ABSTRACT
The main focus of this chapter is how the grassroots videos from Syria influenced emotional dynamics of conflict escalation. Rapid technological developments offer an opportunity for innovative research addressing the role of digital media in peace and conflict in a variety of ways. The speed and transparency of user-generated videos gave rise to a certain kind of democratization of the Syrian media landscape since the Syrian uprisings, which started in the early months of 2011. The videos provide documentation of human rights violations and, at the same time, through their graphic nature and the rapid virality, the videos enhanced rapid escalation over a vast geographical distance. The often extremely graphic nature of the videos provides a glimpse into what living in a warzone means to the Syrians who are recording the videos at the grassroots level. Furthermore, the grassroots videos from Syria have had a generic impact on the development of conflicts as a particularly engaging form of conflict communication. This chapter analyses how watching these graphic videos have a strong potential to provoke the emotion of moral outrage, which can escalate other events and actions in the country.
