The Associated Press News has been publishing on a daily basis new figures about the Israel-Hamas conflict and its toll of deaths, which has triggered many manifestations in several countries. These numbers are constantly on the increase, and people are starting to wonder when this conflict will end.
CNN has been constantly updating the status of this awful conflict as well. For instance, Hamas has released two (2) hostages so far and even though Israel has felt the rage of this war, sadly innocent people on both sides are ending as collateral damage. Nevertheless, in the meantime, Gaza is being worstly destroyed every time a missile is being launched from Israel.
In fact, AP news has reported that the war has left 1.400+ Israelis killed, 5.000+ Palestinians killed, 4.941+ Israelis injured and 15.979+ Palestinians injured. These numbers are only showing off a social catastrophe where people are suffering.
Humanitarian aid has been working hard to reach Palestinian families while Israel is advancing in an imminent way, treating with a territorial launch of soldiers. This conflict highlights in several ways how the world and social media is changing, perhaps evolving (?) as people are trying to communicate to the world what is happening through social media. Thanks to that, it has become a trending case worldwide.
In today’s digital journalism, social media has become the unofficial source of news for and about people in conflict. Highlighting the stories that would usually disappear in the mass of horrifying stories in such a conflict is important. However, we have to remember that not all of these stories might be true, and some might even be biased. The impact that those stories have, and their complexity are somehow interesting though. While the world is currently divided in deciding which “side” to choose, it is imperative to recognize how social media is changing our way of looking at the world and each other. In some way, one might say, prompting social change.
Something special with this case has been how easy it has been to access several information sources. Apart from social media, some channels like CNN, AP News, and BBC have built reliable links between them and the public. Despite the efforts from politicians and other actors to avoid exposing certain details about conflicts, the people have found ways of getting news across as well. One good example is a video circulating of a young Egyptian protester who confronted CNN’s reporter Clarissa Ward about not getting everyone’s voice across, and Western media owning the narrative.
That said, digital journalism, whether through citizens or news reporters, could be the gateway for solutions journalism to have an impact and call to action. Even though solution journalism and citizen journalism are very different they are interlinked and could complement one another. Citizen journalism attracts many, often with narratives that incite empathy seeking a big impact on the audience, hence plausibly the missing part is to inherit the solutions part, exposing both problems and options for solutions, inviting readers, the spectator to contribute to the discussion, finding new forms to solving the issue.
Finally, it is possible to look at how social media and news channels can impact everyone around the world and allow people to think/acknowledge conflicts from various perspectives. Hence the question remains, perhaps, if we could focus on finding a solution to the conflict there wouldn’t be a conflict to talk about.