Pub Date : 2024-04-03DOI: 10.1177/17506352241241477
Hagos Nigussie, Gebru Kiflu
This article examines the use of citizen journalism for social mobilization in war-affected Tigray. A mixed approach was used, involving individual interviews, focus group discussions and a quantitative content analysis. The results revealed that citizen journalists provided information for community members to unite, support each other and make informed decisions. This was valuable for women and girls, as the allied forces used rape and hunger as weapons of war. Citizen journalists have inspired people to discuss war-related issues, enlightening capable individuals to join the Tigray Defence Forces. They travelled long distances to send videos and news reports to the Tigray Media House (TMH) and other news organizations abroad. The war coverage of TMH alerted the international community to undertake an independent investigation of genocide. This study contributes to our understanding of the role of citizen journalism during an information blackout, in which mobile phones were not alternative communication channels but the main sources of information.
{"title":"Citizen journalism for social mobilization in war-affected Tigray","authors":"Hagos Nigussie, Gebru Kiflu","doi":"10.1177/17506352241241477","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506352241241477","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the use of citizen journalism for social mobilization in war-affected Tigray. A mixed approach was used, involving individual interviews, focus group discussions and a quantitative content analysis. The results revealed that citizen journalists provided information for community members to unite, support each other and make informed decisions. This was valuable for women and girls, as the allied forces used rape and hunger as weapons of war. Citizen journalists have inspired people to discuss war-related issues, enlightening capable individuals to join the Tigray Defence Forces. They travelled long distances to send videos and news reports to the Tigray Media House (TMH) and other news organizations abroad. The war coverage of TMH alerted the international community to undertake an independent investigation of genocide. This study contributes to our understanding of the role of citizen journalism during an information blackout, in which mobile phones were not alternative communication channels but the main sources of information.","PeriodicalId":501537,"journal":{"name":"Media, War & Conflict","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140563321","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-03DOI: 10.1177/17506352241239142
Ben Arthur Thomason
This article documents a covert propaganda and civil society operation perpetrated by a consortium of Western governments, private contractors, and NGOs to justify and facilitate regime change in Syria by whitewashing and assisting rebel groups. Using leaked documents from key government contractors, corroborated with journalistic, academic, NGO, and government research already released, the author outlines their rebel media infrastructure to create news stories and feed them to Syrian, regional, and international outlets. This propaganda synergized with administrative programs that built social services in rebel-held territories, constructing media and civil society façades of legitimacy and liberalism for rebel militias. The consortium created the White Helmets, who recorded themselves providing services while documenting supposed war crimes, to serve as a bridge between these propaganda and civil society missions. The author argues that the controlled spaces of full-spectrum intellectual warfare created by this consortium, coordinating state-supported media and civil society and obfuscating it behind private and non-profit entities, can help scholars understand the narrative battles surrounding the Syrian conflict and gain insight into the evolving role of media and information warfare in the 21st century.
{"title":"The moderate rebel industry: Spaces of Western public–private civil society and propaganda warfare in the Syrian civil war","authors":"Ben Arthur Thomason","doi":"10.1177/17506352241239142","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506352241239142","url":null,"abstract":"This article documents a covert propaganda and civil society operation perpetrated by a consortium of Western governments, private contractors, and NGOs to justify and facilitate regime change in Syria by whitewashing and assisting rebel groups. Using leaked documents from key government contractors, corroborated with journalistic, academic, NGO, and government research already released, the author outlines their rebel media infrastructure to create news stories and feed them to Syrian, regional, and international outlets. This propaganda synergized with administrative programs that built social services in rebel-held territories, constructing media and civil society façades of legitimacy and liberalism for rebel militias. The consortium created the White Helmets, who recorded themselves providing services while documenting supposed war crimes, to serve as a bridge between these propaganda and civil society missions. The author argues that the controlled spaces of full-spectrum intellectual warfare created by this consortium, coordinating state-supported media and civil society and obfuscating it behind private and non-profit entities, can help scholars understand the narrative battles surrounding the Syrian conflict and gain insight into the evolving role of media and information warfare in the 21st century.","PeriodicalId":501537,"journal":{"name":"Media, War & Conflict","volume":"471 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140563276","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-19DOI: 10.1177/17506352241236449
Kateryna Zarembo, Michèle Knodt, Jannis Kachel
In modern warfare, digitalization has blurred the line where civilian ends and military begins. Embedded in the participative warfare theoretical paradigm, this article looks into how the information and communication technologies (ICT) enable civic resilience under the conditions of the foreign armed aggression. Specifically, the authors explore how smartphones and smartphone applications empowered the Ukrainian civil society in the aftermath of the Russian full-scale invasion of 2022. Based on an online survey and semi-structured interviews, the article highlights how the device and its features not only allowed civilians to adapt to living in conditions of a constant threat, but also to respond and support the defence from the rear. The authors conclude that, while the smartphone becomes an ‘online resilience hub’, acquiring many new functions like a mobile office, an online volunteer (frontline logistics and procurement) hub, an air-threat warner, a first-hand news source and so on, its security provision functions are not unconditional and may turn to the opposite, depending on the physical circumstances on the ground as well as the virtual information battlefield.
{"title":"Smartphone resilience: ICT in Ukrainian civic response to the Russian full-scale invasion","authors":"Kateryna Zarembo, Michèle Knodt, Jannis Kachel","doi":"10.1177/17506352241236449","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506352241236449","url":null,"abstract":"In modern warfare, digitalization has blurred the line where civilian ends and military begins. Embedded in the participative warfare theoretical paradigm, this article looks into how the information and communication technologies (ICT) enable civic resilience under the conditions of the foreign armed aggression. Specifically, the authors explore how smartphones and smartphone applications empowered the Ukrainian civil society in the aftermath of the Russian full-scale invasion of 2022. Based on an online survey and semi-structured interviews, the article highlights how the device and its features not only allowed civilians to adapt to living in conditions of a constant threat, but also to respond and support the defence from the rear. The authors conclude that, while the smartphone becomes an ‘online resilience hub’, acquiring many new functions like a mobile office, an online volunteer (frontline logistics and procurement) hub, an air-threat warner, a first-hand news source and so on, its security provision functions are not unconditional and may turn to the opposite, depending on the physical circumstances on the ground as well as the virtual information battlefield.","PeriodicalId":501537,"journal":{"name":"Media, War & Conflict","volume":"70 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140169781","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-11DOI: 10.1177/17506352241231866
Nhung Nguyen, Pamela Peters, Hechen Ding, Hong Tien Vu
Using the country image repair framework, this study analyzed two opinion columns in major Russian state-controlled media outlets with content related to the Russian–Ukraine conflict, Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik, from 24 February 2022 to 20 May 2022. A thematic content analysis was used to examine 60 articles by RT and 70 articles on Sputnik. Results from the analysis determined that the five strategies of country image repair, except for mortification, were used in an attempt to legitimize the conflict in Ukraine and restore the image of Russia. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed in the context of a repressive news media environment.
{"title":"When the media goes to war: How Russian news media defend the country’s image during the conflict with Ukraine","authors":"Nhung Nguyen, Pamela Peters, Hechen Ding, Hong Tien Vu","doi":"10.1177/17506352241231866","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506352241231866","url":null,"abstract":"Using the country image repair framework, this study analyzed two opinion columns in major Russian state-controlled media outlets with content related to the Russian–Ukraine conflict, Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik, from 24 February 2022 to 20 May 2022. A thematic content analysis was used to examine 60 articles by RT and 70 articles on Sputnik. Results from the analysis determined that the five strategies of country image repair, except for mortification, were used in an attempt to legitimize the conflict in Ukraine and restore the image of Russia. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed in the context of a repressive news media environment.","PeriodicalId":501537,"journal":{"name":"Media, War & Conflict","volume":"286 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140107939","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-27DOI: 10.1177/17506352231225344
Felix Olajide Talabi, Joshua Kayode Okunade, Joseph Moyinoluwa Talabi, Ishola Kamorudeen Lamidi, Samson Adedapo Bello, Blessing Chinweobo-Onoha, Gever Verlumun Celestine
The goal of this study was to examine the efficacy of art therapy in the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the propensity to quit journalism among Nigerian journalists covering banditry attacks. The researchers utilized a quasi-experiment as the design for the study and sampled 327 journalists. The result of the study showed that at baseline, journalists reported high PTSD symptoms and a propensity to quit journalism, but after the intervention, journalists who received the art therapy intervention reported a significant drop in their PTSD symptoms and the propensity to quit the pen profession. This suggests that art therapy is a cost-effective way of treating PTSD among journalists covering dangerous assignments and reducing high labour turnover in the profession.
{"title":"Effectiveness of art therapy in reducing post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and the propensity to quit journalism among journalists covering banditry activities in Nigeria","authors":"Felix Olajide Talabi, Joshua Kayode Okunade, Joseph Moyinoluwa Talabi, Ishola Kamorudeen Lamidi, Samson Adedapo Bello, Blessing Chinweobo-Onoha, Gever Verlumun Celestine","doi":"10.1177/17506352231225344","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506352231225344","url":null,"abstract":"The goal of this study was to examine the efficacy of art therapy in the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the propensity to quit journalism among Nigerian journalists covering banditry attacks. The researchers utilized a quasi-experiment as the design for the study and sampled 327 journalists. The result of the study showed that at baseline, journalists reported high PTSD symptoms and a propensity to quit journalism, but after the intervention, journalists who received the art therapy intervention reported a significant drop in their PTSD symptoms and the propensity to quit the pen profession. This suggests that art therapy is a cost-effective way of treating PTSD among journalists covering dangerous assignments and reducing high labour turnover in the profession.","PeriodicalId":501537,"journal":{"name":"Media, War & Conflict","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139949301","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-27DOI: 10.1177/17506352231225351
Maria Isabel Garcia García
The research analyses the representation that different jihadist organizations make of women through their official propaganda. The aim is to analyse the construction of the feminine ideal designed by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), ISIS and Jabhat Al-Nusra through their leading magazines and to identify if there are differences in their representation of women. A content analysis is carried out on the narrative in which females are portrayed by those organizations. The study is also supported by a quantitative analysis of three features, which provide data on prominence of women in jihadism: the number of times they are mentioned, the illustrations targeting females and the existence (or not) of a specific section for women in the magazines of these groups. The research shows that the portrayal of women as victims and weak individuals is recurrent but is not limited to this role. There are differences in the content and subject matter in the official discourse of the three groups, such as with regard to violence perpetrated by women. The strategic and political differences between AQAP, ISIS and Jabhat Al-Nusra affect the construction of female roles in their official propaganda.
{"title":"The female jihadist narrative: a comparative analysis","authors":"Maria Isabel Garcia García","doi":"10.1177/17506352231225351","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506352231225351","url":null,"abstract":"The research analyses the representation that different jihadist organizations make of women through their official propaganda. The aim is to analyse the construction of the feminine ideal designed by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), ISIS and Jabhat Al-Nusra through their leading magazines and to identify if there are differences in their representation of women. A content analysis is carried out on the narrative in which females are portrayed by those organizations. The study is also supported by a quantitative analysis of three features, which provide data on prominence of women in jihadism: the number of times they are mentioned, the illustrations targeting females and the existence (or not) of a specific section for women in the magazines of these groups. The research shows that the portrayal of women as victims and weak individuals is recurrent but is not limited to this role. There are differences in the content and subject matter in the official discourse of the three groups, such as with regard to violence perpetrated by women. The strategic and political differences between AQAP, ISIS and Jabhat Al-Nusra affect the construction of female roles in their official propaganda.","PeriodicalId":501537,"journal":{"name":"Media, War & Conflict","volume":"194 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139949391","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-01DOI: 10.1177/17506352211053183
Anna Grzywacz
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been responding to external demands and expectations, including moderate steps towards becoming a more norm-oriented organization, and develop...
{"title":"The Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ narratives of non-compliance with norms: Shaming and escaping a narrative trap","authors":"Anna Grzywacz","doi":"10.1177/17506352211053183","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506352211053183","url":null,"abstract":"The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been responding to external demands and expectations, including moderate steps towards becoming a more norm-oriented organization, and develop...","PeriodicalId":501537,"journal":{"name":"Media, War & Conflict","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138543844","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-03-26DOI: 10.1177/17506352211004012
Younes Saramifar
The recent wars in the West and Central Asia, as well as the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), have shown the role of media, especially new media, in conflicts. The world has witnessed these wars through mediating lenses – mobile phones, blogs posts, tweets, Facebook live streams, etc. – used by grassroots actions, manipulated by states or abused by terrorist organizations across the regions. The news of these wars arrives across borders before stationed or local journalists are ready to compile and convey fact-checked news. The sheer intensity of media in conflicts, media for conflicts and conflicting medias call on a fresh academic understanding of what is going on. Theorising Media and Conflict has brought about 14 chapters together to decentre the role of media in the media-driven world of contemporary conflicts. This edited volume proposes to revisit and refresh the debates on media and conflict through a ‘non-media-centric approach’ (p. 9). The editors upend the conventional and normative approaches limited to discourse, visual, content, reportage or policy analysis through anthropological analysis and ethnographically rooted methodologies. By way of telling ethnographic narratives and edited via a thorough theoretical inventory of current debates, the authors argue that a non-media-centric approach traces how the complexities of media technologies, sensory perceptions and social life are interrelated (p. 9). In other words, this volume encourages scholars and media researchers to think about how media becomes social and how it produces the social fabric of conflict. The editors have organized the book into six distinctive parts, which build up how they envision mediated conflict. They have broadened the notion of conflict beyond the limits of contentious clashes and push readers to see conflict through lived experiences and everyday encounters. They aptly show how articulations and representations of conflicts in the news or other media platforms differ from witnessing and experiencing conflict. The six parts are juxtaposed masterfully to embody the theoretical framework discussed in the introduction. The theoretical framework calls readers’ attention to the concept of mediation and, chapter by chapter, authors portray how media is mediated in conflicts and not broadcast from conflicts. In the Afterword, John Postill explains that mediation ‘provides . . . a powerful lens through which to observe the 1004012 MWC0010.1177/17506352211004012Media, War & ConflictBook review book-review2021
{"title":"Book review: Philipp Budka and Brigit Bräucher Theorising, Media and Conflict","authors":"Younes Saramifar","doi":"10.1177/17506352211004012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506352211004012","url":null,"abstract":"The recent wars in the West and Central Asia, as well as the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), have shown the role of media, especially new media, in conflicts. The world has witnessed these wars through mediating lenses – mobile phones, blogs posts, tweets, Facebook live streams, etc. – used by grassroots actions, manipulated by states or abused by terrorist organizations across the regions. The news of these wars arrives across borders before stationed or local journalists are ready to compile and convey fact-checked news. The sheer intensity of media in conflicts, media for conflicts and conflicting medias call on a fresh academic understanding of what is going on. Theorising Media and Conflict has brought about 14 chapters together to decentre the role of media in the media-driven world of contemporary conflicts. This edited volume proposes to revisit and refresh the debates on media and conflict through a ‘non-media-centric approach’ (p. 9). The editors upend the conventional and normative approaches limited to discourse, visual, content, reportage or policy analysis through anthropological analysis and ethnographically rooted methodologies. By way of telling ethnographic narratives and edited via a thorough theoretical inventory of current debates, the authors argue that a non-media-centric approach traces how the complexities of media technologies, sensory perceptions and social life are interrelated (p. 9). In other words, this volume encourages scholars and media researchers to think about how media becomes social and how it produces the social fabric of conflict. The editors have organized the book into six distinctive parts, which build up how they envision mediated conflict. They have broadened the notion of conflict beyond the limits of contentious clashes and push readers to see conflict through lived experiences and everyday encounters. They aptly show how articulations and representations of conflicts in the news or other media platforms differ from witnessing and experiencing conflict. The six parts are juxtaposed masterfully to embody the theoretical framework discussed in the introduction. The theoretical framework calls readers’ attention to the concept of mediation and, chapter by chapter, authors portray how media is mediated in conflicts and not broadcast from conflicts. In the Afterword, John Postill explains that mediation ‘provides . . . a powerful lens through which to observe the 1004012 MWC0010.1177/17506352211004012Media, War & ConflictBook review book-review2021","PeriodicalId":501537,"journal":{"name":"Media, War & Conflict","volume":"13 1","pages":"258-260"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138543843","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}