Social media as functional actors in securitization
Institutionalizing Israel’s digital strategy during the 2014 Gaza War
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19226552 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ricardo Palmela de Oliveira (0000-0003-1347-2237, University of Évora, corresponding author), Teresa Almeida Cravo (0000-0002-8508-9926, University of Coimbra) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-03 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Media War & Conflict (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1750-6352 • E-ISSN: 1750-6360 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/17506352261432919 |
| OpenAlex | W7163367942 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 32 |
Social media is now central to contemporary conflicts, serving as a site of strategic communication, a stage for securitizing performances, and a repository for potential evidence later mobilized in allegations of war crimes. This article revisits the Israeli Defense Forces’ (IDF) digital strategy during the 2014 Gaza War (Operation Protective Edge), a formative moment in the institutionalization of multi-platform military communication. Bridging securitization theory with digital media scholarship, the article argues that social media platforms operated as functional actors: infrastructures that shape visibility, structure circulation, and extend the transnational reach of state-led security narratives. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study analyzes 1,718 tweets, 359 Facebook posts, and 182 YouTube videos published on the IDF’s English-language accounts between June and September 2014. The analysis shows how the IDF institutionalized social media as part of its security practice, adapting threat constructions and justifications for military action to platform-specific communicative logics of circulation and visibility. By conceptualizing 2014 as a critical juncture in digital strategy, the article clarifies how early experiments in digital securitization helped consolidate communicative practices that have since become normalized and intensified in later Gaza wars
Digital media · Formative assessment · Institutionalisation · Iraq war · Securitization · Social media · Cybersecurity and Cyber Warfare Studies · Global Security and Public Health · Public Relations and Crisis Communication
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| Highly cited | No |
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