Title

From the Digital Frontlines – How Social Media Shapes Emotional Engagement with Conflict

From the Digital Frontlines – User Relationships with Conflict Imagery Across Media Eras

Research Question

How have social platforms effected our emotional response and relationship to current and historical war and violence?

How has digital media delivery changed how we respond to conflict?

How have digital advancements changed the media delivery of conflict imagery and our reaction to said imagery?

How has digital media delivery changed how we receive and react to images of conflict and violence?

How has the digital circulation of conflict imagery reshaped the ways user perceive and emotionally respond to images of conflict and violence?

How have shifts from traditional to digital media delivery changed how user engage with and react to images of conflict and violence?

Aims and Objectives

Define how social platforms have changed both the documentation of content relating to war and violence, and our emotional response to said content.

• Define how social platforms exploit the emotions of users to enhance engagement.
• Investigate how the documentation and visibility of content relating to war and violence has changed with the advent of social platforms.
• Analyse how our exposure to war and violence through social platforms has changed how we understand and interact with content related to them.
• Explore how social platforms have effected and could effect our emotional relationship to past war and violence?
• Examine the impact on our emotional wellbeing caused by exposure to war, conflict, and political violence through social platforms.

Rationale / Significance

Social platforms have enabled anyone in the world to share text, images, and videos with potentially global reach. This has lead us to a point where, amidst the typical content we engage with, we may unexpectedly be fed horrifying and violent content from war and conflict.

It is well established that social platform use emotional exploitation to drive engagement either through the content itself, or the algorithms that feed us said content. This puts users in an emotionally unique state when using social platforms. Given this, it could be expected that the emotional reaction a user has to content from war and violence on social platforms would be different to if they had sought out that content themselves.