Media, War &Conflict, Ahead of Print.
The 11-day war in May 2021 between Israel and Palestine (Gaza) is worth investigating as a phenomenon of recording war testimonies and memories by civilian mobile phone users. This article explores mobile phone usage by Palestinian civilians to record and document everyday war narratives. The users document, archive and disseminate diverse war memories on various social media platforms. Semi-structured (ethnographic) interviews and interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) are included in the methodological design to understand the patterns of mobile phone activism by civilians during Israel’s Operation Guardian of the Wall in Gaza. The authors argue that the physical and digital (phygital) spaces exist simultaneously, forming the socio-psychological presence of the users in the war and making them significant stakeholders of the Israel–Palestine war narrative. The emergence of a phygital presence signifies a comprehensive representation and archive of civilian war testimonies. Users’ mobile phone footage plays a significant role in shaping discourses of dissent and mobile activism, driving and sustaining collective emotions regarding the repercussions of war. These discourses also contribute to the socio-psychological construction of a phygital memory archive, enriching the conflict’s broader narrative.

Media, War &Conflict, Ahead of Print.
Despite extensive scrutiny of how Russia has weaponized information, little work has been done on how it takes different audiences into account when designing its strategic narratives. Although scholars and practitioners agree on the importance of fitting narratives to audiences, the fact that Russia builds knowledge on audiences and that its practices are informed by a Soviet legacy of information warfare, little is known about the strategies Russia uses to adapt its strategic narratives to audiences. Through a comparative narrative study, the article investigates how Russian state media promote different narratives on Nord Stream 2 to German, Polish and English-speaking audiences. It shows how these are shaped by four adaptation strategies in which Russia amplifies, bridges, transforms and pushes back on the audiences’ pre-existing structures of meaning. This article contributes to the existing literature by deepening our knowledge of the relationship between the design of strategic narratives and their intended audience.

Media, War &Conflict, Ahead of Print.
Framing is a central concept during times of dispute because it can escalate the dispute or push it toward cooperation. Contributing to the automatic identification of frames in conflict studies, this article aims at examining the dynamics of the main media frames emphasized by Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. These frames represent the factors of power and hydro-hegemony between the three countries, including the geographic location, military intervention, mediation, agreements and economic dimensions. Keyword-Assisted Topic Models (KeyATM) are implemented to analyse the English governmental and non-governmental newspapers that covered this dispute the most (N = 12) over 11 years (2011–2022). While the results show the Egyptian and Sudanese media are dominated by the mediation and agreements frames, the Ethiopian media emphasizes the economic frame. They also confirm the existence of hegemony and counter-hegemony between the downstream and upstream which can be attributed to the dynamics in the adopted frames.

Media, War &Conflict, Ahead of Print.
The public’s understanding of the situation of refugees largely depends on how they are represented by the media. This article analyses this representation by studying photographs that appear in four mainstream Spanish newspapers of varied political orientation, comparing two paradigmatic examples: that of Afghan refugees versus Ukrainian refugees. The objective of this analysis is to determine the differences and similarities between how each case is covered, using a mixed quantitative and qualitative content analysis method to determine the images’ denotative and connotative aspects, based on ‘framing theory’. Findings show that, although all the refugees are presented primarily from a human-interest angle, there is a significant degree of depersonalization in their photographic presentation due to the framing and stylistic elements employed. Also, Afghans are viewed with greater suspicion than Ukrainians, with a quarter of their images being associated with the idea of conflict.

Media, War &Conflict, Ahead of Print.
This article investigates the role of social media platforms in the visual representation of the Bucha massacre perpetrated by Russian forces during the aggression against Ukraine in 2022. By considering the interconnectedness of the online and offline spheres, the authors explore the impact of social media on the coverage of the massacre. The study focuses on a comprehensive analysis of 6,185 images disseminated on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram between 29 March and 15 September 2022. Through an analysis of the intricate dynamics between war crimes, visual representations and social media platforms, the article invites contemplation on how digital artifacts shape our collective understanding of historical atrocities.

Media, War &Conflict, Ahead of Print.
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.

Media, War &Conflict, Ahead of Print.
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.

Media, War &Conflict, Ahead of Print.
The fall of Kabul signified the termination of the democratically elected government in Afghanistan and reinstated the Taliban as the prevailing authority in the country. The ascension of the Taliban in Afghanistan holds significant importance considering the profound suffering experienced by both Afghanistan and Pakistan. This study looks at how well-known Pakistani and Afghan television channels, specifically Geo News, PTV News and TOLO News, covered the fall of Kabul in 2021 for eight days. The study utilizes content analysis as a research methodology. The authors’ primary aim was to determine if the selected television channels offered their viewers coverage of the event from a counterterrorism perspective, besides knowing if they covered it through the lens of high-ranking officials or from the perspective of local residents. The results indicate that the three chosen television channels did not prioritize the counterterrorism perspective in their coverage. Additionally, it is noteworthy that Pakistani TV channels covered the event from the standpoint of elite officials. Conversely, TOLO News, an Afghan media outlet, provided coverage from the vantage point of local individuals. The extensive coverage of such events carries significant implications for a nation such as Pakistan, where a substantial number of individuals lost their lives and the country incurred substantial economic losses amounting to billions of dollars in its efforts to combat terrorism. Furthermore, attaining public support is consistently pursued as a crucial component of a productive counterterrorism strategy aimed at eradicating militancy, extremism and acts of violence. This research study is informed by the theory of ‘priming’.

Media, War &Conflict, Ahead of Print.
This article analyses the underlying and immediate triggers of Nigeria’s EndSARS protest and their interconnectedness. Leveraging Braun and Clark’s reflexive thematic analysis of interviews with 11 participants along with the ethnographic approach, the authors constructed a broader theme termed ‘EndSARS – An Umbrella’. They identify three primary themes (youth unemployment, endemic public sector corruption/poor police welfare and poverty) as the root causes of the EndSARS protest. In addition, they single out one theme (police – perennial human rights abuse) as the immediate cause. They contend that these prevalent socio-economic challenges, commonly experienced among the participants in their study, intersect and serve as pivotal catalysts for mobilization within the context of the EndSARS protest. These distinctive yet challenging characteristics play a central role in broadening the composition of the protesters, resulting in their quest for government accountability and a better Nigeria.

Media, War &Conflict, Ahead of Print.