This collection considers how digital images and social media reconfigure the way conflicts are played out, represented and perceived around the globe.

Devoted to developing original theoretical frameworks and empirical insights, the volume addresses the role of user images and social media in relation to urgent subjects such as public opinion and emotion, solidarity, evidence and verification, censorship and fake news, which are all central to the ways current conflicts are represented and unfold. Essays include a unique range of case studies from different regional and political contexts (Middle East, Europe, Asia, North America) and in connection with different conflict types (war, terror, riots, everyday resistance, etc.). They also consider performative genres such as memes, selfies and appropriations as well as images conforming to the realism and authenticity of conventional photojournalism. In this way, the collection responds to the challenges of swiftly evolving image genres as well as to the continually shifting policies and algorithms of commercial digital platforms.

Together, the essays offer innovative theories and exemplary case studies as a resource for teaching and research in media, journalism and communication programmes. It is also relevant to students, teachers and researchers within sociology, political science, anthropology and related fields.

This collection considers how digital images and social media reconfigure the way conflicts are played out, represented and perceived around the globe.

Introduction Social Media Images and Conflicts: Power, Proximity and Performativity Mette Mortensen and Ally McCrow-Young Chapter 1 Relational Labour or Digital Resistance: Social Media Practices of Non-Western Women Photographers Saumava Mitra and Brenda Witherspoon Chapter 2 The Unfolding of a Proxy Profession: Evidence, Verification, and Human Dignity on Social Media Sandra Ristovska Chapter 3 Incendiary Images: Visual Reportage of Syria’s Civil War Stuart Allan Chapter 4 Social Media Icons: Evidence and Emotion Mette Mortensen Chapter 5 Embodied Protests on Social Media: The Visual Political Discourses of Vulnerability and Endurance in the Cases of "Hands Up, Don’t Shoot" and #Irunwithmaud Bolette B. Blaagaard Chapter 6 Image Censorship on Chinese Social Media: Image Deletion on Weibo During the 2014 Hong Kong Umbrella Movement Jun Liu Chapter 7 #PrayForAriana: Ritual Solidarity, Redirected Grief and Fan Commemoration on Instagram After the Manchester Arena Attack Ally McCrow-Young Chapter 8 Seeing Images from Conflict through Computer Vision: Technology, Epistemology and Humans Christina Neumayer and Luca Rossi