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.