Malmö University Publications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
From Victims To Heroes: Framing and Rhetorical Strategies in Ukrainian Red Cross’ communications (2022–2024)
Malmö University, Faculty of Culture and Society (KS), School of Arts and Communication (K3).
2025 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (One Year)), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

This paper explores the communication strategies employed by the Ukrainian Red Cross Society (URCS) through its press releases published during the Russo-Ukrainian War. While more organisations have increasingly focused on digital communication, the press release remains a crucial tool for reaching stakeholders, raising awareness, and securing funds. Drawing on narrative theory and framing theory, this study conducts a content analysis of 164 press releases published between 2022 and 2025 to investigate how the URCS builds narratives in their press releases and how they use storytelling and rhetoric to reinforce their message. Using a custom Python script integrated with the ChatGPT API, the releases are then categorised and analysed. The findings show that these communications contain a dominant focus on informative, fact-based storytelling with high credibility and logical reasoning, with moderate use of emotional appeals. The most prevalent narrative frames were heroic, solution, and victim frames, which together accounted for over 90% of the content. Notably, the framing shifted over time: early crisis communications highlighted victims and problems with neutral-to-negative sentiment, whereas later communications increasingly highlighted heroic responders and solutions with more positive sentiment. These findings indicate a strategic adaptation in humanitarian messaging, balancing portrayals of suffering with empowering narratives that sustain public engagement.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2025. , p. 49
Keywords [en]
AI, Communication, Ukraine
National Category
Media and Communication Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-79398OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-79398DiVA, id: diva2:1996879
Educational program
KS K3 Communication for development
Available from: 2025-09-12 Created: 2025-09-10 Last updated: 2025-09-12Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(926 kB)216 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT02.pdfFile size 926 kBChecksum SHA-512
aac5bff0b1a473762ba3601d936ca031d24b1d9ee38d3c026f0ab8493f7b2d2ff458b5467e3d3a5d1b15c4d02759e14b8e619431d56bb94e9dd6b32e9c68118c
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Danielsson, Malin
By organisation
School of Arts and Communication (K3)
Media and Communication Studies

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 218 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

urn-nbn

Altmetric score

urn-nbn
Total: 210 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf