ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the new mode of ‘participative warfare’ – a type of conflict in which individuals, both within conflict-zones and across the world, are empowered by mobile, multi-media technologies, improved connectivity, and Web 2.0 platforms to become active producers and distributors of news and reports, also sharing their own comments, opinions and experiences. Digital technologies now allow the active participation of anyone interested in global conflicts, enabling everyone to promote their beliefs and politics and to contribute towards the ongoing, real-time informational wars that arise around every political issue and military action. The chapter examines this new digital ecology of voices and personal propaganda through two case studies: the 2014 Israel-Gaza War and the Syrian Civil War that began in 2011, considering how each conflict has been mediated, debated, and even fought, through Web 2.0 technologies.
