Volodymyr Zelensky - From Onscreen to Online

Sammanfattning: As of the current state, there is an ongoing war in Europe; something which has not been experienced in modern days. A crisis like this aids for political leaders who can communicate to their people, hence this thesis was sprung from an interest in investigating the unforeseen video communication that has surfaced with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. The research delves into how the communication of his is strategically laid out in accordance with the social media era, and how it is appealing to the social media generation. The method used was a qualitative content analysis, with additional quantitative strains in sample size. Our analysis illustrated frequent patterns of strategies used by Zelensky. Concludingly, there was a linkage between theoretical strategies used that work for persuasion and increased authenticity in appealing to the social media generation. The phenomenon of a political leader communicating online in a current wartime context is terra-incognita. Hence this study has paved the way to further contextualise political communication in the sphere of social media.