"The Media Strategy of Hamas in the Al-Aqsa Flood: An Analytical Study of Media during Wartime"

Abstract

Analyzing media strategies and the forces controlling them is of utmost importance in communication studies. Most studies have focused on understanding these strategies in times of crisis within states, while less attention has been given to the media of resistance movements, perhaps due to the absence of an integrated media system and hence the lack of a clear strategy. The significance of this study lies in its approach to analyzing the media strategy of one of the most important resistance movements. We dealt with its public communication as a media strategy due to its clear visibility. This research analyzes the media aspect of events in Gaza after the seventh of October. It also describes the media situation during wartime based on the analysis of fundamental and exceptional situations affecting the attributes of the medium (objectivity and credibility).The research aims to understand an emerging case within media strategies, namely the case of the media of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). The results indicate that the prevailing theory about the shift in Hamas's media strategy is that the group wanted to visually demonstrate to the world that it is a force against Israel, aiding in independent negotiation. We found that its narrative managed, after the Israeli reaction to the Al-Aqsa flood, to reveal the barbarism of the entity.The results also suggest that the media war is part of the fight on the ground. Hamas used the media to prove that there are gains to be achieved and that it has a strategy for victory. The information provided by this research will contribute to understanding the media strategies of resistance movements.