Military Conflicts and Country Image

The Country Image of Belligerents in Light of Ukraine, a Demographic, Communication Channel and Political Preference Based Perspective

Abstract

Country image is an important aspect in international relations (tourism, products and services, trade etc.) thus a lot of emphasis is put on it from a marketing communication perspective, in order to influence the individuals in their view. According to the aims of the sender, the messages can have a positive or negative effect on how we perceive certain regions or entire countries and their leaders or specific policies. Nye (2004) describes this projection as “soft power” when exporting ideas towards a desired outcome, Herman & Chomsky (2008) stresses that premise of discourse is influenced by topic setting, thus interpretation of events can be changed, which are in line with the work and theories of Bernays, who among other stressed that expected form of behaviour should be impacted, with the assistance of psychological techniques and propaganda (public mass persuasions). Thus conditioning the public for certain narratives in accordance to individual or political objectives can be considered as vide spread. This involves fake news and creative new ways of distributing desired narratives through online and social media marketing, given its proliferation, accessibility and low entry barriers (from a communication perspective) makes it an ideal platform for information (message) dissemination. Presently in 2024 there are more localised and international conflicts, where belligerents aim to persuade the public (voters) of their own and of other countries in their favour, thus of their moral superiority over their adversaries. This can in turn create political support for certain desired policies. In the article, according to my modest means, I will explore these techniques and theories, and show through the conflict in Ukraine, how different groups in Hungary (according to demographic markers, marketing communication channel trust, and political party preference) have varying opinions of those countries that are in the focus, namely Ukraine, the Russian Federation, the United States of America and the European Union. During my research a primary questionnaire study has been performed and preliminary data analysis suggests a strong correlation of communication channel trust and political party preference which in turn polarises public opinion about these states, all in a trend like fashion. Thus, where the individual gathers information and news; and what kind of political affiliation the same person has, will have an effect on the country image, meaning that different narratives can be identified and their effects shown in practice.