Representation of Children in the Ukrainian Crisis

In recent decades, humanitarian organizations have grown significantly in size and influence, playing a crucial role in providing aid and relief to communities affected by crises, such as the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which displaced more than 4.3 million children. Within this, UNICEF stands out as the largest organization dedicated to children’s well-being. To deliver international aid, organizations like UNICEF rely on voluntary public and private funding. Consequently, they use public communication to raise awareness, inform, and garner support from their audiences across various channels, with an increasing emphasis on social media. Instagram, in particular, offers an opportunity for humanitarian organizations to engage audiences through visually appealing content and interactive features. UNICEF’s Instagram account (@unicef), with 11.5 million followers, frequently posts about humanitarian issues, notably calling for donations and support for children and families affected by the war in Ukraine. Given UNICEF’s prominent position in humanitarian efforts and the growing reliance on social media for communication, this study investigates UNICEF’s portrayal of children affected by the Ukraine crisis on Instagram. Using multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA), 150 Instagram posts were both textually and visually analyzed. The results indicate that UNICEF predominantly employed deliberate positivist appeals, with ‘shock effect’ appeals being prominent in the initial three months of the conflict, followed by a shift towards deliberate positivist appeals. Throughout different phases, children were depicted as vulnerable and/or resilient and purposeful, often portrayed as ‘ideal victims’ with a focus on humanitarian themes in visual representation. The findings align with a shift away from shock-based communication in humanitarianism towards more positive representations of children. However, they also highlight the persistent portrayal of children as passive recipients of Western aid, reinforcing an “us/them” dichotomy. Despite this, there exists a notable lack of research on how crisis-affected individuals, especially children, are portrayed in humanitarian contexts, particularly on social media. Thus, this study addresses an empirical gap by examining a recent humanitarian crisis with a focus on children, shedding light on how organizations use representation strategies to achieve their goals, and bridging the gap between humanitarianism and communication. Additionally, the study offers intriguing insights, as the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, being a Western crisis, differs from typical cases.