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- Convenors:
-
Yarden Skop
(University of Siegen)
Sarah Rüller (University of Siegen)
Houda El mimouni (Indiana University)
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- Format:
- Traditional Open Panel
- Location:
- NU-2B05
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 17 July, -
Time zone: Europe/Amsterdam
Short Abstract:
This panel brings together researchers interested in the mediation of wars to discuss media’s influence on current violent conflicts, e.g. the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Palestine war. We explore critical approaches to war and media, with a focus on presenters from conflict regions.
Long Abstract:
Armed conflicts and media technologies are tied together in modern warfare. The rise in the use of social media, owned by large technology platforms, in the ongoing conduct of wars, in their documentation and in influencing different actors in ways that transform warfare, raises many questions. During current wars in Ukraine and Palestine and Israel, new media technologies have been used to sway global public opinion, to expose and document human rights violations, to challenge narratives promoted by legacy media and state actors and to document life under fire or experiences of combatants. At the same time, Social Media platforms are being weaponized - for the spread of disinformation, propaganda and psychological warfare by state and non-state actors. Platform companies are tasked with moderating masses of content, leading to claims of unjust treatment and censorship.
We are interested in contributions that address issues such as:
How is social media becoming part of military tactics and used for geopolitical influence (through hacking, bot wars, and the spread of disinformation)?
How is content moderation online weaponized for silencing dissenting voices under the guise of security issues?
The rise of OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) as a mode of investigating truths on the battlefield.
How can STS researchers develop a critical approach and theory towards war and its media technologies?
Actors’ choice of terminology and its implications, also with regard to the spread of narratives online (war, invasion, occupation, military operation, genocide, annexation).
What challenges does this provide in terms of digital and information literacy and connectivity for people who follow the events of war online?
Also, with a view towards more optimistic outcomes - can media technology be used for conflict resolution and how?
We ask to center this on scholars from regions under war and conflict, while also inviting others to contribute.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 17 July, 2024, -Paper short abstract:
This paper brings a media theoretical perspective on mediatized wars. It argues that the affordances and use cultures of popular social media platforms turn wars into live media events, involving both people who are living under war and those joining in from a distance.
Paper long abstract:
This paper brings a media theoretical perspective on mediatized wars. It argues that the affordances and use cultures of popular social media platforms turn wars into live media events in which liveness – a sense of “being now here together” (Hammelburg, 2021) – involves both people who are living under war and those joining in from a distance.
This involvement is of a very different kind than what we know from earlier wars that were mediated through radio and television; the logics of platformed media have permeated and transformed everyday life (Altheide, 2018; Deuze, 2012; Hepp, 2019). Many people living under war share their personal experiences and thoughts through TikTok and Instagram, involving followers worldwide as witnesses at a distance. Further, these war followers are not only involved as witnesses, very often they also add their own social media content to the “event-sphere” (Volkmer and Deffner, 2010) of the war, and by doing so they write themselves into it.
Drawing from media theory on liveness and empirical material – photos and videos – from TikTok and Instagram concerning the wars in Ukraine and Russia, and Israel and Gaza, this paper shows how wars as live events are constructed. In its analyses of different modes of involvement in these live war event-spheres, it addresses the issue of positionality.
Paper short abstract:
Taking the war in Gaza as a case study, our paper explores the reception of visual content by TikTok and Instagram users. We question users' experience of viewing war and their ability to make sense of contemporary warfare through their activity on these platforms.
Paper long abstract:
Taking the ongoing war in Gaza as a case study, our paper explores the reception of videos and photographs by TikTok and Instagram users by questioning their experience of viewing war on these applications. Our study combines interviews, collaborative analyses of photographs, videos, and reels, and a theorization of social media platforms as “technocultural actor” (Langlois, 2013). We apply an interdisciplinary approach to social media phenomena, at the intersection between image theory and social media studies.
We explore the ways publics engage or disengage with war content and negotiate with its platform governance. In our case, we examine how these applications amplify existing polarized opinions and affects for users already emotionally and intellectually involved in the Israel-Palestine conflict, ultimately producing a specific “affective economy” (Ahmed, 2014) of war, shaped by platform design and its feedback driven algorithm (Abidin & Zhao,2022; Lin et al.,2023).
We question users’ ability to envision, conceptualize, and imagine contemporary warfare in an endless stream of heterogeneous content, and understand the impact of their practice on “digital infowar” (Hoskins & Shchlelin, 2023). We study whether and how the “commerce of gazes” (Mondzain, 2010) existing between content and users could contribute to common understandings of war and stimulate their political agency and desire for change. Furthermore, we approach their activity online as a contribution to the “war feed” (Hoskins & Shchlelin, 2023), insomuch as it shapes narratives and public opinions on the conflict (Merrin, 2018; Moran & Boxman-Shabtai, 2023) ultimately influencing its conduct.
Paper short abstract:
Through a visual and discursive media analysis of 5000+ screenshots of pro-Palestine Instagram Stories, I ask what type of content is widely shared in this current "participatory war" (Chernobrov, 2022) and how this creates “mediated solidarity” among an online “affective public” (Nikunen, 2019).
Paper long abstract:
Media scholars have noted that social media users hardly engage in online activism beyond liking and sharing, which they dismissively call “clicktivism” (Nikunen, 2019). However, the current “participatory war” (Chernobrov, 2022) surrounding Gaza complicates this viewpoint, since the seemingly simple act of liking and sharing pro-Palestine content is in fact radical, risky and much called for amidst attacks on Gazan citizen journalists, Meta’s censorship of influencers, and online harassment and other risks for audiences. Liking and sharing increases visibility, hence this type of content is designed to be accessible and highly shareable, which is illustrative for an Instagram genre that Dumitrica and Hockin-Boyers (2022: 1) call “slideshow activism”. I build on this concept to explore how the aesthetic, rhetoric and affective qualities of pro-Palestine content garners “mediated solidarity” among an online “affective public” (Nikunen, 2019), and has consequently caused a seismic shift in public opinion.
In my visual and discursive media analysis of 5000+ screenshots of Instagram Stories and carousel posts, I ask what types of content are widely shared, such as: biopolitics (e.g. footage of atrocities; casualty recording; infographics); media literacy (e.g. reflecting on mainstream messages, Meta censorship and one’s own social media activism); and an activist toolbox (e.g. alternative vocabulary, institutional messages and templates for action). I furthermore demonstrate which counter-narratives are circulated, how these narratives and sentiments have changed throughout these past months, and how they have been shaped by social media users’ own identities and cultures.
Paper short abstract:
This work examines social media content moderation during 2021, focusing on pro-Palestinian activism for Sheikh Jarrah. Findings reveal perceived censorship due to opaque automated systems, complicating harm substantiation and redress. This raises concerns about power dynamics in digital spaces.
Paper long abstract:
Social media platforms, while influential tools for human rights activism, free speech, and mobilization, also bear the influence of corporate ownership and commercial interests. This dual character can lead to clashing interests in the operations of these platforms. This study centers on the May 2021 Sheikh Jarrah events in East Jerusalem, a focal point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that garnered global attention. During this period, Palestinian activists and their allies observed and encountered a notable increase in automated content moderation actions, like shadow banning and content removal. We surveyed 201 users who faced content moderation and conducted 12 interviews with political influencers to assess the impact of these practices on activism. Our analysis centers on automated content moderation and transparency, investigating how users and activists perceive the content moderation systems employed by social media platforms, and their opacity. Findings reveal perceived censorship by pro-Palestinian activists due to opaque and obfuscated technological mechanisms of content demotion, complicating harm substantiation and lack of redress mechanisms. We view this difficulty as part of algorithmic harms, in the realm of automated content moderation. This dynamic has far-reaching implications for activism’s future and it raises questions about power centralization in digital spaces.