Short abstract:

This talk empirically examines non-institutionalised digital witnessing by analysing communication practices on Telegram messenger during Russia's war in Ukraine, using a qualitative approach to big data analysis of one Telegram channel with over 150,000 users from an occupied Ukrainian city.

Long abstract:

Digital platforms are reshaping the landscape of war witnessing. This talk provides an empirically based conceptual contribution—the rise of a new form of witnessing, i.e. the non-institutionalized digital witnessing during Russia's war in Ukraine—which thrives within platform communities. We empirically examine how online platforms enable the rise of inconspicuous, non-institutionalized witnessing by analysing communication practices on Telegram, a highly popular platform in Ukraine. Using a qualitative approach to working with big data, including qualitative content analysis, descriptive statistics, and close reading, we map the content and the change in the witnessing practices in the beginning and during different periods of the Russian occupation by investigating over 2,000 messages from a specific Telegram channel with over 150,000 users devoted to one occupied Ukrainian city. By identifying a number of changes in the analysed Telegram chat communication practices over time, we propose a concept of the digitally witnessable war that acknowledges the critical polyvocality of contemporary war witnessing practices.