President Zelensky and the power of images

President Zelensky
President Zelensky has used Instagram to convey powerful messages

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's background as an actor has helped him harness the power of social media, according to a new academic study.

Zelensky has used Instagram to convey key messages to more than 17 million followers about the unfolding humanitarian crisis in his home country.

The former comedian and actor ranks as the third most influential Western leader on the platform, after Barack Obama with 35 million and Donald Trump with 23 million followers.

Now academics have analysed 367 Instagram posts from his zelenskiy_official account, issued during the first 40 days of the Russian invasion, as part of a study of crisis communication.

The study builds on previous research where the crisis communication of the leaders of the most affected European countries during the Covid-19 pandemic was analysed through their official Twitter posts by the same research team.

Dr Lindsey Drylie Carey, Reader in Marketing at Glasgow Caledonian University and a co-author of the study, said: "The data indicates that Zelensky has used social networks with the explicit intention of reinforcing his leadership.

"He is well-versed in the art of audio-visual media and its persuasive possibilities as his background is in acting. He realised from the beginning that he needed to build a character but because of his experience as an actor, Zelensky does not build this character using just words.

"Zelensky, in the same way that Ronald Reagan did during his presidency of the United States, understands that image and actions have the same or more importance than words."

Unmuting leadership: the impact of Zelensky's social media strategy at the inset of the Ukrainian War has been published in the Journal of Risk Research.

Dr Drylie Carey co-authored the study with Sebastián Sánchez-Castillo of Universitat de València and Esteban Galan of Universitat Politècnica de València.