Ratings of Political Leaders: Characteristics of Its Usage in the Ukrainian Mediaspace

The paper offers the study to define reasons of political leaders' ratings popularity amongst Ukrainians, to clarify characteristics of ratings circulation in Ukrainian mediaspace, and ways in which Ukrainian medias use ratings and goals they set. The research object is perception of ratings by Ukraine common public, and ways Ukrainian mass media influence common Ukrainians perception. Special attention is paid to the difference between terms ranking and rating, and to the numerous cases of the substitution of the first term for the second one which frequently occur in Ukrainian media. Ratings of political leaders are very popular and in great demand for Ukrainian public, and it is facilitated by some factors. Political and civic freedoms which people enjoy are the key prerequisites for this. Need for self-identification which presupposes defining of one's own political preferences prompts desire to review the ratings. Ratings help one to get rid of certain discomfort caused by doubts and uncertainty, through joining the majority opinion, but in its turn it means one delegate his/her responsibility to the majority. The Ukrainian public mainly becomes acquainted with ratings via mass media which performs the function of transmission and dissemination results of sociological research of public opinion which rating essentially is, from an institute that conducted such research to the public. So public is both source of data which sociologists process and final recipient of this processing results as well. Since public uses the information to make a decision for voting, it means that presently ratings are designed not for politicians but for general public mostly. But public perception of ratings depends on the very way of presentation, its logical and content scheme, and its emotional dimensions which mass media provides, so ratings of political leaders often should be recognized as an instrument for manipulation