A lack of news coverage on the war between Russia and Ukraine is fueling Citrus College students’ distrust and dissatisfaction with media outlets.
Students are worried that reporting on war in Ukraine resulted in Americans being out-of-the-loop on the conflict.
Psychology major Leyland Pacheco is concerned with how little news outlets are reporting.
“I don’t think personally that the news does enough to educate (people in) the United States about it,” Pacheco said. “It’s like it blows over and I’m like no it’s still happening, like why are we not talking about it?”
Citrus political science major Geoffrey Varas has noticed a decrease in the amount of in class discussions about the conflict.
Varas said when the war dramatically escalated in the spring “it was a huge topic of discussion.” Now, Varas said, “It’s been awhile since I heard of the whole Ukraine topic.”
Varas blames this drop off in discussion on diminishing coverage of the story.
“It’s just crazy how fast the media cycles,” Varas said
History major Ethan Kisaka is concerned how the conflict is affecting humanitarian aid.
“The lack of reporting on it has diminished the interest of other countries wanting to help,” Kisaka said. “Even though they probably need help now more than ever.”
Communications major Jessica Nilrangsri is especially concerned with the lack of media coverage on the subject. She has a boyfriend joining the Navy.
“With what the media puts out, there should be more information on this, especially for people who have family in the military,” she said.
Nilrangsri voiced her concern over not knowing whether or not the war was escalating with the support of the United States.
“With the difficulties we’re facing now, who knows what could happen in two years? What could explode?” she said.
Citrus professor of political science Gerhard Peters said news on the conflict has decreased since the war began but that’s not out of the ordinary
On the topic of if news on the conflict has decreased in the United States, Peters said, “Yeah it certainly has and that’s to be expected.”
Peters explained that the reason the war is not garnering as much news attention in the United States is because “we’re not as immediately affected by the conflict as naturally the Ukrainians are” and that “it’s (the war in Ukraine) not as salient of an issue, that’s not to say that it’s not important”.
Peters also pointed out that news on the war in Ukraine has actually been getting more attention recently.
“In recent days the events in Ukraine have actually garnered more news coverage,” Peters said.
Peters said the reasoning for this is because “the Ukrainians actually have launched a big counter offensive and have actually seized back a lot of territory.”
