Virtual Zones of Communication and Conflict: how to construct an enemy online

” Virtual Zones of Communication and Conflict: How to Construct and Enemy Online”

By Josepha Ivanka WesselsUniversity of Copenhagen

Phenomenological approach

• Visual Anthropology; human perception informed by culture, religion, worldviews, habitus, previous experience and cognition.

• Symbolic Anthropology; culture as system of meaning deciphered by interpreting key symbols and dreamed off orders (Geertz, Douglas)

Phenomenological approach

• Edmond Husserl & Symbolic Anthropology; intentionality and intersubjectivity

• The Other and Self, mutual understanding and trading places, seeing the world from POV of the Other

• The classical anthropological use of text has been increasingly criticized because the visual and the digital is nowadays part and parcel of globalized lifeworlds

How do we see the Other ?

• Human perception is relative (Heisenberg)• Observation and giving symbolic meaning• Consciousness; what precisely do we see,

hear, feel and perceive ?• Knowledge & Experience• Fear & Trust• Empathy & Compassion• The image of the other

Empathy

• How do we empathize with others ?

• Why can a single grainy photo of a murdered lion go viral whilst the many pictures of Syrian casualties of war do not ?

Civilian Casualties in Syria

Governmen

t Force

s

Kurdish Fo

rces

Armed

Oppositi

on Factions

ISIS

An-Nussra F

ront

Jund Al-Aqsa

Other Case

s0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

MenChildrenWomenUnder Torture

Civilian December 2014 Death Toll Source: Syrian Network for Human Rights

War Heroes and a Victors’ Peace

THE GOOD vs. THE BAD

THE BAD vs. THE GOOD

“We H8 you” constructing enemies

”We <3 You” constructing friends