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War by other means: Mobile gaming and the 2014 Israel-Gaza Conflict

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2015

Marcus Schulzke
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Abstract

The 2014 Israel-Gaza Conflict inspired the creation of over a dozen games for mobile phones and tablets. These games, which allowed players to Bomb Gaza City, operate the Iron Dome missile defence system, and direct rockets into Israeli settlements, marked an important shift in the mediatisation of war in three ways. First, whereas propaganda is frequently described as a top-down process by which elites influence mass audiences, the mobile war games about Gaza were created by non-elite indie game developers, thereby illustrating these games’ capacities for allowing new actors to participate in ideological contestation. Second, the games were not simply reflections on the conflict, but part of it. They were released while the fighting was in progress and helped to constitute the ideological battleground. Finally, the games reproduced established propaganda techniques in distinctive ways that were shaped by the mobile gaming medium.

Type
Articles
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 42 , Issue 3 , July 2016 , pp. 575 - 596
Copyright
© 2015 British International Studies Association 

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