The Weaponization of Social Media

with the purpose of creating political, strategic, operational or tactical
effects in support of policy objectives, hence the title: The Weaponization
of Social Media. Most interesting is how it is possible to create “military”
effects, e.g., inform, influence, deceive, deter, disrupt and destroy targets,
or target audiences, in support of such policy objectives in and through
social network media, which normally are created through the application
of more traditional military capabilities in accordance with conventional
war-fighting doctrines. One of the major differences, though, is that nearly
all actors can do this in today’s global information environment, due to the
opportunities that the development within information and communication
technology affords them.
THE MONOGRAPH’S STRUCTURE
The monograph is divided into seven chapters. The introduction, three
chapters containing descriptive analysis, the main analytical chapter,
perspectives and the conclusion. Each chapter finish with an interim
conclusion containing a short summation of the key findings in the chapter
and their relevance to the overall purpose of the monograph.
Chapter one – Introduction - contains the background for the monograph
and discusses the main challenges associated with social network media
in contemporary conflicts, as well as proposes a framework for analysing
these challenges.
Chapter two – The strategic framework - provides the overall framework
for understanding and analysing the role of social network media in
contemporary conflicts. It will do so by discussing what characterises
contemporary conflicts – or what has been labelled “new Wars” - and how
the character of war, or conflicts, has changed along with the development
within information and communication technology (ICT). This chapter will
include what is understood by the term “the information environment” (IE),
which is the domain wherein most of the activities associated with social
network media exist. To frame the discussion, the chapter will also use the
concept of “cyber-warfare” as a part of the framework for understanding
social network media’s role in contemporary conflicts, and in doing so,
discuss the concept and narrow down its scope in order to operationalize
it for the purpose of this monograph.
Chapter three – Social media, cross-media and narratives - will use and the
operationalize theory from the first chapter – the effects framework – as
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