The war feed: digital war in plain sight

Hoskins, A. and Shchelin, P. (2023) The war feed: digital war in plain sight. American Behavioral Scientist, 67(3), pp. 449-463. (doi: 10.1177/00027642221144848)

Abstract

Today’s Russian war against Ukraine is unique in its unfolding through a prism of personalized realities, made and remade for individuals, in what we call the “war feed.” This is a new disruptor of war fought in plain sight, revolutionizing both war and media, in and through a frenzy of participation in immediate yet continuous, personalized yet global, digital feeds. The war feed renders the war in and against Ukraine up close and personal. Never have so many images and videos of human suffering and death in war been so quickly available, streaming from the battlefield. A digital multitude posting, liking, sharing, and applauding each individual image or short form video, are all participants in a fractalized psychological war. In this article we propose that the war feed transforms the way war today is perceived, participated in, and fought over, but also how it will be remembered and forgotten. We focus on the messaging app Telegram as a rapidly evolving weapon of psychological warfare, which utterly disrupts the relationship between the showing, hiding, and the seeing of modern war. There seems little point in raging against ineffectual moderation and regulation of social media platforms, whilst the world burns on Telegram.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Hoskins, Professor Andrew
• Authors: Hoskins, A., and Shchelin, P.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Sociology Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences
• Journal Name: American Behavioral Scientist
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• ISSN: 0002-7642
• ISSN (Online): 1552-3381
• Published Online: 21 December 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 SAGE Publications
• First Published: First published in American Behavioral Scientist 67(3): 449-463
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License