Asst. Lect. Rasha Ali

Department of English

College of Education for the Humanities

University of Kerbala

Discursive Practices and Reforming War-related Language

Recently, social media has become a very powerful force in modelling the narrative around international wars, including the Gaza war. It has helped to provide alternate narratives, by filling the gaps and addressing the spaces in mainstream media coverage of the war (Kokeyo, 2023). Further, it has showed how conflicts are stated and perceived (Avelar, 2024).

Social media platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, has enabled everyday people to voice over their opinions and standpoints through personal stories, images and real-time updates. Viral postings and hashtags, such as #freepalestine and #Gazaunderattack, have enlarged awareness and incited conversations across geographic boundaries (Shestakov, 2022). Such platforms provide dynamic immediate reports from those on the ground and empower them to deliver real-time updates. There has been an age of news democratization as ordinary citizens and everyday people can participate in disseminating conflict news and shape their viewpoints with a wide global audience (George,2024; Schmitt et al., 2024).

Beside democratizing war news, social media platforms provide a variety of perspectives while distributing the information stream. They offer a number of forums used by activists, journalists and individuals to attract attention to subjects such as human rights abuse and humanitarian worries which are regularly disregarded by mainstream media (Awwad & Toyama, 2024). The range of perspectives online qualifies a broader understanding of conflicts.

Consequently, social media considerably has affected how the public views and shares narratives about the Gaza conflict. For instance, Georgios et al. (2023) suggest that “social media influences the way Americans, especially young Americans, perceive the conflict. Younger audiences get more of their news from social media – particularly TikTok and Instagram – than from traditional media, such as newspapers and television.” Multimedia materials, viral posts and hashtags influence how public perceive events. people may cooperate openly with the shared content online. 

Petition signing and fundraising can be achieved globally, and are more easily done through social media campaigns. Hashtags such as #GazaUnderAttack have encouraged people to participate together through videos and photos which brings international support and attention (Manor & Crilley, 2018). These platforms allow for their younger audiences to be updated with the most recent developments in Gaza and make it easier to start grassroots movements that aim to build support and change the global public sentiment.