Why Israel is losing the social media

war over Gaza

When Shujaiya was attacked by the Israeli Defence Force, killing dozens of
civilians, the first I heard about it was via witter, early Sunday morning!
Object1
"onday #$ %ul #&$'
(n activist on the ground I follow tweeted) *+eo+le running out of Shujaiya, bodies lying on
ground,!
Soon after, "ohammed -mer . an award/winning 0alestinian journalist who tweets
as @Mogaza . re+orted)
Mohammed Omer 1"ogaza
Follow
Israel refuse allowing ambulance crew to get into Shejaia now2 scores of dead bodies in all
streets now2 3gaza
4)56 (" / #& %ul #&$'
7ot long after that, numerous western 8 journalists stationed alongside 0alestinian ambulance
crews, including my colleague, Jonathan Miller, re+orted the same things! here was
immediacy, corroboration and . with +ictures . evidence!
7ow com+are that to the Israeli Defence Force witter feed, @IDFSpokesperson, as news
emerged of the massive bombardment and civilian deaths! hese are the first three tweets)
IDF 1IDFS+okes+erson
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Shuja9iya is a civilian area where :amas +laces its rockets, tunnels and command centers!
;)#' (" / #& %ul #&$'
IDF 1IDFS+okes+erson
Follow
Days ago, we warned civilians in Shuja9iya to evacuate! :amas ordered them to stay! :amas
+ut them in the line of fire!
;)#< (" / #& %ul #&$'
IDF 1IDFS+okes+erson
Follow
Since %uly =, :amas has fired over $'& rockets at Israel from Shuja9iya!
;)5; (" / #& %ul #&$'
7othing in those three tweets constitutes either a defence of, or e>+lanation for, the killing of
tens of non/combatants! ?ut in the s+ace between them, anybody following the Gaza conflict
from both sides would have seen tens of inde+endently shot images and accounts of civilian
death and the destruction of housing and civilian infrastructure!
he incident shows who is winning the social media war over Gaza! It is evidence of a massive
change in the balance of +ower between social media and the old, hierarchical media channels
we used to rely on to understand wars!
S+ecifically social media has the +ower to do three things) first, to show +eo+le reality . or a
version of it . inde+endent of what 8 networks show! Second, and I think just as im+ortant,
journalists on the ground are using social media to re+ort, necessarily short/circuiting the
normal editorial +rocesses that used to filter what they said! hird, to get into your real life
consciousness much more +owerfully than the old media!
@etAs work through each of these new +owers and understand their im+act! In a society where
the media is su++osed to observe balance and im+artiality, getting real/time access to
corroborated facts inde+endently of 8 stations is not so revolutionary!
?ut modern/day (merica is not one of those countries! Its media is traditionally heavily skewed
towards the +ro/Israeli view! "y colleague, Matt Frei, tweeted that CNNs Wolf Blitzer
interview with Netanyah was less a grilling more *a warm bath and a back rub,! -thers
used more +rofane meta+hors!
?ut now, for the first time in a major (rab/Israeli conflict, the (merican +ublic has other
sources of reality! (ll research says that young +eo+le everywhere regard witter as essentially
a news service, and via your social network you can easily get served u+ words and +ictures
more im+actful than anything on 8! ?y the time many (mericans woke u+ on Sunday, these
+ictures were of dead 0alestinian children!
7etanyahu com+lained the !a"as strategy was to +rovide *telegenically dead, +eo+le) but
where Israel is losing the hearts and minds of the world is not via *tele, anything) it is in the
%0BGs that stream into millions of +eo+leAs mobile +hones every time they glance at the object
in the +alm of their hand!
@ater, NetanyahCs own witter feed also started to distribute +ictures) but they were
infogra+hics +ur+orting to show that :amas had dug tunnels below Shujaiya! o a generation
reared on instant images of reality, carefully +re+ared images of what you think
reality "ight be do not have the same im+act! hey look like +ro+aganda, no matter what
evidence you +ossess!
@etAs be clear) targeting civilians, and failing to avoid civilian casualties during military attacks,
are both indictable as crimes under the fourth Geneva convention! he indiscriminate firing of
rockets into Israel has been described as a war crime by (mnesty International! ?y midday
Sunday, anybody following the Gaza events on witter would have enough evidence to ask the
same Duestion about Shujaiya!
hatAs how much +ower the social media has +ut in the hands of +eo+le, and taken away from
governments!
he second big change is the ability of journalists to tweet from within Gaza itself!
During #peration Cast $ea% in #&&<, there were far fewer mainstream networks there, and
many of them did not tweet! oday, most re+orters are reDuired to tweet as a +art of their jobs!
?ut tweeting, and traditional news re+orting, are not the same!
Ee+orting goes through an editing +rocessF things that donAt conform to editorial +olicy can be
weeded outF facts have to be cross/checked with other facts and claims! he re+orting team
itself . +roducer, re+orter, camera crew, translator for 8 . form an initial filter! ?ut in Gaza,
there is no filterF +lus you are now getting camera crews and off/screen 8 journalists
tweeting! -n news+a+ers, several different re+orters will be tweeting, rather than it all going
into the editorial machine and coming out as one thing!
(nd hereAs the +oint) instant, unfiltered re+orts are cross/checked via the hive/mind created by
social media itself! It is the medium that becomes the editing +rocess) as last night, for
e>am+le, when well/connected Israeli journalists were able to confidently ni> the :amas
claims to have &aptre% an Israeli sol%ier! -nce they did this, re+orters inside Gaza were
able to Duestion :amasA account!
IAve worked at two major global news organisations, each of which has different editorial rules
and styles about re+orting the "iddle Bast conflict! ItAs fair to say that, once you +ut a dozen
journalists on the ground with witter, editorial +olicies and +rocesses may continue to work
for the final, +olished . some would argue censored and ideologised . re+orts) but the raw
out+ut will remain raw, and any attem+t to +ut an ideological, or +olitically correct, gloss on the
facts, will be much easier to s+ot!
Incidentally I think this is true for all conflicts and all sides) I donAt read (rabic but I would
imagine the (rabic witters+here can be as challenging to the official !a"as version of
eventsF I know that the Bnglish/s+eaking Israeli witters+here has been challenging the
governmentAs view of events, and also circumventing military censorshi+ notices!
he third new Duality social media brings to a war like this, on to+ of inde+endence and its
im+act on journalists, is the subliminal and +ervasive nature of the content! When an event like
Shujaiya ha++ens, it literally floods +eo+leAs timelines!
I *witnessed, it sitting in a field in Wales, with no 8, and no com+uter, only a s+oradically
u+dated witter a++ on my i0hone using wi/fi too rubbish to even get any of the :"@
liveblogs u+!
Gou cannot sto+ +ictures dro++ing into your timeline so, for several days now, I have been
seeing dead +eo+le in 'aza / civilians, combatants . mi>ed u+ with the eDually disturbing
+ictures of the victims of M!()!
While I find I get desensitised to the individual images, it also means the issues behind them
become very +resent in my thinking! I donAt think I am the only +erson who has lost slee+ or
e>+erienced an>iety due to the +ervasive killing my social media streams are bringing to my
daily life! What I mean is, if you are following these events, they can become far more real via
social media . where your friends, acDuaintances, colleagues etc . are reacting in real time
/than when they were filtered via a daily news bulletin, or live re+orts from satellite +oints!
0robably the most famous war +hotogra+h of all is of *ietna"ese girl +han ,h- .i"
+h/& lacerated by a HS na+alm strike in $<6#! (udio ta+es later released reveal HS +resident
Eichard 7i>on saying to his chief of staff ?ob :aldeman, *IAm wondering if that was fi>ed!,
*Iould have been,, re+lies :aldeman!
oday, anybody, wishing to bomb civilians, or risk civilian casualties in a military o+eration,
can tell Duite Duickly what is fake and what is real! (nd so can the +o+ulation that elects them!
hatAs the difference!
Follow @pal"asonnews on ,witter
/ See more at) htt+)JJblogs!channel'!comJ+aul/mason/blogJim+act/social/media/israelgaza/
conflictJ$$=#3sthash!mGzzB;@d!d+uf