Simply days after the Russian navy launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, tales of Ukrainian resistance have been already circulating with a ferocity all their very own.
A part of this was as a result of Ukrainian authorities’s savvy use of social media.
On March 7, 2022, for instance, the federal government posted a video on Twitter, the platform now generally known as X, exhibiting clips of Ukrainian farmers utilizing John Deere tractors to tow away disabled Russian tanks and tools. The picture got here with a easy message, complemented by a tractor icon: “Don’t mess with Ukrainian farmers.”
This video caught my consideration – and that of my colleague Andrew Pyle, who, like me, research the strategic use of communication.
We determined to check the entire posts that the Ukrainian authorities and the town of Kyiv posted to their official Twitter accounts through the first days of the Russian invasion. We discovered that the governments strategically used the platform as a type of disaster communication and public diplomacy.
Whereas Ukraine was battling the Russian military on its land, it was additionally preventing for the hearts and minds of individuals following the battle on social media from afar.
The method
We analyzed 163 tweets posted by the verified @Ukraine authorities and @Kyiv authorities accounts from Feb. 1, 2022, till Could 1, 2022. We discovered many examples of Ukraine and Kyiv utilizing the theme of resilience to spice up their very own picture on the platform. Each of the accounts posted virtually completely in regards to the conflict throughout this era, with posts starting from fundraising campaigns to appeals for customers to “tag @Russia and inform them what you concentrate on them.”
Kyiv’s account, which has 2.1 million followers and describes itself as “the town of braveness” on its web page, posted a picture on March 9, 2022, that depicted a lady breastfeeding an toddler in opposition to the backdrop of a map of the town’s subway system. The imagery right here carefully resembles Catholic iconography of the Virgin Mary with child Jesus.
Ukraine’s account has 2.3 million followers and the playful description, “Sure, that is the official twitter account of Ukraine.” It posted a equally religious-themed submit in regards to the conflict on Christmas Eve in 2022.
Digital public diplomacy
Different tweets over the previous two years appear directed at strengthening relationships with the US and different nations which have helped Ukraine defend itself in opposition to Russia.
One tweet from Ukraine’s official account in 2022 thanked the U.S. for its help by wishing its “American associates” a contented Fourth of July. It posted one other related message directed at People in 2023, presenting Ukraine as a freedom-and-independence-loving nation.
On this means, Ukraine’s social media strategy carefully displays what some students have referred to as “selfie diplomacy” – or how a rustic makes use of social media to “draw its personal self-portrait.”
Whereas students have begun to look at the position of social media for public diplomacy, comparatively little is thought about how nations can use X and different social media platforms to affect how folks see them throughout a time of battle.
However the broader use of expertise to govern public opinion about conflict is way from new.
A robust historic precedent
The Woodrow Wilson administration, for instance, enlisted the theorist Edwards Bernays, who’s sometimes called the “father of public relations,” to assist its conflict effort through the 1910s.
Bernays labored with the newly licensed Committee on Public Data, a authorities company tasked with constructing public help for World Conflict I at residence. Specialists have additionally famous that this committee was primarily a authorities propaganda workplace, which at instances engaged in disinformation.
Inside months, Bernays and the committee helped shift public help for a conflict People had initially been reluctant to hitch by selling the concept the U.S. was concerned within the preventing to carry democracy to Europe.
Specifically, Bernays directed the CPI’s Latin Information Service as a way to construct help for the conflict amongst Latin American allies. He enlisted American firms doing enterprise abroad to distribute literature about America’s causes for getting into the conflict.
Bernays, a nephew of Sigmund Freud, knew that the usage of symbols and pictures might promote the concept of conflict to the general public. As Bernays wrote in 1942, “Arms and armaments aren’t the one weapons … concepts are weapons too.”
These identical ideas apply within the case of the Ukraine conflict right now.
Connecting with folks
Ukraine has been attempting to hitch NATO ever for the reason that nation gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
All through the battle, Ukraine has made quite a few appeals on X to its allies in Europe and North America to simply accept its software to hitch the alliance.
It has additionally relied closely on interactions with Western social media and tradition to attach with folks in overseas nations in artistic methods.
For example on Feb. 25, 2022, the Twitter account for the broadly well-liked American tv collection “The Simpsons” posted a picture of the namesake household stoically holding Ukrainian flags. A number of hours later, Ukraine replied to the tweet with blue and yellow coronary heart emojis together with a GIF from a “Simpsons” episode.
Whereas our research doesn’t include knowledge past Could 2022, Ukraine and Kyiv’s X accounts have continued to publish content material that displays these basic themes of nationwide resilience and diplomacy.
Because the conflict in Ukraine continues, the federal government’s strategic use of social media might function a mannequin, or not less than a degree of consideration, to different nations additionally attempting to advance their public photographs – particularly throughout conflict and different instances of hardship.
