- 24/12/2022
- Category: Commentaries
Author: Hilman Nurjaman
Editor: M Perdana Karim
The phenomenon of war has recently become a top-discussed issue, not only in the physical space of the countries involved, Russia and Ukraine but also in the transnational digital space. Technology, the internet, and digital media can potentially become tools that mediate global conflicts supported by huge data spaces in shaping the governance of major countries in war [1]. The development of supporting features of digital technology that opens up space for freedom in sharing experiences in digital media, whether in visual, audio, or audiovisual forms, has the power to build or ruin people’s collective knowledge. Knowledge of history related to wars in the past is very vulnerable to be re-narrated. Thus, this article discusses how the world war narrative is shared, projected, and freely reproduced in digital media by internet users in Russia and Ukraine, but is not limited to them.
How is War Narrated in Digital Media?
Digital technology in the context of war can be a predictive tool that leads to certain entities and agencies that are connected in a wide network in online and offline spaces in everyday life [2]. The imagination of future construction offered by digital technology is increasingly dominated by technology companies that absorb the capabilities of public institutions that can freely update or maintain dominant rhetoric [3]. Media institutions have a greater opportunity to regulate the digital space for the production of knowledge about the world that marks categories that are close to imbalance or inequality. In the context of today’s Russia and Ukraine wars, this leads to previous World War II events being available and distributed online on the same digital platform, but with possibly different interpretations. As a result, the war narrative in digital media will focus on two dichotomous sides: a historical legacy of past events or a nightmare that can trigger new conflicts.
As a historical legacy and collective knowledge
The reach and speed of digital media that has seen an increase in connectivity is an opportunity to preserve history [4]. The moments of war that are stored in digital media, especially in the form of audiovisuals such as videos, can improve people’s experiences to commemorate history more clearly. For example, in educational institutions, digital media can be agents that eternalize the history of world war conflicts that give birth to critical knowledge that can bring fundamental changes to the generation of a country in how to understand and interpret these conflicts. Likewise, in the response of internet users, the history of war can be a tool of resistance to oppose injustices that arise both online and offline, especially when a phenomenon is already popular globally [5]. Trends in today’s digital world can also force changes to take into account the consequences that include common problems through online networks that are easily accessible to transnational internet users [6]. Although it can hardly be argued that historical video content distributed in digital media can preserve the memory of events to commemorate the war, is it really for knowledge purposes or at the same time can provoke a narrative of the war in the past?
As a nightmare that triggers a new conflict
Taking the example of the case of World War II between Russia and Ukraine, the history between the two countries which is enshrined in video content sharing platforms has the potential to eternalize conflict when there is a trigger from one of these countries or external, as the conflict has been repeated lately. Documentation that is openly depicted in the media can activate global attention through online platforms, one of which is YouTube. YouTube is not only the largest video-sharing platform in the world, which can be freely used by internet users either as viewers or video content creators but there is also a comment feature that can freely show positive and negative responses to dominant discourses about Russia and Ukraine wars for example.
The consequences of past wars that are spread in digital media vary from how to document the chaos during the war to the development of war information about how portraits of atrocities in war lead to traumatic feelings [7]. Digital media has become a space that frames past suffering from controversial war atrocities as mainstream media by closing off safe discussions of ethical dilemmas [8]. Of course, this creates a collective ethical clash that will complicate the users of the digital platform in interpreting history wisely. This ethical shift has implications also for how past conflicts in the past are perceived by the general public through digital intervention [9]. Especially when the history of war is used as a tool to provoke the construct of new conflicts in the future. Therefore, it becomes a new vulnerability when digital media promotes a new narrative that triggers the practice of war with the responses of internet users who are interconnected in expressing partiality or impartiality through hate speech or harsh and aggressive comments.
Furthermore, the development of digital media will be bad news when content such as video is used as a weapon in amplifying messages of interest which leads to changes in the course of history that are open to various future events [10]. Just like what Nazi Germany did in controlling its citizens through fear that was constantly displayed as a form of surveillance, propaganda, and rejection of other narratives besides the dominant narrative [11]. It is very clear, that war shown on digital media has a side that can provoke people in the physical scope directly or indirectly as a nightmare that can damage knowledge of history.
Conclusion
Technology, the internet, and digital media can be both reflective and destructive tools that lead to certain agency units in the context of the country or the world. Digital media can be a way to capture historical moments in the form of audiovisual content such as videos and become a source of knowledge between generations. However, on the other hand, the narration of war in digital media can be a trigger for conflict over past traumatic wounds that are freely distributed on digital platforms. Especially when there is no mutually agreed global agreement on clear boundaries for using digital technology such as universal ethics. As a result, what may be content that contains relatively minor controversy can become the trigger for new major conflicts over time.
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[2] Grove, W. et al. (2021) ‘Taking togetherness apart: From digital footprints to geno-digital spores’, Human Geography (United Kingdom), 00(0), pp. 1–13. doi: 10.1177/19427786211024264.
[3] Mager A and Katzenbach C. (2020) ‘Future imaginaries in the making and governing of digital technology: multiple, contested, commodified’, New Media & Society, 23(2), pp. 223–236.
[4] Hoskins A. (2009) ‘The mediatisation of memory’. In: Garde-Hansen J, Hoskins A and Reading A (eds) Digital Memories, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 27–44.
[5] Culpan, Tim. (2022) Digital warriors come to Ukraine’s aid, declare cyberwar against Russia. https://theprint.in/opinion/digital-warriors-come-to-ukraines-aid-declare-cyber-war-against-russia/851373/
[6] Garon, J. M. (2018) ‘Cyber-World War III Origins’, Journal of Law & Cyber Warfare. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26777962.
[7] Kuntsman A. (2010) ‘Online memories, digital conflicts and the cyber touch of war’. Digital Icons: Studies in Russian, Eurasian and Central European New Media, 4, pp. 1–12.
[8] Makhortykh, M. (2020) ‘Remediating the past: YouTube and Second World War memory in Ukraine and Russia’, Memory Studies, 13(2), pp. 146–161. doi: 10.1177/1750698017730867.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Cullen, Adam. (2022). How digital media could help end the conflict in Ukraine. https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/how-digital-media-could-help-end-the-conflict-in-ukraine/
[11] Diglin, G. (2014) ‘Living the Orwellian Nightmare: New media and digital dystopia’, E-Learning and Digital Media, 11(6), pp. 608–618. doi: 10.2304/elea.2014.11.6.608.
