![War in 140 Characters: How Social Media Is Reshaping Conflict in the Twenty-First Century by [Patrikarakos, David]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51trMykyQyL._SY346_.jpg)
This is a book that, unlike its title, will survive the test of time.
Author David Patrikarakos is not only an intrepid journalist, but also an original thinker. He lectures you a whole lot and tends to hang on to the points he makes for far too long, but you forgive him, because he takes you places others haven’t. Literally and figuratively.
There are many themes here, of which the following struck me the most:
First on propaganda,
• once upon a time, the states were in 100% in command of the narrative; today they decidedly aren’t
• it’s not old media versus new media; rather, it’s about how you can create feedback between the two
• propaganda was once aimed at the civilian population of the enemy; today it’s aimed at the whole world
The point is also made that in a world of fixed borders –Crimea notwithstanding—the aim of war is often to send a message. The order of events no longer is 1. win on the battlefield 2. get your way with the arrangements for peace. The dynamic has been reversed.
Second, on military operations,
• in the case of procurement, social media can 100% act as an unofficial branch of the military
• for recruitment, social media trumps all previous technology
• for intelligence, the free information on the web, properly harnessed by networked civilians, has repeatedly been proven to be superior to traditional military intelligence
The author does not talk in bulletpoints. Instead, you follow him on a breathless and occasionally perilous tour of the battlefield, virtual or otherwise. He starts with a charming teenager in Gaza, moves on swiftly to the headquarters of her competition at the IDF, from there to a vigilante housewife who privately crowdsources and personally arranges for the delivery of supplies and military equipment the Ukrainian military, takes part in a delivery himself, moves on from there to St. Petersburg to interview a professional troll, introduces you to the crowdsourced forensic evidence regarding the downing of MH17 and interviews a mom who joined ISIS in Raqqa and lived to tell.
And he caps it all off with a tremendous concluding chapter, which ties all the strands together and could stand alone as some of the most compelling reading I’ve ever had the pleasure to enjoy. It’s cliché, but the conclusion alone is worth the price of purchase. Start with that, I say.
How does it compare with Zeynep Tufekci’s epic “Twitter and Teargas?” I loved it (him?) less, but it taught me more.
- File Size: 7650 KB
- Print Length: 320 pages
- Publisher: Basic Books; 1 edition (November 14, 2017)
- Publication Date: November 14, 2017
- Language: English
- ASIN: B06XFPLCBB
- Text-to-Speech:
Enabled
- Word Wise: Enabled
- Lending: Not Enabled
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Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#741,379 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #307 in Social Media
- #112 in Military Policy (Kindle Store)
- #163 in Media & Internet in Politics (Kindle Store)
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