War of Images: Facts and Fakes

The French cultural critic Jean Baudrillard once described the attacks of 9/11 as a “primal scene,” pathetically even as the “mother of all events.” While the usual continuous crisis reporting tends to create a distance between the real event and the viewers, the collapse of the Twin Towers caused a shock of reality. But have we actually seen the reality more clearly at the moment of the live broadcast on all channels? Only apparently, the author states in the further course of his essay “The Spirit of Terrorism” (2002): “It was not the violence of the real that came first, followed by the horror effect of the image, but the image that came first, followed by the horror effect of the real . As it were, an additional fiction, a fiction that surpasses fiction.”

The great philosopher of speed, Paul Virilio, argued similarly in his book “Ground Zero” (2001), when he states: “This Too fast and Too much The images are beyond the control of the subject – the impression is that the audiovisual media dominate the subject and its perception. Although the camera supposedly documents something objective, it almost removes the event into the unreal.

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The result: Fear increases and panic spreads. It was already clear from the attacks on the heart of the USA back then that the wars of the 21st century would be completely different than any before. Especially those that are no longer fought between states but against terrorists. Instead of mere force of arms, success, as the subsequent decades reveal, is increasingly measured in triumph over images. Who gains the authority to interpret these? Who will succeed in discrediting the enemy as much as possible and in this way controlling moods in society?

More than ever, Hamas also knows how to exploit the power of the camera, and indeed, how to take advantage of the derealization effect described by Baudrillard and Virilio. Consider, for example, the bombing of a hospital, which resulted in several days of discussion and case analysis regarding who was responsible – a time in which rumors could grow and spread virally. The victim, the attacked state of Israel, quickly becomes a perpetrator. And all too quickly talk of the genocide against the Palestinians spreads, along with the corresponding demonstrations on every street in the world. Since there is hardly any truth-finding authority in war zones today that is trusted by all sides, the manipulators usually benefit from informational gaps.

Charlotte Klonk has shown that this was not always the case in her detailed study »Terror. When Images Become Weapons” (2017) is presented based on a historical review. An example of this is the media treatment of the murder of the Russian Tsar Alexander II on March 13, 1881. After the newspapers made sketches of the perpetrators, pictures of their execution were published shortly afterwards. The anarchists in Paris did something similar. In addition to the political elite, they also targeted the civilian population in their attacks in order to ultimately influence general perception with fear and terror. Photographs of people killed after a bomb attack on the Terminus café on February 12, 1894 clearly conveyed the message: It can happen to anyone and everyone at any time.

Until the middle of the 20th century, sovereignty over reporting remained with a few authorities. Sources of information or disinformation could therefore be found quickly. However, one should beware of transfigurations. The one-sided nature of news and image transmission, which still prevailed in the Tsar’s empire, is not a desirable situation for open, pluralistic societies.

Conversely, one must also ask oneself: Does the multimedia confusion of countless transmitters and receivers serve more of a democratic community? In any case, there are doubts here. Especially because there is no editorial filter, i.e. a neutral review of the material. If we are dealing with a large number of videos supposedly recorded during explosions and killings, which are circulating on all social networks within a few seconds, it is difficult to make a statement about their authenticity. Even before the documents can be verified or falsified, let alone assigned to any producer, the staging and biased assignment of data is in full swing.

So we are dealing with a war of images in which facts and fakes can hardly be distinguished. Baudrillard also speaks here of the “liquidation of all referentials.” Means: There are no longer any fixed meanings behind sentences and words. Everything becomes flexible, interchangeable. In the digital age, everything threatens to degenerate into a simulation. From the thinker’s point of view, it turns out to be perfidious that reality is all too often replaced by an artificial reality that can hardly be exposed as a deception. Even cell phone videos that appear to have been created directly during the war may have been created solely on the computer – a circumstance that creates a breeding ground for terrorists in two ways.

On the one hand, this allows them to launch targeted hate campaigns against their opponents, but on the other hand, they are able to use the discussion about unclear authorship for their own benefit in a completely opposite way. That is when the keyboard of the great world conspiracies is played. Where any allocation of data disappears, there is compromise die Media quickly as a lying press. Then we talk about state control. Meanwhile, the terrorists, especially the Islamist-minded ones, like to pose as idealistic guerrilla fighters. The popular narrative: David versus Goliath, with the latter operating with vile cruelty.

By mingling with the people in the Gaza Strip, Hamas knows how to make excellent use of the collateral damage caused by the Israeli resistance to orchestrate the conflict. Civilian casualties are the best ammunition for images as weapons. The latter are intended to unmask Israel as an inhumane, criminal state. Unfortunately, this tactic has to be described as probably the most efficient form of warfare of all. It requires hardly any financial resources. Critics and avowed enemies of the Jewish state are incited solely through bloody videos.

There is no solution in sight for this momentous drama. As long as the freedom of the Internet is elevated above all standards of responsibility in reporting, everyone can only be advised to exercise healthy skepticism. Especially when it comes to truth claims that claim absolute validity.

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