New media technologies and the remediation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Increasing the power of civil society, while at the same time providing new tools for surveillance and disinformation practices, new media technologies are transforming international relations. This is particularly evident in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where the Web and social media platforms have enabled a variety of new actors to coordinate global advocacy campaigns, engage in new diplomatic dialogues, while at the same time also becoming an instrument for inciting violence and contributing to radicalization. The ambition of this project is to study empirically the role of new media technologies in this conflict and to better understand whether and how new media technologies may advance the promotion of peace and reconciliation rather than conflict and violence.

Drawing on insights from Science and Technology Studies (STS), the project will pursue a two-fold research strategy, combining qualitative and quantitative methods. First, I will trace how new media technologies have come to play a role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, mapping the predominant discourses, practices, and material settings through which the digital remediation of the conflict takes place. Then, using the digital methods approach, the project will explore the concrete role of specific new media platforms and devices in the remediation of central political events.