Instagram as a platform for forming the image of the country (on the example of the account of the office of the president of Ukraine and of the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky personal profile)

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Instagram as a platform for forming the image of the country (on the example of the account of the office of the president of Ukraine and of the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky personal profile)

Today, Instagram social network is one of the most popular in Ukraine. In addition, it is the most dynamic web resource, because its developers regularly optimize all features. If it was previously used only as a platform for distributing photos and their short descriptions, today it is a resource that also plays an important role in creating and disseminating information and messages. It is a social network that has won a large audience, especially young people. That is why it also influences the formation of public opinion and the image of the country and its authorities.

Instagram is a particularly valuable resource in the work of a journalist, because nowadays it plays the role of the original source, as here you can find the latest and most interesting information directly from the participants of the informational events.

The peculiarities and ways of submitting content on the account of the Office of the President of Ukraine and on the personal profile of Volodymyr Zelensky on the social network Instagram, as well as the motivation of the posts, are being examined in this scientific paper. The main “messages” which are created and distributed in order to form a positive image of the government authorities have been analysed. The main disadvantages, as well as the positive tendencies of the analysed in the work Insta-pages, that affect the image of Ukraine in the international arena, have been distinguished. A comparative analysis of the State Institution account (Office of the President of Ukraine), and the personal page of V. Zelensky, which previously had nothing to do with the political life of the country, has been done.

Modern science needs researches in the field of Instagram accounts. After all, in order to work effectively on such a resource, it is necessary to optimize all knowledge and skills in this area. And compliance with all the requirements and following the trends of Instagram will help to form a positive image of our country in the world.

Key words: account, profile, post, publication, image, social networks, Office of the President of Ukraine.

Інстаграм як платформа для формування іміджу країни (на прикладі акаунту офісу президента України та особистого профілю В. Зеленського)

Наталія Семен

Соціальна мережа Instagram сьогодні є однією з найпопулярніших в Україні. Зокрема, це найдинамічніший вебресурс, адже його розробники регулярно оптимізують всі його функції. Якщо колись його використовували лише як платформу для поширення фотографій та невеликих описів до них, то сьогодні це ресурс, який також відіграє важливу роль в створенні та поширенні інформаційних приводів та повідомлень. Ця соціальна мережа завоювала прихильність численної аудиторії, зокрема серед молоді. Саме тому вона також впливає на формування громадської думки та іміджу країни та її владних структур.

Instagram є особливо цінним ресурсом в роботі журналіста, оскільки сьогодні він відіграє роль першоджерела. Через те, що в цій соціальній мережі можна знайти найновішу та найцікавішу інформацію, а також інформаційні приводи безпосередньо від самих учасників.

У статті досліджені особливості та способи подачі контенту в акаунті Офісу Президента України та в особистому профілі Володимира Зеленського в соціальній мережі Instagram, а також вмотивованість дописів. Проаналізовані основні “меседжі”, коті намагаються створити і поширити на цих сторінках для формування позитивного іміджу державної влади. Виокремлені основні недоліки, а також позитивні тенденції аналізованих в роботі Інста-сторінок, що впливають на імідж України на міжнародній арені. Проведено порівняльний аналіз акаунту державної установи (Офіс Президента України) та особистої сторінки В. Зеленського, який раніше не мав жодного стосунку до політичного життя країни.

Сучасна наука потребує досліджень в сфері ведення акаунтів в Інстаграм. Через те, щоб ефективно працювати в такому ресурсі, потрібно оптимізувати всі знання та навички. А дотримання всіх вимог та наслідування трендів Інстаграму допоможе сформувати позитивний імідж нашої країни у світі.

Ключові слова: акаунт, профіль, пост, допис, імідж, соціальні мережі, Офіс Президента України.

Formulation of the problem

Today, Ukraine is suffering from regular information attacks by the Russian Federation. In turn, this negatively affects the image of our country in the international arena. After all, Russian propaganda is based on negative and false stereotypes about Ukraine, which are a threat to its reputation. That is why the first persons of the state, as well as the main country authorities should do everything possible to promote the restoration and formation of a positive image of Ukraine. This is strategically important and necessary, because a positive image is the key to investment by international partners, globalization and integration into the European dimension.

Since today the role of social networks in society is large-scale, it is thanks to these resources that it is possible to inflict a powerful information rebuff on the Russian Federation and to form the positive own Ukrainian image. That is why the accounts of leading government agencies and the political elite are a good platform for this.

The purpose of the article is to analyse the influence of content on the official account of the Office of the President of Ukraine and on the personal page of V. Zelensky on Instagram on the formation of a positive image of Ukraine in the international arena.

An analysis of recent studies and publications, in which the solution to the problem is initiated, and on which the author relies

Today Instagram is one of the most popular social networks in Ukraine. However, there is no scientific research in the field of Instagram's influence on the formation of Ukraine's image. Ukrainian journalism is focused on ways to promote the content itself in this social network, and the influence of Instagram on the formation of the country's image remains an open question for further studies.

Presentation of the main material of the study with a full justification of the obtained scientific results

Volodymyr Zelensky's person is well known in Ukraine. This is a media personality, a former showman, humorist who became the president of Ukraine. Instagram also played an important role in the formation of Volodymyr Zelensky as a politician. After all, it is largely due to it that V. Zelensky, without any political experience, was able to spread his key ideas among society and influence the community choice during the 2019 presidential election. That is why the personal profile of V. Zelensky and the page of the Office of the President of Ukraine on Instagram are of scientific interest, because today every modern and progressive person is an active user of this social network.

The official Instagram account of the Office of the President of Ukraine was created in 2019. The first post appeared on August 24, 2019. As of December 2020, the number of posts on the Instagram account of the Office of the President of Ukraine is 418. There are 257 thousand subscribers on this page, and only 2 are tracked - the account of President's wife Olena Zelenska, and V. Zelensky's personal page . In our opinion, it would be worthwhile to increase the number of tracked pages, as this would demonstrate what is being monitored by the President's Office, as well as would show the range of interests of this power structure.

In addition, the ability to comment the posts is disabled. In our opinion, the lack of dialogue with the audience of the profile is an extremely negative phenomenon, because on such accounts people express their position, inform about important problems, and show their attitude to the actions of the authorities. But since there is no such opportunity on this account, it seems that the opinion of the people is not interesting for the Office of the President, and the new guarantor is afraid of possible criticism from Ukrainians. Taking into consideration the lack of communication on this profile, the number of likes is also low - it varies from 2 thousand to several tens of thousands. The most likes gain video posts, such as greetings and appeals to people.

If to compare the account of the Office of the President and the personal profile of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky on Instagram, we can see that in the second one there is the dialogue with the audience. The account of the Office of the President contains a number of slogans about the successful work of this structure, instead. It also glorifies the achievements of Ukrainian athletes in sports, informs about the approved state decisions and reforms, and honours the memory of fallen soldiers in the Joint Forces Operation zone. It also reports on the work done, informs about the released from the Russian captivity servicemen, and greets Ukrainians on state, professional and religious holidays. This is a typical example of the state structure work in social networks. The main disadvantage, in our opinion, is that some photos in this profile do not have any inscriptions. These photos are mostly static, just ordinary pictures with key phrases about the work of the current government or with quotes of V. Zelensky.

A positive point, in our opinion, is that the page also contains videos of the president in selfie format, as well as reports from places personally visited by V. Zelensky. This adds dynamism to the blog, dilutes monotonous official photo posts, which are not always informative. In our opinion, the account of the Office of the President of Ukraine has been created more for the mass media than for ordinary citizens. As not always information, published there, is clear and understandable to the public. Still noticeable is the fact that most posts are aimed at improving Ukraine's image in the international arena.

Instead, V. Zelensky's personal account is more popular among ordinary Ukrainians. This can be seen in the difference in the number of subscribers, as well as in their activity on the page. There are many reportage photos, videos in selfie format, official content is being mixed with more personal, and entertaining content. Subscribers are active, as evidenced by thousands of comments under the posts and the number of likes.

As of December 2020, Volodymyr Zelensky's personal account has 9.4 million subscribers. This page was created on February 28, 2017.

V. Zelensky's account is rapidly gaining subscribers. After all, in April 2019, the number of subscribers was 4.3 million [1]. In 2019, “Reuters” edition noted that Zelensky's Instagram account had more followers than of French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Theresa May and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. [2]. To our mind, such interest in V. Zelensky's personal account can be explained by the fact that, firstly, he is a media person with extensive experience in television, and secondly, he is an extraordinary person who often expresses his position, sometimes even contradictory, and, thirdly, new faces in politics are always of great interest, especially if they have been known and successful in other fields before. That is why, in our opinion, the number of subscribers on V. Zelensky's personal page in the period from 2019 to 2020 has increased so rapidly.

The first post on this account got only 14 thousand 811 likes, and, for example, the last one we have analysed, on December 19, 2020, had been viewed for 672 thousand 050 times. And there are posts that have more than 1 million likes. Such a great amount of likes is also due to the fact that the media often publish posts with photos from the personal V. Zelensky Instagram and give links to them, so anyone can view the post directly on the page of the blog.

It is also on this account that the president has a dialogue with the audience, as subscribers are actively commenting on the photos. It is also worth mentioning that before his presidency V. Zelensky published articles in Russian, and when he became president - in Ukrainian. Although the famous photo in the kitchen with his parents (from November 26, 2020) is signed in Russian language. Among those followed by the President of Ukraine are the most influential world politicians (Angela Merkel, Donald Trump, Justin Trudeau, Emmanuel Macron, etc.), as well as famous Ukrainian and world stars.

However, we do consider that Zelensky's personal account has a neutral effect on Ukraine's image, as it contains posts in Russian and scandalous photos, as, for example, a post about shawarma, which the president ate at a gas station with his colleagues on his way to a coal mine in Lviv region, where two miners died under the rubble. There are also statements in V. Zelensky's posts that humiliate Ukrainian culture and its heritage, for example, a post dated May 16, 2019: “Happy Embroidery Day! I didn't forget the embroidered shirt, but I forgot to shave my face! Don't forget to greet everyone.” In our opinion, V. Zelensky wants to be closer to people with such posts, but in the context of cultural values such statements are devoid of logic and meaning.

There are posts that demean the status of Ukraine and the honour of the Ukrainian people in particular. For example, the post of June 28, 2019: “Today is a holiday! Not in a suit, among people, happiness) “. In the photo, V. Zelensky spends time in a cafeteria with colleagues in an informal atmosphere. There is no hint of Constitution Day in Ukraine in the photo. In addition, the phrase “among people” is also quite controversial, because this phrase gives the impression that only those, who are in the photo, are people. In comments, it has also been noted by the followers.

If we talk about the positive aspect of Volodymyr Zelensky's personal Instagram profile, then, as on the page of the Office of the President of Ukraine, there are also posts about the victories of our servicemen, honouring fallen soldiers in different years of military conflict, congratulating Ukrainians on professional, state and religious holidays, photos from the prominent places of Ukraine, which were personally visited by V. Zelensky. Of course, this is of interest to the Instagram community and not only for the Ukrainian, but also for the foreign segment. However, we believe that the previous ill-considered and illogical posts on V. Zelensky's account leave a long-lasting negative impression, and this influences in a bad way on the image of the president and, accordingly, on the country he leads.

president zelensky account image

Conclusions from the study and prospects for further exploration in this direction

Given the analysis of the page of the Office of the President of Ukraine and V. Zelensky's personal account on Instagram, it should be noted that today social networks, in particular Instagram, can be both a means to create an information basis, and a platform for its further dissemination [3, p. 97]. That is why specialists involved in keeping the Instagram page of leading government agencies and top officials of the state must realize the great influence of this resource on the formation of state image and public opinion in general.

It is really very important to be careful while creating content on this social network. After all, such pages reflect the activities of the country and its level among the other countries of the world. Attentiveness, focus on improving the image of Ukraine, developing a special style of Insta posts presentation will show the world community all the greatness and strength of our country.

Besides, it is necessary to increase the arsenal of research of Instagram influence on improving the state image in the scientific field, because Instagram social network has rapidly taken the first position on the Internet resources market. Today, there are no obstacles in obtaining information from the original source, and often the original source can be found on Instagram. Unfortunately, this social platform is often associated with entertainment and the presentation of primitive content. However, this is not true. Instagram is enormously popular among young people, and they are the future of our country. Therefore, we have to understand this and to enjoy all the benefits of this resource.

The page of the Office of the President of Ukraine or V. Zelensky's personal Instagram account should be a platform for public dialogue, an indicator of professionalism and a rational approach to presenting information, because these are the primary sources, and the creators of informational reasons.

References

1. Malynka V. President of all Instagram. Experts on Poroshenko and Zelensky's accounts. Volodymyr Malynka. MediaSapiens. 2019.

2. Williams M. Comedian rips up the play book in Ukraine election success [Electronic resource]. M. Williams, M. Chornokondratenko. Reuters. 2019.

3. Semen N., Kazimova Y. Social Instagram network as a modern platform for popularization of journalistic content. N. Semen, Y. Kazimova. Bulletin of the National University “Lviv Polytechnic”. Series: “Journalistic Sciences”. 2019. Edition 3. p. 95-98.

4. Semen N.F. The role of Instagram Stories in the promotion of journalistic content. Proceedings of the II International Scientific and Practical Conference “Actual problems of science development in the context of global transformations of the information society”, (Kyiv, October 25-26, 2019). Kyiv: Institute of Innovative Education, 2019. p.97-98.

5. Kovalenko I. How do Ukrainian media use Instagram?. Irina Kovalenko. MediaLab. 2019.

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