From national identity to state legitimacy: Mobilizing digitally networked publics in eastern Ukraine. (September 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Boichak, Olga; Jackson, Sam
• Is Part Of: Media, war & conflict. Volume 13:Number 3(2020:Sep.)
• Page Start: 258
• Page End: 279
• Publication Date: 2020-09
• Subjects: affordances -- mobilization -- national identity -- social media -- state legitimacy -- Ukraine; Mass media and war -- Periodicals; Terrorism and mass media -- Periodicals; War -- Press coverage -- Periodicals; 070.433305
• DOI: 10.1177/1750635219829161
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1750-6352

Abstract

Social media enable broad and diverse publics to mobilize around a shared collective identity. In this article, the authors use social movement literature and studies of peace and conflict to foreground the role of platform-mediated communication in creating a national identity in a fragile state. We argue that, by affording activists with a possibility of public, yet anonymous interactions, social media may play a crucial role in conferring state legitimacy during a violent conflict. Investigating the case of Mariupol, Ukraine, where a small group of citizens employed social media to support and legitimize the Ukrainian state among the city population, the authors illuminate the use of new media affordances to construct a national identity among digitally networked publics, mobilizing support for a threatened state.