This thesis examines who the Israel Defense Forces use their English languageTwitter account to construct an image of Hezbollah online during times without violent conflict. The goal is to understand how this behavior fits within Israel’sPublic Diplomacy strategy. Using Critical Discourse Analysis to analyze tweets concerning Hezbollah between May 2020 and May 2021, I identify one maindriver of the adaptation of social media into the military’s public diplomacy toolkit: mediatization. Results show that the Israel Defense Forces has adopted Twitter as a communication channel outside the gatekeeper function and control of traditional media outlets, to share their Public Diplomacy message directly with foreign audiences – including their enemies, such as Hezbollah. I identify five main categories or intentions with which the Israel Defense Forces address Hezbollah on Twitter: 1) Remembrance, 2) Current Developments and Information, 3) Iraian Proxies 4) tweets mentioning Hezbollah directly and 5)tweets Shaming, Blaming or Calling-out Hezbollah or the international community and media on their approach to the group.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:mau-46094 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Billik, Ronja Chiara |
| Publisher | Malmö universitet, Institutionen för konst, kultur och kommunikation (K3) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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