HER-UKR WP5 Year 1 News and Events

• Narratives of Ukraine on the information battlefields of global media by Natalia Chaban (University of Canterbury, New Zealand) and Svitlana Zhabotynska (Cherkasy National University, Ukraine)
• Indonesian Media Perspectives on Framing Ukraine’s Cultural and Historical Heritage, by Mia Angeline, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
• Ukrainian cultural heritage, but without Ukraine: why Ukraine is denied of subjectivity/agency in Chinese political narratives? By Dmitry Romanenko, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
• Whose narrative are we reporting? Destruction of Ukraine’s cultural heritage, Russia-Ukraine Conflict, and battleground Indian media by Shalabh Chopra, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

in HER-UKR Jean Monnet Policy Network, presented results of Year 1 of the WP5 at an academia-stakeholder event Academic & Policymakers Dialogue: Strategic Communication of Ukraine’s Heritage,  on June 4, 2025, , at KU Leuven Campus Brussels, Belgium. Prof Chaban presented results of WP5  to a group of stakeholders and decision-makers, including representative of the European Commission (Directorate General of Education, Culture and Sports, Creative Europe Unit, and Directorate General NEAR responsible for EU enlargement); UNESCO representatives (UNESCO Centre for Living Heritage, HERE&Well project, Ukraine Commission to UNESCO, UNESCO Liaison Office in Brussels), Deputy Ambassadors of Ukraine to the EU, representatives of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Government of Flanders.  Prof Chaban delivered this stakeholder event together with Prof Lien Verpoest (the Network Leader) and Daryna Zhyvohliadova (the Network Manager).

Professor Natalia Chaban, Leader of Package 5 “Strategic Communication” in HER-UKR Jean Monnet Policy Network, presented results of Year 1 of the WP5 at The Vienna Lecture on the European Union at the Centre for European Integration Research (EIF), Vienna, Austria, on June 17, 2025. Professor Chaban was invited to present an annual Vienna Lecture on the EU “EU heritage diplomacy towards Ukraine: The battle of narratives in global media in the context of heritage securitization”.  She also delivered a guest lecture on this topic to Masters Students at the TU Darmstadt, Germany, on June 22, 2025. 

issue-area. Students presented results to the French diplomats in the Embassy of France to New Zealand in Wellington.They concluded their presentation with a set of recommendation in the area of international strategic communication and public diplomacy. The presentation in the Embassy followed the first event in our collaboration this year – the Hub’s participation and contribution to the running of the Blue Talk ‘Science’ in Town Hall, Christchurch, on 20 November 2024. The 2024 Hub working with the Embassy of France marks the fifth year of collaboration between UC Media & Communication and its Public Diplomacy and Political Communication Forum (directed by Professor Natalia Chaban) and the Embassy of France to New Zealand. The members of the PD-PCF Hub working with the French Embassy in 2024 are:   Ella Bond (Hub’s senior researcher, MStratCom alumnus), Sophie Hill (Hub’s senior researcher, MA in Media and Communication alumnus), Mariyam (Falak) Ahmed (MStratCom), and undergraduate students Miles Peters and Ella Harsant.

This PD-PCF Student Research Hub has brought together PhD, Masters and undergraduate students to analyse narratives and frames of Ukraine in the latest media coverage in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, following Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region and the US elections. The mulit-disciplinary team have succeeded in delivering a nuanced empirical analysis with multiple recommendations.  The members of the Hub included: Mia Angeline (PhD in Media & Comms), Dmitry Romanenko (PhD in Media & Comms), Dinda Veskarahmi (MStratCom), Bryce Vevey  (MIRAD), James Blanchett (MEURO), and undergraduate students Jamie Jovel-Flores, Charlotte McAleer-Menzies and Daisy Francis.

Forum (PF-PCF) (directed by Prof Natalia Chaban, UC Media & Comms) presented its analysis of the EU’s digital diplomacy towards New Zealand.  The team visited the embassy of the EU to New Zealand in Wellington where students presented their findings and recommendations to HE Lawrence Meredith, the Head of the EU Delegation, and his team of diplomats and strategic communicators. The PD-PCF Student Research Hub included:  Loredana Unsworth (MStratCom), Joshua Boucher (MPAG), and under-graduate students Davien Gray, Sophia Peacock-Price and Tarek Patchett. The work of the Hub was consulted by Sam Brett (PhD student, Media & Comms) and Margaret Vernygora (MIRAD).

presented a virtual panel at a regional conference of the European Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand (ESAANZ) 2024, organised in Melbourne (Australia).  Media and Communication researchers presented findings of Year 1 of the Work Package 5 “Strategic Communication” within the Network that brings together 15 universities from around the world.  The panel focused on the findings from the media analysis in five countries of Global South -- Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa.  The panel featured these HER-UKR researchers: Natalia Chaban (WP5 Research Lead), Francesca Harrison (MStratCom, researcher for South Africa) Mia Angeline (PhD student in Media & Comms, researcher for Indonesia), Dmitry Romanenko (PhD student in Media & Comms, researcher for China), Dr Daniela Grimberg (Media & Comms alumnus, researcher for Brazil) and Shalabh Chopra (PhD student in Media & Comms, researcher for India).

The Hub also developed and presented a set of original recommendations in the context of international strategic communication. The findings and recommendation were discussed in great details with the German Ambassador to New Zealand, HE Nicole Menzenbach, and the Deputy Ambassador, Winnie Swiatakowski.   The Hub team included Megan Gnad (MStratCom); Francesca Harrison (MStratCom); Xavier Dickason (MIRAD); Marrion Omniwega (MPAG); Jasmine Barry (current UG graduate, future MEURO) and Alessandra Ward (BSENS).

Professor Chaban, who leads Work Package 5 “Strategic Communication” within a new Jean Monnet Policy Network “Challenges and opportunities of EU heritage diplomacy towards Ukraine (HER-UKR), reported about the main findings of the first year of WP5 research in Europe.  Professor Chaban was key speaker at the panel “The EU and the World” at the 35th Anniversary of Jean Monnet Actions Conference (Brussels) invited by the European Commission.  She also led the WP5 panel where the team of 19 researchers presented the key findings of the HER-UKR Year 1 conference at KU Leuven (Belgium) (October 27). UC team contributing to the panel with Prof Chaban included: Prof Paul Millar, Dr Daria Kuznetsova, Dr Daniela Grimberg, PhD students at Media & Communication Mia Angeline, Dmitry Romanenko, Shalabh Chopra, MA in Media & Communication Sophie Hill, MStratCom student Francesca Harrison and MIRAD student Margaret Vernygora.   Professor Chaban also presented the Year 1 findings at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark (November 5); University of Lund, Sweden (November 6); and Jagellonian University of Krakow, Poland (November 11).  On November 28, she presented the key findings of the HER-UKR at the webinar organised by the Ukrainian foreign policy think tank “Ukrainian Prism” sharing findings with Ukrainian stakeholders and decision-makers in the field of international strategic communication.

German diplomats to co-develop communication strategies for their science diplomacy initiatives. Teams of students in the core Bachelor of Communication course, COMS 330 Communication in Context, presented original social media campaigns to the Embassies of Germany and France on two different initiatives: The HALO-South Mission, which will be launched in Christchurch in September 2025 by German and New Zealand scientific partners, and the One Ocean science Congress (3 to 6 June 2025), which is organised within the 3rd United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3, 9 to 13 June 2025, in Nice, France) and to which the Embassy of France will be sending 25 New Zealand scientists. 

Five student teams pitched their social media campaign ideas on the HALO (High Altitude and Long Range Research Aircraft) project, which aims to provide pressing knowledge about the relation between aerosols and clouds in the southern hemisphere. These findings will be extrapolated to a larger scale using satellite data and global climate modelling. Five other teams worked with the French diplomats to develop ideas and communications for One Ocean science Congress, with the goal is to spur action and implement SDG 14, which is the least funded of all Sustainable Development Goals.

The diplomatic juries picked two winning teams.  The German Embassy selected the social media campaign designed by Joshua Meredith, Connor Johnston, Elias Redpath, Leah Hills, Madeleine Barrett and Ruby Riley (featured on the photo). The French Embassy selected the social media campaign designed by Alexandra Scully, Teina Kotua, Scarlett Neame, Kenna Devane and Sophia Wright.  On May 16, the two winning teams met at UC with Deputy Ambassadors for the respective Embassies -- Winnie Switakowski (the Embassy of Germany) and Vincent Gremeret (the Embassy of France) – and will continue to work with the embassies on their campaigns, and attend events later in the year where they will meet the scientists working on these projects.