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"Likes" for Peace: Can Facebook Promote Dialogue in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict?
[journal article]
Abstract This study examines the ways in which social media is used to promote intergroup dialogue and reconciliation in the context of the protracted, ethnopolitical conflict between Israeli-Jews and Palestinians. We focus on content analysis of
posts and comments on a Facebook page named "Tweeting Arabs" ... view more
This study examines the ways in which social media is used to promote intergroup dialogue and reconciliation in the context of the protracted, ethnopolitical conflict between Israeli-Jews and Palestinians. We focus on content analysis of
posts and comments on a Facebook page named "Tweeting Arabs" which was established and is administered by Palestinian citizens of Israel. This page states that its’ main goal is to publicize opinions, thoughts and beliefs of Palestinians, enabling the moderate voice to be heard and encouraging dialogue between Israeli-Jews and Palestinians. The analysis is based on a data set containing posts and comments collected from “Tweeting Arabs” since the page was founded in November 8th 2014 and until December 4th 2014. This data set contains 85 posts which gained a total of 9657 "likes", and 461 "shares", as well as 3565 comments and replies to these posts. Our findings reveal that while posts that presented the narrative of Palestinian suffering were mostly followed by negative comments from Israeli-Jews, posts that brought up the Palestinian moderate and peace seeking voice elicited higher Jewish–Israeli acceptance and sympathy. The research adds to our understanding of Facebook as a dialogue provoking platform that enables users from different ethnopolitical groups in divided and conflicted societies to perform peacebuilding actions. (author's abstract)... view less
Keywords
computer-mediated communication; social relations; dialogue; political attitude; group; facebook; Israeli; political conflict; interactive media; social media; Palestinian; stereotype; Palestinian-Israeli conflict; ethnic conflict; interpersonal communication; content analysis; prejudice; digital media
Classification
Interpersonal Communication
Peace and Conflict Research, International Conflicts, Security Policy
Interactive, electronic Media
Document language
English
Publication Year
2016
Page/Pages
p. 15-26
Journal
Media and Communication, 4 (2016) 1
Issue topic
Peacebuilding in the Age of New Media
ISSN
2183-2439
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed
Licence
Creative Commons - Attribution