THE ISRAELI-GAZA CONFLICT ON TIKTOK: HOW SHORT-FORM VIDEO SHAPES GLOBAL YOUTH PERSPECTIVES ON WAR JOURNALISM

The Israeli-Gaza conflict has emerged as one of the most extensively documented and contested conflicts in the digital age, with short-form video platforms fundamentally reshaping how global youth engage with war journalism. This study investigates the role of TikTok in mediating global youth perspectives on the Israeli-Gaza conflict, examining how the platform's unique affordances—algorithmic curation, multimodal content creation, and participatory culture—influence war journalism consumption and interpretation among young audiences. Drawing on theories of digital media literacy, algorithmic curation, and citizen journalism, this research employs a mixed-methods approach combining content analysis of TikTok videos related to the Israeli-Gaza conflict (October 2023–April 2024), survey data from 500 youth participants aged 18–25 across five countries, and semi-structured interviews with 20 content creators and media professionals. The findings reveal that TikTok has become a primary news source for youth regarding the conflict, with 67% of survey respondents reporting that the platform shapes their understanding of the situation. However, algorithmic curation creates significant perspective gaps, with users receiving ideologically segmented content that reinforces existing viewpoints. The study identifies three primary framing patterns in TikTok war journalism: emotional witnessing (user-generated content capturing civilian experiences), political advocacy (activist content promoting specific narratives), and debunking content (fact-checking and counter-disinformation efforts). While TikTok democratizes war coverage by amplifying Palestinian and Israeli civilian voices historically marginalized in mainstream media, it simultaneously introduces significant challenges related to verification, context collapse, and algorithmic polarization. The research contributes to understanding how short-form video platforms are transforming war journalism and youth civic engagement in conflict contexts, with implications for media literacy education and platform governance.
Keywords: TikTok, Israeli-Gaza conflict, war journalism, youth perspectives, algorithmic curation, citizen journalism, digital media literacy