Pop Wars. Popular Culture, Online Platforms, and the Representation of International Issues

The IDF Case

Authors

  • Alessandra Massa Università di Cagliari

Keywords:

popular culture, online platforms, digital militarism, international communication, Twitter

Abstract

This contribution reflects on the results of an exploratory qualitative analysis investigating how pop elements are used in the international communication of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), considering the English-language Twitter account.

According to the narrative and aesthetic turns in international relations, security and military affairs can be conveyed even by popular entertainment. So then, digital militarism transfers military affairs to the terrains of social media.

The thematic and qualitative content analysis results show how IDF employs pop elements to perform different kinds of militarism, namely essential militarism, contentious militarism, and normalizing militarism. Moreover, the peculiar tone of voice set by the recurrence of pop elements helps to dialogue with other international actors, crystalizing traditional polarizations.

However, not all events can be conveyed by pop narratives: while confrontations and self-representation are frequently displayed through pop culture elements, reports on traditional security issues remain anchored to a narrative based on emergency alerts or emotional features. 

Author Biography

Alessandra Massa, Università di Cagliari

Alessandra Massa holds a PhD in Communication, Research, Innovation from Sapienza University of Rome. She works mainly on international political communication, popular geopolitics, digital diplomacy and international implications of platform use. She has collaborated on several research projects, working with multidisciplinary teams on the following topics: new generations and radicalization, online platforms and international relations, public sector communication and politics, and gender and identity. Among his most recent publications: (with G. Anzera) Media digitali e relazioni internazionali (Digital media and international relations), Guerini, Milan

Downloads

Published

2022-07-27

How to Cite

Massa, A. (2022). Pop Wars. Popular Culture, Online Platforms, and the Representation of International Issues: The IDF Case. Mediascapes Journal, 19(1), 128–141. Retrieved from https://rosa.uniroma1.it/rosa03/mediascapes/article/view/17832

Issue

Vol. 19 No. 1 (2022): Immaginari post-pandemici

Section

Articles

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Mediascapes Journal is published under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence 4.0.

With the licence CC-BY, authors retain the copyright, allowing anyone to download, reuse, re-print, modify, distribute and/or copy their contribution. The work must be properly attributed to its author. It should be also mentioned that the work has been first published by the journal Anuac.

Having published these contributions for the first time, Mediascapes Journal will have the right to publish them integrally or partially as reprints or possibly as part of a thematic issue, in both digital and printed format.

It is not necessary to ask further permissions both to author or the journal.