Abstract
Summary The proliferation of social media has had a profound impact on the practice of diplomacy; diplomats can bypass the press and communicate their messages directly to online audiences. Subsequently, ministries of foreign affairs (MFAS) are now mediatised; they produce media content, circulate content through social media and adopt media logics in their daily operations. Through a case study of the Israeli MFA during the 2014 Gaza War, this article explores the mediatisation of MFAS. It does so by analysing how the Israeli MFA crafted frames through which online audiences could understand the war and demonstrates that these frames evolved as the conflict unfolded. It then draws attention to the important way in which MFAS are now media actors through a statistical analysis, which demonstrates that the use of images in tweets increased engagement with the Israeli MFA’s frames. Finally, the article illustrates how these frames were used to legitimize Israel’s actions, and delegitimise those of Hamas.
Highlights
In October 2009, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) joined Twitter
MFAs found themselves operating in a complex media ecology in which they were confronted with new platforms, new actors, new practices and new methods for attracting audiences
31 per cent (n = 242) of all Israeli MFA tweets published during the Gaza War included either videos or still images
Summary
In October 2009, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) joined Twitter. By January 2019, it had tweeted over 19,000 times and amassed over 167,000 followers. The rise of digital diplomacy is grounded in the emergence of web 2.0 technologies such as social media that facilitate and are reliant on the active participation of individuals.[4] These have proved a formidable challenge to MFAs in several respects. Web 2.0 technologies enabled new actors to frame, or narrate, world events in ways that often negated those of states6 — as was the case during the Arab Spring.[7] Third, citizen journalists could use web 2.0 technologies to report on world events as they unfolded on the ground,[8] and soon traditional media organisations who migrated online adopted this practice of real-time journalism.[9] Fourth, following in the footsteps of marketers, media organisations increasingly relied on visual media to drive engagement on social media.[10] As such, MFAs found themselves operating in a complex media ecology in which they were confronted with new platforms (social media), new actors (citizen journalists), new practices (real-time coverage of events) and new methods for attracting audiences (use of visuals).
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