The Influence of the Media on the Formation of Public Trust in the Ukranian Authorities During the War

The article is devoted to the identification of the crucial changes in the information space of Ukraine after the beginning of Russia's full-scale aggressive war against Ukraine and the media's influence determination on the formation of public trust in the government during this period. To achieve this goal, an interdisciplinary approach and a combination of research information sources and methods from various scientific fields, including journalism, social communications, sociology, political science, etc., were used. The article reveals the principal forms of restriction of the information space that took place in the television format and print media. At the same time, platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Telegram, and Tiktok, which were not censored by the authorities and disseminated information from primary sources about current events, especially in the war zones, have experienced a significant increase in the dissemination of socially important messages. The study proved that the media remain the main tool for strengthening vertical interaction between the government and society, which allows socio-political institutions to legitimise their activities and government decisions. Compiling a comparative table and presenting diagrams of sociological surveys on the level of public trust in the government revealed a trend of significant growth in public support for government institutions with an average statistical trend of 25 percent, which is significantly different from the indicators of the previous years of Ukraine's independence. Accordingly, the authorities managed to build public support not only for their actions during the war but also to entrench public awareness of the importance of monopoly state governance in key areas, including security