Making Sense of Emotions and Affective Investments in War

RT and the Syrian Conflict on YouTube

Bibliographic Data

ID21225537
AuthorsPrecious Chatterje‐doody (0000-0002-4615-158X, University of Manchester), Rhys Crilley (0000-0003-1816-5535, The Open University)
Year2019
Volume7
Issue3
Pages167-178
Publication date2019-08-09
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMedia and Communication (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2183-2439 • E-ISSN: 2183-2439
PublisherCogitatio (PUBLISHER • PT)
DOI10.17645/mac.v7i3.1911
OpenAlexW2968781625
LanguageEN
Citations received20
References cited45

Within the context of an ‘affective turn’ in media studies and the social sciences, this article explores the methodological challenges of researching emotions when studying online videos of conflict. Our study focuses on videos of the Syrian conflict shared on YouTube by the Russian state funded international broadcaster, RT. We propose that the concept of affective investment is a useful pivot between online videos of conflict and audience responses to them. Our study interrogates the role that affective investments play in 1) RT’s YouTube representations of the Syrian conflict, and 2) audience comments on these videos. We draw attention to the important intersections of RT’s representations of the conflict and audiences’ affective investments in those representations, and draw attention to the methodological issues raised. Our empirical focus is two critical junctures in the Syrian conflict: the commencement of Russia’s military intervention; and following the announcement of plans to withdraw Russian troops. We conclude by discussing the utility of affective investments in war when assessing online coverage of conflict, and suggesting avenues for further development

Armed conflict · Political science · Public relations · Social media · Sociology · Global Security and Public Health · History · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Psychology · Public Relations and Crisis Communication · Social Psychology

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