The world is tired of Ukraine. Our country is less likely to appear on the first pages of the world media. Ukraine's support is no longer so unconditional. A little more and we will be pushed to negotiate on all conditions ...
Is everything really so bad?
Let's try to find the answer in a comprehensive analysis of Ukraine's perception abroad made by the NGO BRAND UKRAINE (document). It is based on the monitoring of the international information field, sociological surveys in different regions of the world, comparative ratings and indices of national brands. A wide field for conclusions.
This is the second attempt to analyse in what light the world sees Ukraine. The first report, made as a result of the most difficult year in the history of independent Ukraine, recorded an unprecedented increase in the level of awareness of the Ukrainian issue. In addition, the increase in world attention to our country and the improvement of Ukraine's perception by many criteria has been recorded. Even then, the researchers predicted that the fall in the amount of attention and a positive attitude towards Ukraine in the world is inevitable, and therefore it is necessary to build an effective communication strategy that can "overcome fatigue". The strategy was never born. This is evidenced by the results obtained this year, but they also say that we still have time to restructure communications with the world.
Ukraine in the media
In fact, the number of articles about Ukraine in foreign online media in 2023 was 20% less than 2022. Only 20% less. Because the fall of the attention of international media to long wars is much stronger. For example, the study of the International Media Lighting of Syrian (2013–2014) and the Israeli-Palestinian (2009–2015) wars proves that after the emergence of a large number of news at the moments of powerful military operations, the further fall in the amount of media attention was 60-80%. So, we have lost much less than we could. Important aspects that helped us stay in focus were:
- issuing by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of Putin's arrest;
- launch of drone on the Kremlin;
- the Wagner Group rebellion, officially known as PMC Wagner;
- the refusal of our tennis player Elina Svitolina to shake the hand of a Belarusian athlete during the Wimbildone Championship;
- visit by Zelenskyy to the United States of America;
- Elon Mask's accusations that he turned off Starlink near Crimea in 2022;
- starting negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the European Union.
As we can see, the events that have returned the world's attention to us are different and very superficially related to military topics. Apparently, this is what helped us.
In the month of active battles for the territory of Bakhmut, after the shelling of Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia and Lviv and the missile strike in the village called Hroza, the number of news about Ukraine in the media resources, on the contrary, decreased.
The world's media began to stay away from the horrific and really painful events of this war, but they are gladly supporting the format of news presentation, which is more similar to the series "Game of Thrones" than the real world. News releases about the latest intrigues, rebellions, unexpected turns of the plot, luxurious official receptions of politicians in the White House are interesting to watch, unlike real tragedies ... Do not rush to be outraged by this condition, even this type of attention to our country is better than its complete absence. Moreover, it opens new, at least communication, opportunities for us.
Content analysis confirms that the main decrease occurred in the coverage of tragic manifestations of war. In 2023, the information space consisted of news about active fighting and the consequences of attacks, while in the first year of a full-scale war this topic concerned half of all materials about Ukraine. Instead, non-military topics have expanded (see Fig. 1) – from international relations and trade to literature, art, and sports. It is worth noting that 32% of all articles discussed international efforts to support Ukraine in the war against Russian invaders. About 13% of the media space was devoted to the news of sports, culture, business and international trade, the lives of Ukrainians at home and abroad and even Ukrainian nature. Articles on political events in the Russian Federation, in which our country appeared as a key factor, made up 12% of the information space. The other 15% articles were related to different but also non-military topics. These "other" articles, by the way, refer to our corruption scandals and stories with inefficient use of humanitarian aid. So far, it is worth fixing at least such a result.
It is really good that the world has discovered Ukraine and that our country turned out to be really interesting for it. We have in our communication strategies with the world community to use any available opportunities, especially since things such as sports, culture, and trade are best suited to a period when fatigue from a constant sense of compassion has become chronic.
Ukraine on social networks
The indicator of this sense of compassion may well be social networks. Well, according to the monitoring results, they had the number of posts with mention of Ukraine in 2023 by 42% less than 2022. Among the most common topics, in addition to assistance from the United States of America and the impressive news after the explosion of the dam of the Kakhovka reservoir were:
- criticism of President Joe Biden by Donald Trump supporters, and after Hamas's attack on Israel, the West's accusation of double standards in relation to Ukraine and Palestine;
- criticism of American politicians by Elon Musk that they put the interests of Ukrainian borders above the interests of the United States of America;
- the call to wake up from the lie of the political observer Jackson Hinkle;
- Tucker Carlson's interview with Victor Orbán about what is really happening in Ukraine "(see Fig. 2).
And as if it were not enough, researchers say that a large number of discussions were caused by the topic of sponsorship of biolaboratories by Hunter Biden in Ukraine, in general, regular mentions of the Burisma case, a scandal with Yaroslav Hunka in the Parliament of Canada. In addition, the discussion also summoned information about the alleged death in the Kharkiv detention center of the American blogger Honsalo Lira.
So, as we can see, in social networks the situation is worse and more complicated. Not only that references to our country are not so frequent or are presented in the wrong light, but also the context of these references is rather dubious. They refer to the theories of conspiracy, or propaganda, and when these theories are not about propaganda, then they tell about different types of manipulations. Unfortunately, we lose both quantitatively and qualitatively. At the same time, we will not be able to completely ignore them, because it is social networks, not traditional media, which are the source of news today, in written brackets and without, for a large number of people. That is, these people are an electorate to which politicians who are leaders of democratic countries must listen carefully, even if they do not want to.
Ukraine in the Google search system
Our previous record at the request of "Ukraine" in Google's trends was set in 2014-when the Russian Federation annexed the Peninsula of Crimea. Well, in February 2022 it was exceeded seven times. Although the number of requests decreased significantly at the end of 2022, Ukraine became the third trending request in the world overall and the first in the "News" category at the end of the year. At the same time, overtaking even the news about the death of Queen Elizabeth II. This is information for you to compare, because the results of 2023 are others. In December 2023, the search interest in the request of Ukraine in December 2023 returned to the level of January 2022. Ukraine has disappeared from the top trends of the world, and the championship in the category of "News" has already occupied another tragedy, namely the war in the Middle East.
And worse is that the greatest bursts of search activity, unlike in 2022, caused unrelated events, such as Eurovision or qualifying football matches within the 2024 UEFA European Football Championship (see Fig. 3). Among the topics related to the war, the issue of giving Ukraine weapons and the topic of a counter-offensive (including the request "unsuccessful counter-offensive", which appeared at the end of the year) should be distinguished.
Much less, but still, the world was interested in 2023, why Russia annexed Crimea, when the war began in Ukraine, what is the strategic importance of Bakhmut and how serious the nuclear danger from the Russian Federation is.
Well, compassion (compassion fatigue – a feeling of emotional exhaustion from a long clash with information about human suffering) is given a sign. The war in Ukraine has become a topic that consumers of news are most consciously avoided – 39% of those who often or from time to time avoid a certain media content, noted that they deliberately bypass news about Ukraine. Nevertheless, Ukraine was still the fourth country in the world whose news was being followed by humanity in 2023.
Challenges and conclusions
So, on the one hand, everything is not as bad as it seemed to us, on the other, there is an obvious whole complex of problems we have to solve. We need to do this in order for Ukraine's global communication strategy to be an effective tool for support in the war. Of course, provided that we will have some communication strategy at all.
First of all, it is obvious that the coverage of the events of Ukraine in the news of the world media is situational. That is, there is an absolute impossibility to manage these processes from our side. So, it's time to learn how to get into the news with your own events that need to be covered, promote your narratives and be the subject of discussions, taking into account the current context, in specific time periods and in specific countries or regions. Without it, our media exposure will never become a manageable process.
We have no doubt that all the authorities somewhere in the attic have different communication strategies that lie under a layer of dust. Are they relevant? Do they fit into the overall strategy of the country? Do they meet modern challenges and needs? Can these communication strategies be implemented at all? We guess that there is only one answer to all these questions and it is not affirmative one.
Secondly, we should not lose the opportunities given to us by the interest of the world media in the issues of Ukraine, which relate not only to military topics. Programs of humanitarian and cultural cooperation, strengthening ties with other countries in various spheres, from trade to sports, and proactively promoting the achievements of modern Ukraine are excellent platforms for promoting our interests and, once again, forming our subjectivity in the world.
Thirdly, work with both social networks and countering disinformation is clearly insufficient. Strangely, the current government, convinced that the media is unimportant in the age of social networks, completely missed this direction. It turned out that the world is not limited to Telegram channels. It is even more surprising that there are as many as two centers for combating disinformation in the country (under the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy (MCIP) and the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC)), but it is difficult to even notice their counteraction (as well as the interaction between them) globally.
It is clear that for years communication strategies were perceived as a means of tactical manipulation and speculation. Their strategic role in our latitudes was, rather, a fashionable accessory that adorns government presentations at conferences. Well, it's high time to change this, if our ambitions are broader than banal statements about "tiredness of the Ukrainian issue".
BRAND UKRAINE is an independent organization that, since February 2022, has been systematically working on the development of the national brand of Ukraine in the international arena, creates communication projects, develops the digital ecosystem of Ukraine Ukraine.ua, and conducts various studies of the perception of our country abroad.