. Clearly, that merits news attention, but Mediaite points out that the evening before, the 19^th, was also one of the bloodiest days in Venezuela: Paramilitaries and National Guard troops roamed middle class neighborhoods and shot at civilians, injuring many and detaining others. There were numerous reports of torture.

The English-speaking media ignored much of what was happening on February 19^th in Latin America, however, the New York Times and Al Jazeera English ran no story on Venezuela, while BBC, The Guardian and CNN ran old news rather than updates on the violence.