The Impact of the New Media on Civil and International Conflict

Abstract or Introduction

The media has always played a major role in conflicts. Ivan Sigal emphasises that “governments seek to hold onto power through persuasion as much as through force”. In the WWII the Nazis used the radio to broadcast their propaganda in and outside Germany. In Rwanda the radio was used to contrive the genocide of 1994, further the Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic used a government-controlled media to promote his nationalist ideologies in former Yugoslavia. Mass media such as radio, newspapers, television or even blogs and websites follow a one-to-many mode of communication. The mass media can stay active or independent in a conflict. Dependant on the orientation or suppression, the mass media becomes more or less part of the conflict. It can inform or influence the home audience, the opponent’s audience or the world. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, as a part of the new media, on the other hand is founded on a many-to-many mode of communication. This many-to-many communication gives everyone with internet access or even just a mobile phone the chance to provide or get authentic, transparent and reliable information to build a free opinion or report grievances. Social media spreads information virally so that one single actor is enough to spread a message globally. New media’s large influence has gained traction with a wide range of actors. From citizens over governments, protest movements or even terrorist groups, all these want to use the new technology to their own aims. I will discuss in this essay the impact of the new media on civil and international conflict situations in the contemporary era.