Course Description

This seminar examines the role of social media in current wars and protest movements. A particular focus is placed on the visual cultures of war and protest on social media, with special emphasis on Russia's war against Ukraine, Israel-Gaza, civil wars in Myanmar, Ethiopia, and Sudan, protests in Israel, the Iranian women's movement, Black Lives Matter, climate protests, Hong Kong protests, and farmers' protests in India.

Using netnographic analysis to understand online cultures and communication, we also examine right-wing conservative and right-wing extremist social media influencers such as the Internet phenomenon of Tradwives, communities of right-wing women who globalize anti-globalism and modernize anti-modernity. These are communities of right-wing women who use social media to commercialize traditional heteronormative representations of femininity, built on equal parts ideology and aesthetics.

Learning Objectives

• Understanding current global conflicts and protest movements

• Analyzing the role of social media in wars and protests

• Identifying and evaluating artistic forms of protest and digital activism (street art, digital art, music and performance, satire and memes)

• Reflecting on the opportunities and risks of social media in political conflicts

• Discussing new forms of digital participation

• Assessing the role of artificial intelligence in the context of mass data surveillance and warfare

Social media has revolutionized the way wars and protests are perceived and conducted. Digital information warfare is dominated by a constant stream of images, a "War Feed" (Matthew Ford), which, with the new tools of globalized communication spaces, fragments and personalizes perception. Social protest movements on online platforms generate worldwide attention and witness, creating new communication spaces for political networking, civil society participation, and globalized forms of resistance. In this course, we examine these dynamics and reflect on their significance for society and politics.

Scheduling: every Monday, 5 p.m. - 7 p.m. 

Course Structure

Our seminar is largely structured as a continuous assessment course. Through collaborative material analysis, we will examine and contextualize visual material together.

Each session will consist of a theory input (20 minutes), case studies (50 minutes), and close reading (20 minutes). Students are expected to attend regularly, participate in discussions, and prepare a short impulse presentation (5 minutes) during the semester.

Performance assessment will be completed with a written final paper (approximately 4-5 pages), with details discussed in the first session.

Ford, Matthew, and Andrew Hoskins. Radical war: Data, attention and control in the twenty-first century. Oxford University Press, 2022.

Hoskins, Andrew, and Pavel Shchelin. "The War Feed: Digital War in Plain Sight." American Behavioral Scientist 67.3 (2023): 449-463.

Poell, Thomas, and José Van Dijck. "Social media and new protest movements." The SAGE handbook of social media(2018): 546-561.

Reichert, Ramon. In the War of Attractions: The Russian War against Ukraine on Telegram, in: POP Culture and Criticism 12.2 (2023): 64-70.

Reichert, Ramon. Selfies self-thematization in digital image culture. Vol. 63. transcript Verlag, 2023.

Woodly, Deva R. Reckoning: Black Lives Matter and the democratic necessity of social movements. Oxford University Press, 2022.