Lithuania in foreign media: 2021 report

The topics of the country's domestic and foreign policy (relations with China, Belarus, Taiwan, illegal migration) as well as economic issues received the most attention in the foreign media. Reports on the potential of the country's FinTech and start-up ecosystems, success stories, achievements of the country's life sciences and biotechnology sector, the country's researchers accounted for 34 percent. The analysis of the content of the media and social networks of 13 foreign countries carried out by the Strategic Communication Division of the Government Communication Department of the Government Chancellery and the public sector institutions of all countries shows that all positive reports about Lithuania are positive.

Active foreign policy and economic issues increased the country's visibility

Of the more than 87 thousand. 2021 More than 5 thousand reports were recorded, in which Lithuania was mentioned. significant reports in which our country received special attention, and these reports had the greatest impact on its visibility. The number of significant reports increased significantly in 2021. The second half of the year was determined by the following topics: illegal migration, Lithuania's relations with Belarus, China, and Taiwan, a study of Chinese 5G phones conducted by the National Cyber ​​Security Center under the Ministry of National Defense, which revealed security vulnerabilities in Xiaomi and Huawei phones.
Not only did news in the field of governance generate the largest share of meaningful messages (79%), but it also reached the largest audience, with news potentially reaching 18 times the audience in the field of culture, 10 times more in the field of economics and 16 times more in the field of tourism. news.
"Monitoring data show that topical issues related to Lithuanian culture, economy, foreign or domestic policy are receiving more and more attention in the foreign media, but more action is definitely needed to communicate about favorable conditions for talents to work and live in Lithuania. Lithuania is still not seen as an attractive country for talent - the topic of attracting talent has not been recorded in the media of the target countries in 2021," - notes Marius Gurskas, Head of the Strategic Communication Division of the Government Chancellery.

Economic news has mainly contributed to the positive tone of messages addressed exclusively to Lithuania. Topical issues in the field not only generated positive messages but also attracted influential, most read publications (eg Bloomberg, Le Figaro, MSN, Yahoo News, Forbes, The Independent, etc.). The readership potentially reached by the news in this area was lowered only by the audience interested in the news in the field of management.
Start-ups (Kilo Health, Whatagraph, Vinted, Tesonet, Watalook, Interaction, Aichom, Oxipit, Droplet Genomics, CasZyme, etc. have significantly contributed to the country's visibility), solutions of the country's research institutions (innovative Kaunas University of Technology) and their achievements.
The dissemination of positive reports in the field of economics was significantly influenced by the communication carried out by Invest in Lithuania and Versli Lietuva, which reached important markets in the USA and Germany.
“Last year, for the first time, we implemented large-scale international communication actions communicating about the export opportunities of priority Lithuanian sectors in the target foreign markets. It is gratifying to see that the results of this communication are reflected in the general overview of the country's visibility in the world and contributed to the formation of a positive image of Lithuania abroad. Germany is one of the most important export markets in Lithuania, therefore we perform the most communication and marketing actions in this market aimed at the target business audience. We aim to increase the image and awareness of all priority export sectors - furniture, information technology, life sciences, food and beverage, traditional and high technology. In addition to Germany, we also communicate strategically and intensively with business audiences in France, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the United States. We estimate that the awareness of the above-mentioned Lithuanian export sectors among the business representatives of these countries reached 21% on average per year. Continuing our strategic communication activities abroad, we hope to increase the awareness of Lithuanian business even more,” says Rasa Uždavinytė, Head of the Export Department of Business Lithuania.

Lithuanian culture is visible and valued

2021 Topicalities in the field of culture related to Lithuania and its artists were distinguished by the abundance of positive news. The news of the region also significantly contributed to the dissemination of positive and significant reports about the country (accounting for 10% of all positive and significant reports about Lithuania). More attention was paid to the opera-performance “Sun and Sea” tour in the USA and Europe, the activities of Lithuanian musical talents, the creative heritage of Jonas Mekas, contemporary art (Ž. Kempinas, J. Urbonas, L. Lapelytė, E. Mališauskas, etc.) and cinema. (G. Žickytė's film "Jump", J. Matulevičius' film "Isaac", A. Blaževičius' film "Runner", S. Bartas' film "Twilight", award of L. Bareiša's film "Pilgrims" at the Venice Film Festival, etc.) . The German media paid a lot of attention to the campaign "Without Distance: Lithuanian Culture in Bavaria 2021" run by the Lithuanian Institute of Culture.

The visibility of the country's tourism has increased

The visibility of the country's tourism topics in foreign media in 2021. The first half of the year was overshadowed by the pandemic and illegal migration issues, but the visibility of this area increased faster in the second half of the year. The foreign media news feed has seen more reports about the country's tourism strengths, products, and services. This change was mainly due to the proactive communication of the travel agency Keliauk Lietuvoje in the target markets.
Tourism news significantly increased the number of positive positive reports and accounted for 18%. all positive significant reports about the country. The foreign media focused on Lithuanian sights and nature, interested in family, bicycle, and camper tourism opportunities, Lithuanian saunas, the country's gastronomy, and Christmas entertainment in the country's major cities.

A more detailed overview of the country's visibility is available here https://lithuania.lt/

The assessment of Lithuania's visibility in foreign media includes 13 target foreign countries (Denmark, Israel, Japan, USA, United Kingdom, Poland, Norway, the Netherlands, France, Finland, Sweden, Ukraine, Germany) and 4 areas of the country's image positioning (economics (Co-create Solutions), Co-create Culture, Co-create Life, tourism and stereotypical coverage of the country's image in foreign media.