Journal Description
Media, War & Conflict is a major international, peer-reviewed journal that maps the shifting arena of war and conflict in media environments and ecologies. It explores cultural, political, social and technological transformations in the conduct, outcome and consequences of intensively mediated war.
Media, War & Conflict is the first inter- and multi- disciplinary journal to be dedicated to this field. It publishes substantial research articles, essays and reviews. It solicits submissions from academics, professionals and practitioners. The editors are looking for innovative work that contributes to existing debates and identifies emerging challenges in the convergence of media, war and conflict.
Topic coverage includes how media, war and conflict converge in subjects such as:
- Journalism and witnessing
- Security, politics and militaries
- Art, aesthetics, photography, film and popular culture
- Technologies, spatialities and architectures
- Aftermath, reconciliation, peace processes
- Memory, commemoration and archives
- Identity and embodiment
- Practices, cultures and ethics
- Audiences and engagement
- Narratives, legitimation of war and peace
Journal Feed
- by Liz HallgrenMedia, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. A close reading of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s self-produced social media content alongside Western news outlets’ profiles of Zelensky from the first months of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 illuminates a symbiotic relationship of drama-making that is mutually beneficial for Zelensky’s military and the West’s journalistic interests. Performing as a scrappy underdog turned brilliant military mind, Zelensky provides the Western press with an authentic protagonist figure who makes ideal fodder for a Western news style steeped in drama-making and a natural fit for the individualized storytelling core to the genre of […]
- by Agnieszka WęglińskaMedia, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. The Russo–Ukrainian (RU) conflict serves to illustrate the vital role of modern technological tools which are employed on a wide scale by journalists, military personnel and civilians. The internet and social media have had an impact on the work of war journalists, as evidenced by the example of the ongoing war in Ukraine. Journalists reporting on this war have had to adapt to these changes. Therefore, this research investigated the development of the work of war correspondents. The authors conducted 18 in-depth interviews with reporters and journalists covering the RU war with previous […]
- by Antal WozniakMedia, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. How closely does news coverage in independent media outlets in non-Western countries follow domestic political elites’ interpretations of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? And how much attention do newsrooms pay to geopolitical aspects of the issue compared to domestic considerations? This study moves beyond a still prevailing Euro- and US-centric perspective by focusing on Brazil, India and South Africa, three democratic countries with close economic and political ties to Russia. The authors systematically compare the wording used by elite politicians to describe the events in Ukraine with that in mainstream news reports. They also […]
- by Morten G EnderMedia, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print.
- by Ksenia ErmoshinaMedia, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. The controversies surrounding the right to privacy of individuals in a hyperconnected world are longstanding debates, where particular emphasis is placed on encryption technologies, which encode information by converting its original representations into alternative forms that computers cannot decipher, thus ensuring the security of communications. These technologies are at the heart of a public controversy, in which privacy advocates a clash with claims that encryption is a threat to general security as an enabler of subversive action. Recent developments in the armed conflict in Ukraine open up or renew questions such as: in […]
- by Rodney CibohMedia, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. This study examines current methods of reporting conflict in Nigeria from three perspectives: (i) how journalism academics regard current methods; (ii) what best reporting methods they recommend; and (iii) what kind of training they think is suitable for journalists who report conflicts. Participatory Action Research (PAR) was used as methodology and focus group discussion was conducted in three phases: evaluation, proposition and education. Answers suggest that current methods of reporting conflict are irresponsible and capable of discouraging nonviolent reactions to conflicts, that many journalists are prejudiced by ethnicity, religion and party politics that […]
- by Sayyed Fawad Ali ShahMedia, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print.
- by Kateryna KasianenkoMedia, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. Memes are iconic digital artefacts that acquire meaning through their production and circulation among the digitally mediated publics. This visual essay presents an iconographic exploration of the North Atlantic Fella Organization (NAFO) – a vernacular online collective engaged in ridiculing Russian disinformation and rallying support for Ukraine’s defence and recovery efforts. We approach memes as a visual interface between the user and various subgroups within and outside the community. Drawing on a combination of autoethnographic, visual semiotic and computational methods, we demonstrate how memes perform three key functions within the online community: representing […]
- by Delphin Rukumbuzi NtanyomaMedia, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (UNPKOs) have incorporated a Public Information (PI) component to communicate with the public. This component has shifted from public outreach towards media reports on current events, including violent incidents. Few studies have assessed the contribution of the PI components of UN-led media. This article assesses the framing of Radio Okapi (RO) online newspaper articles to understand RO’s contribution to peacebuilding processes in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), an ethnically highly polarized region where many sites are difficult to access. By analysing how RO reports on violent incidents […]
- by Nina Fabiola SchumacherMedia, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. This study compares communication patterns of German political journalists with correspondents assigned in covering Russia/Ukraine regarding the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War discourse on Twitter (now X). During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Twitter has been an important platform for (European) politicians, journalists and other stakeholders to share their views on the war. In general, journalists differ largely in terms of Twitter activity and in posting individual contributions. This comparative research delves into the analysis of journalistic communication in 4,460 tweets, focusing on war and peace journalism framing. The study also investigates the personalization […]
- by Louisa EstherMedia, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. Since the renewed outbreak of the ongoing crisis in Burundi in May 2015, triggering a media crackdown, over one-third of the country’s reporters have gone into exile. They therefore joined an increasing number of journalists worldwide who are forced into exile. Between 2015 and 2021, many of the exiled Burundian journalists continued reporting for newly founded exile media in neighbouring Rwanda. Before their forced closure in 2021, these exile media had established themselves as successful outlets providing the only independent information from an otherwise blacked-out country. Based on semi-structured interviews with 10 exiled […]
- by Osman OsmanMedia, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. This article explores the diverse media framing of the 2013 Westgate Mall attack presented by Kenyan and US newspapers. The author reveals how national contexts and cultural values shape news narratives by analyzing 242 articles from Kenya’s Daily Nation and Standard and the US’s New York Times and Washington Post. The findings show that Kenyan and US newspapers predominantly employed episodic frames, with Kenyan newspapers utilizing them in 69.7 percent of articles compared to US newspapers in 64 percent of articles. This episodic focus highlights individual experiences and immediate events consistent with broader […]
- by Mercy EtteMedia, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. This study conceptualizes terrorist acts as performance of violence. It concentrates on how Jama’atu Ahlis Sunnah Lida’awati Wal Jihad, a transnational terrorist group commonly known as Boko Haram, stages dramatic spectacles to generate public fear and anxiety by deploying the news media to publicize its activities. Predicated on a conceptual framework consisting of performance theory, news media–terrorism nexus and newsworthiness, the study illustrates how terrorist groups and media organizations exploit each other’s affordances to actualize tactical and strategic goals. The author asserts that terrorist groups command the attention and gaze of diverse audiences […]
- by Mehrnaz KhanjaniMedia, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. There were three chemical attacks on Syrian civilians in 2013, 2017, and 2018. In 2013, President Obama proposed military action and it was rejected by Congress. President Trump ordered two airstrikes in 2017 and 2018, without congressional authorization. Investigating news reports and statements issued by the members of the House and Senate show that there were major criticisms among US officials in all three periods. In the month after the three foreign policy declarations (congressional vote in 2013, airstrikes in 2017 and 2018), the US press increased their reliance on US officials and […]
- by Miron LakomyMedia, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. Based on open-source intelligence, social network analysis and comparative analysis, this study discusses the structure, evolution and most important features of the pro-Islamic State (IS) information ecosystem on the surface web between July 2023 and March 2024. It proves that the core of its propaganda distribution network is surprisingly centralized around three stand-alone domains, including one link directory – Fahras – and two propaganda repositories: I’lam and al-Raud. These webpages constitute the core of the ecosystem, densely interconnected with a broad range of secondary channels designed to lure online audiences to these hotspots […]
- by Yao-Yuan YehMedia, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. In this study, the authors focus on Taiwan, where citizens are increasingly concerned about the possibility of a Chinese invasion. Specifically, the authors want to know if different media sources would influence citizens’ willingness to engage in self-defense. Additionally, they would like to see if partisans experience a backfire effect when exposed to incongruent political information. To test these hypotheses, they designed and conducted an original survey experiment in Taiwan by creating different vignettes. Their findings reveal two points: firstly, media cues alone did not significantly alter citizens’ overall willingness to engage in […]
- by Józef OberMedia, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. The 2022 invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation has triggered many socioeconomic changes, not only in the countries directly affected by the hostilities but also in the global economy. It should be noted that there has been considerable academic interest in various aspects of international security and stability. This study seeks to address the lacuna in research by evaluating the effects of the war in Ukraine on the environment of Ukrainian artists. By conducting a diagnostic survey, the study aims to assess the socio-economic and cultural challenges faced by artists in conflict-affected […]
- by Shixin Ivy ZhangMedia, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. This research elucidates the power dynamics of framing at the nexus of state, news media and netizens during international conflicts in China. The authors explore how three actors or stakeholders – namely, foreign policy apparatuses, the news media, and netizens – frame NATO in the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine. Employing Entman’s cascading activation framing model, they discover that the dominant frames adopted by the government, the news media and the public vary significantly between these actors. Specifically, the government predominantly uses a morality frame, whereas both the news media and […]
- by Dilnaz BogaMedia, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. Journalists from India-administered Kashmir have endured the psycho-social brunt of living in a militarized zone. Restrictions imposed on the media by the governing class in a neoliberal milieu function to regulate the narrative on the conflict with the help of agenda setting. This analysis identifies themes of direct, indirect and structural violence, and shows how psychological symptoms such as anxiety, alienation, hypervigilance, helplessness, depression and trauma emerge from them. Employing thematic analysis coupled with a deductive approach, the author highlights how working conditions of the journalists shape their psycho-social wellbeing. In-depth interviews with […]
- by Denijal JegićMedia, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. This article proposes that the Kosovar political communication toward Israel exemplifies Kosovo’s positioning as a proxy for the US, and highlights the significance and simultaneous absence of Palestine in the meaning-making of Kosovo’s political identity and its place in the world. Through an analysis of Kosovo’s recent political communication toward Israel, the author suggests that the Kosovar political elite has applied the Orientalist discourse of the ‘free world’ in order to establish analogies between Kosovo and Israel as brave and threatened democracies defending Western civilization and frontiers. A detailed engagement with the position […]