FORMS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT INTERACTION WITH THE MEDIA (ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE DNIPRO CITY COUNCIL)

The relevance of the study lies in the fact that government communications with the media have several dimensions. Firstly, purely informational, secondly, communication (communication with the public through the media), and thirdly, political (realization of the right to freedom of speech and access to information). The full-scale war for the freedom and independence of their country waged by the Ukrainian people has had a significant impact on the relationship between the government and the media. After all, the state, by restricting access to certain pieces of information, must ensure the rights and freedoms of citizens, as is expected in a democratic country. Researchers should pay special attention to the relationship between local authorities and journalists. The situation with the realization of community rights is complicated by martial law. Therefore, the object of the study was the interaction with the media of the local authorities of Dnipro, a major political, economic, cultural and military center of Ukraine in 2024. Relations of organizations, enterprises, institutions with the media are part of public relations and are called media relations. The main forms of media relations include press conferences, press releases and press tours. Since communication between authorities and the media includes working with open data, the article analyzes the Internet resources of the Dnipro City Council. The official website of the local authority was studied. The web portal has an extensive menu that provides citizens and journalists with access to a variety of information. The most interesting for the media are the data on public procurement and the news section. The City Council regularly publishes news, with more than 5,000 such messages published between January 1 and October 31 2024. These publications, if they are of public importance, become a source for journalistic pieces posted on online media resources. In addition to the website, Dnipro local authorities also operate a Facebook page and a YouTube channel. These resources only duplicate the printed and audiovisual information already available on the City Council’s web portal, which limits the authorities’ ability to interact with the public and the media community. Regarding the forms of media relations used by Dnipro City Council, the study noted that with the outbreak of a full-scale war between Ukraine and Russia, the relevant activities were limited. The analysis of open data shows that until February 2022, the City Council published press releases of events and held press conferences. Local authorities were particularly active in organizing press events. Currently, due to the security situation, such measures are hardly used. The role of press releases is partially fulfilled by announcements of plenary sessions of the Council and permanent commissions of the Council. The study allows us to conclude that the interaction of Dnipro local authorities with the media is carried out through the active use of Internet resources, which are a source of important data used in the work of the media. Further research on this topic will be devoted to analyzing the interaction of other local authorities with the media and summarizing the results.