Ukrainian Toronto TV was founded in 2012, originally as a satirical YouTube channel for a young audience. The character of the fictional, naive reporter Michael Shchur from Canada made it possible at the time to gain access to prominent politicians and subsequently confront them through irony. But Toronto TV has long since outgrown that label; today, it is one of the most prominent independent media outlets in Ukraine. While the editorial team still relies on humour, it combines it with investigative journalism, news reporting, and commentary.
“Being an independent media outlet wasn’t easy even before the war. After February 2022, however, the rules changed completely,” says Maksym Shcherbyna, creative producer and one of the leading figures of the Ukrainian online television station Toronto TV, as we meet at their studio in Kyiv.
As he explains, the war in Ukraine isn’t just a war fought with weapons. It’s also a war of information. Newsrooms around the world today operate in an environment where speed is everything. For Ukrainian newsrooms, however, a mistake may not just mean a damaged reputation – it could also cost human lives.
That is why journalists verify information with particular care, wait for confirmation from official sources, and pay close attention to details that could endanger people on the ground. Could a photograph reveal the location of soldiers? Is there a risk that a video might reveal details that should not be made public?
The biggest rival is no longer another medium
Social media platforms, though, have no such safeguards. Each one has effectively become an independent news channel. And while reputable newsrooms are still verifying a story, dozens of Telegram accounts have long since published it – often without context or the slightest effort to verify it – and it has taken on a life of its own online. In a situation where speed determines reach and algorithms dictate what millions of people will see, honest journalism finds itself at a disadvantage.
“We’re losing in terms of views, not quality,” argues Anatoliy Ostapenko, head of the open-source intelligence department at Toronto TV. “This is a problem that has long since gone beyond Ukraine. The pressure for speed, immediate reactions, and constant content production is something the media around the world is experiencing today,” he adds.
Ostapenko and his colleagues are credited with several investigations, including ones that resonated far beyond Ukraine’s borders. Among other things, they have focused on how Russia circumvents sanctions. They managed to uncover how members of the Russian military intelligence agency, the GRU, sent their agents to various countries – from the Middle East to Asia – where, through a complex network of shell companies, they purchased sanctioned components for the Russian arms industry. The significance of this investigation was underscored when it was cited in the annual report of the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service.
Communicating complex topics through humour
After Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, interest in Ukrainian history, culture, and identity surged. Millions of people began searching for answers to questions about who Ukrainians are and who they want to be. At the same time, however, we live in a world that is increasingly built around videos lasting just a few seconds. “We’re competing with TikTok, where they can make you laugh, make you cry, and even give you a dinner recipe – all in three seconds,” Ostapenko says with a touch of hyperbole.
At a time when the audience’s attention is one of the most valuable commodities, humour is becoming almost a necessity for the media. If you want to explain judicial reform, how institutions work, or Russian disinformation campaigns to young people, you first have to convince them to listen to you at all.
Flooding the information space with disinformation
According to journalists from Toronto TV, disinformation has such a strong effect on people not because it is convincing in and of itself. In fact, they say, it is often effective precisely because there is such a vast amount of it. The opposing side isn’t trying to convince people of its “truth.” It’s all about quantity – about flooding the information space.
“It’s difficult for a liberal democracy to cope with propaganda. While you’re debunking one fake story about biological laboratories – while you’re focusing on one thing – they release more and more. You’re literally being overwhelmed by an avalanche of information,” argues Shcherbyna. Before you can debunk one lie, another one appears. While you’re explaining that Ukraine isn’t actually building a dirty nuclear bomb, the opposing side is already spreading stories about genetically modified pigeons that allegedly carry biological weapons exclusively targeting ethnic Russians.
“It frustrates me how much energy is spent debunking individual pieces of fake news instead of teaching people how to recognise them on their own,” adds Ostapenko.
According to journalists from Toronto TV, media literacy and the development of critical thinking can serve as a sort of antidote. At the same time, humour can be what gets complex information across to an audience that tends to stay away from traditional news formats.
For the Toronto TV editorial team, however, humour is much more than just a way to communicate with viewers. It’s also a way to cope with reality.
“You can’t be afraid of what you laugh at,” says Shcherbyna. “Humour is a form of psychological release. Maybe we went a little overboard at times after the invasion began and turned Russia into something ridiculous in the collective imagination – a bunch of fools. But how else can you deal with fear? Humour allows you to manage fear and not succumb to panic,” he explains.