Abstract: The main goal of this article is the approbation of the explanatory model of cognitive political censorship based on empirical material of the 2018-2019 presidential electoral campaign in Ukraine. The cognitive censorship represents a specific type of political censorship, which emerged simultaneously with “new media” and adaptation of traditional media to new realities of the “information overflow”. In this type of political censorship, access lockout to undesirable information (ideas) is done not through lockout of texts, but cognitive abilities that allow perceiving and interpreting these texts. The empirical part of this research includes monitoring of media information and online space, using the platforms “Medialogy”and “YouScan”. The critical discourse analysis was used to identify the strategies of cognitive censorship, presented in a number of sources and genres of politically important media information. The article identifies and analyzes at least three strategies of cognitive political censorship, suggesting weakening of the basic cognitive abilities: distraction, falsification and absurdity. The results of this research are valuable for further conceptualization of newest forms of political censorship, and represent practical importance for analysis of political processes in Ukraine.

Keywords: information flooding, information weapon, electoral technology, Ukraine, post truth, new media, cognitive political censorship, political censorship, basic cognitive functions, political censorship strategies