{"title":"Investigating responses to US drone strikes in Yemen using Twitter data","authors":"Evan Weiss, Violet Ross, Alex Lyford","doi":"10.1177/17506352231219694","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506352231219694","url":null,"abstract":"As part of the War on Terror, the US conducted at least 378 air and drone strikes in Yemen from 2002 to 2023. While primarily targeting members of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), these strikes have killed over 1,000 people, including more than 125 civilians. This research aims to understand the broader societal impact of US military action as shown on Twitter, now known as ‘X’. The authors take a mixed-methods approach, using both qualitative and quantitative data to investigate this impact. They perform word- and tweet-level analyses on the content and sentiment of a subset of Yemeni Twitter users and contrast the content of Yemeni users’ tweets about US drone strikes with that of US users’ tweets. Finally, the article quantifies the temporal relationship between the frequency and severity of US drone strikes and Twitter activity levels in Yemen, considering the prevalence of Twitter bots.","PeriodicalId":503711,"journal":{"name":"Media, War & Conflict","volume":"56 48","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139447257","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}
{"title":"A war foretold: How Western mainstream news media omitted NATO eastward expansion as a contributing factor to Russia’s 2022 invasion of the Ukraine","authors":"Florian Zollmann","doi":"10.1177/17506352231216908","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506352231216908","url":null,"abstract":"This article assesses how Western mainstream news media framed causal factors of Russia’s 2022 invasion of the Ukraine. The article is based on a synthesis and integration of scholarly studies as well as a primary data analysis of Western mainstream newspaper reporting. The research firstly conducts an integrative literature review investigating how Western mainstream news media have reported on Russia and the new Cold War more broadly. Using this as a backdrop, a quantitative and qualitative content study investigates how causes of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine were framed in the US, the UK and the German press. To contextualize news media framing, the second section critically assesses the Western diplomatic and historical record of NATO expansion. The article identifies two competing explanatory frameworks: the dominant Western news media narrative assumes that Russia/Putin’s imperial ambitions and nefarious traits have caused the war, and a second narrative, advanced by several scholars, former diplomats and selected journalists, asserts that NATO’s eastward expansion created the context for Russia’s invasion. The article concludes that the second narrative has been de-emphasized in the news. Such framing is contrary to the historical and documentary record, and links to a marginalization of non-military solutions to solve the conflict.","PeriodicalId":503711,"journal":{"name":"Media, War & Conflict","volume":" 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139137155","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}
{"title":"Book Review: Sport and the Pursuit of War and Peace from the Nineteenth Century to the Present: War Minus the Shooting?","authors":"Matthew Taylor","doi":"10.1177/17506352231216892","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506352231216892","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":503711,"journal":{"name":"Media, War & Conflict","volume":"161 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139172226","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}
{"title":"Deserted myths and nuclear realities: Revisiting the symbolism of nuclear weapons in contemporary popular culture through Oppenheimer (2023)","authors":"Emily Faux","doi":"10.1177/17506352231216901","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506352231216901","url":null,"abstract":"This article makes a necessary intervention in Critical Nuclear Studies which thus far lacks engagement with popular culture since the Cold War. There is a significant gap in our knowledge about contemporary representations of nuclear weapons and their significance for nuclear politics in the current moment. Using Oppenheimer (2023) as a catalyst, this article navigates a setting central to the origin story of nuclear weapons: the desert. The desert is shown to have a complex literal and symbolic history that is intertwined with nuclear politics and contributes to nuclear weapons’ continued mythological status in an age defined by an increasingly partisan trust and distrust in science. The desert setting in popular culture exemplifies the paradoxical and contradictory meanings of nuclear weapons and war. The desert is both the symbolic frontier to the land of opportunity and freedom, and a land of isolation and nothingness. In a retelling of the story of the Manhattan Project – the ‘origin story’ of nuclear weapons – Oppenheimer (2023) offers an opportunity to navigate these tropes in the current moment. Navigating competing representations of nuclear weapons and war reveals some of the hidden logics and relations of power that remain at the foundations of nuclear knowledge – from high politics to popular culture.","PeriodicalId":503711,"journal":{"name":"Media, War & Conflict","volume":"76 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139177116","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}
Y. Ariel, Julian Unkel, Dana Weimann Saks, V. Malka
{"title":"Far away but close at heart? German and Israeli consumption of news concerning the 2022 Russian–Ukrainian war","authors":"Y. Ariel, Julian Unkel, Dana Weimann Saks, V. Malka","doi":"10.1177/17506352231212415","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506352231212415","url":null,"abstract":"This study, conducted in Germany and Israel in May 2021, compares German and Israeli news media consumption concerning the Russian–Ukrainian war using a structured online questionnaire. A total of 1,310 and 509 valid questionnaires were completed in Germany and Israel, respectively, examining differences in how news consumers used media to access information. Specifically, objective and subjective proximity to Ukraine and Ukrainians, interest in politics and media perceptions were examined as potential predictors of use patterns of various media. For most variables, Germans and Israelis similarly sought news about the war, especially in mainstream news media. In Israel, objective and subjective proximities to Ukraine were the most significant predictors for consuming mainstream news media, with interest in politics and media trust being less important. In Germany, the latter factors predicted mainstream news media consumption more strongly than ties and subjective proximity, while trust in the mainstream media was not a significant predictor. Finally, the authors found that the lower the trust in mainstream media, the larger the volume of social media consumption about the war.","PeriodicalId":503711,"journal":{"name":"Media, War & Conflict","volume":" 33","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139239775","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}
{"title":"Book review: Strategic Conspiracy Narratives: A Semiotic Approach","authors":"Jacopo Castaldi","doi":"10.1177/17506352231212406","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506352231212406","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":503711,"journal":{"name":"Media, War & Conflict","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139249964","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}
{"title":"Book review: Managing Meaning in Ukraine: Information, Communication and Narration since the Euromaidan Revolution","authors":"Joanna Szostek","doi":"10.1177/17506352231212409","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506352231212409","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":503711,"journal":{"name":"Media, War & Conflict","volume":"120 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139248073","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}