The New War Correspondents: the Rise of Civic Media Curation in Urban Warfare

TL;DR

This paper explores how citizens in conflict zones use Twitter to share information, highlighting the rise of civic media curators who act as war correspondents and influence information dissemination during urban warfare.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of civic media curators in urban conflict, analyzing their role in information sharing and its implications for civic media system design.

Findings

High volume of microblogging activity during conflicts

Emergence of civic media curators as key information aggregators

Implications for designing civic media systems in wartime

Abstract

In this paper we examine the information sharing practices of people living in cities amid armed conflict. We describe the volume and frequency of microblogging activity on Twitter from four cities afflicted by the Mexican Drug War, showing how citizens use social media to alert one another and to comment on the violence that plagues their communities. We then investigate the emergence of civic media "curators," individuals who act as "war correspondents" by aggregating and disseminating information to large numbers of people on social media. We conclude by outlining the implications of our observations for the design of civic media systems in wartime.