The generation that grew up playing modern video games is now making media about war that reflects those influences, including in Syria, where militias are producing sophisticated propaganda films employing tropes from Western popular culture.
A recent film produced by a militia group in Syria, Ahrar al-Sham, is a particularly striking symbol of this new era of conflict footage. Shot using camera-equipped drones and wearable GoPro video recorders, the 15 minute film, entitled “Rage Wind,” documents part of a recent rebel offensive against Syrian government forces near the city of Aleppo.
The film traces the experience of three different Ahrar al-Sham fighters before, during, and after the battle. Employing a range of camera techniques, the filmmakers provide point of view video footage from individual fighters taking part in the battle, as well as overhead drone video showing the battlefield at large. Experts on conflict propaganda say that the animations, video insets, and camera angles in the film reflect modern video game aesthetics more than the formulaic propaganda of past conflicts.
Screen grab from “Rage Wind”
Source: Youtube
Dauber has written extensively on the use of visual propaganda during the current the wars in Iraq and Syria, particularly by the militant group the Islamic State. ISIS exploded into the popular consciousness of many Americans following a series of videotaped executions of Western hostages. Those images have become grimly iconic of the Syrian conflict to many in the West — but ISIS is only one of many parties producing its own media about the war. The video produced by Ahrar al-Sham eschews the blood and gore that is ISIS’s signature, turning the subjects of the film into identifiable characters and imitating the storytelling style of traditional war movies.
The film can also be considered in context of the broader proliferation of media work in Syria in recent years.
Source: Youtube
Dauber says sophisticated political films like the one produced by Ahrar al-Sham are an attempt to promote a particular narrative of events in Syria, as well as to recruit others to their cause. Like all war propaganda, it is questionable how closely this polished image reflects reality. Amateur footage from the Syrian war, typically produced by citizen journalists with cellphones, portrays a reality that is harsher, uglier, and more morally conflicted than the tidy narratives of militant groups and states.
But even as they gloss over the realities of war, politically driven films like “Rage Wind” reflect a generational change in the way that conflicts are depicted.
Screen grab from “Rage Wind”
Source: Youtube
During the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, Iranian filmmaker Morteza Avini produced the groundbreaking war documentary “Revayat-e Fath” (Chronicles of Victory), using battlefield footage, interviews, and music to create a coherent narrative for the public about the war. At the time, Avini’s work was unprecedented in the Middle East. But the genre has evolved rapidly in the intervening years. The dissemination of cheap and relatively powerful recording equipment means that the ability to create and broadcast media is no longer the monopoly of state actors.
“The type of propaganda being made in wartime has changed as the technology has changed. It has now ‘democratized’ and is accessible even to individuals and small groups,” says Mark Robinson, Director of the Multimedia Lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “That means that control of images and ideas are no longer exclusively in the hands of governments — and as conflicts are no longer state versus state, the propaganda is no longer state versus state either.”
This group of foreign fighters who are proxies in the US/Saudi/Turkish/Israeli/Qatari illegal regime change war are exactly why the claims about “Since the country’s uprising began in 2011″ are bullshit.
Calling an illegal regime change war an “uprising” is propaganda at its worst.
The author continuing his one sided anti-Shiite crusade of “journalism” here at TI is just depressing for what it says about the organization.
There are many good comments below about this nonsense, but an interview with al Qaida, followed by letters from IS, followed by a film from their ideological compatriots al Scam is a deplorable track record.
“Journalism” trying to shove the establishment narrative down readers throats is not what TI is supposed to be about.
As for the video game aspect, the games where you can choose to play the bad guy is where the comparison should begin and end.
I think telling Murtaza how he should do his job is going a bit far. All articles illuminate a group of individuals we know very little about if anything at all. Better to face it as civilizes as possible than turning a blind eye on THEIR thoughts and reality.
I’ve yet to see a mainstream article pointing out French Foreign minister’s statement that “the British were preparing something” for Syria years before the CIA-backed (Colour Revolution) Arab Spring.
I think there’s an extra ‘the’ in this sentence: “Dauber has written extensively on the use of visual propaganda during the current the wars in Iraq and Syria.”
So after all the Syrian war is not a losing game, it is a LoveFest with chocolate covered strawberries, macarons and plenty of laughs,
war is element of arts, cruelty, fifty shades of blod,
war ‘‘ is a fate resigned ’’ , weapon makers help keep the world safe and reconciled,
war is not a losing game, ‘‘ one I wish, I never played’’ , or ‘‘ look what a mess we played’’.
Proxy wars are still state versus state conflicts.
Is this how the Intercept reports on Syria? Not on the war crimes being committed by Iran and Russia but this? Truly disturbing.
That was no video game. Most of these young fighters re probably dead to-day as in the coming days they were first blasted and then driven out of the ‘citadel’ themselves. Aleppo remains under siege.
Nut it is interesting to note that these rebel forces are the same as those we don’t want the Russians or Syrians to bomb and kill. These are our jihadis. And yet on another day or another place they wouldn’t last long in an American gun sight.
Crazy how powerful video games can be. I just read about this one that came out in an attempt to teach about slavery but they basically had a tetris game with bodies! Crazy article: http://isitfunnyoroffensive.com/video-game-slave-tetris-pulled-after-online-uproar/
No doubt. Well, it’s traditional.
See, inter alia, “Why We Fight” and “Triumph of the Will.”
And then watch “Starship Troopers.”
ISIS ARE BACKED BY U.S./ISRAEL, WAKE UP SHEEPLE.
This analysis seems very superficial to me. The alleged video game similarities are imposed by the methods of filming: most notably, the overhead shots from what I assume are quadcopter drones (I see two propellers in some of the shots). And the person-mounted cameras impose a “first person” view only coincidentally. Even the little reticules, though obviously taken from video games, are simply ways of marking the sites of interest.
It appears from Wikipedia and the video itself that there is not that big a difference between this Ahrar al-Sham and Al Qaida or ISIS. Sure, they say they don’t have an “international” focus. But there’s something about the interminable allahu akbars (you’d think a person would be ready to shoot himself just not to hear that phrase every goddamn 30 seconds for the rest of his life) and the rallying of the troops against the “Shiites” (NOT Assad) that make you realize that this ain’t Kansas. They’re Salafists looking to make some Islamic state, if not the Islamic State, and friends though not members of al-Nusra, and such is the manner of rebels the U.S. wants to see take over.
Oh, yeah – and if three people in a squad have cameras, and get access to the drone footage from overhead, that does NOT mean they’re independent filmmakers freely covering the news as they see fit while happening to be embedded with friendly troops. The film comes from the group and it is as hierarchically controlled as any past war propaganda, and it is disturbing that anyone would even start to think that just having a few different camera angles somehow democratizes it.
This article reminds of the movie Enders Game; in the end the kid didn’t know he was not playing a simulation or video game… he was engaged in real combat.
Sorry, I just realised I spoilt the ending
You didn’t spoil much – seldom have I seen a sci-fi novel or movie that is more overrated. I mean, the kid goes through a rigorous training and selection process to become the one person to lead troops without knowing he’s fighting a real war, but *from the beginning* the aliens are messing with his head, in particular, to send him messages he should have understood, because they know he’s going to be the leader…???
Control of images?
The overwhelming majority of teens are first exposed to jehadist brainwashing by the Bay Area oligarch controled monopoly of Google/YouTube, Facebook and Twitter
Bay Area execs should be in federal prison, they are no different form peddlers of child abuse.
MY GOD our children are playing war games . are we preparing them for something to come? war is much nastier by a thousand fold. this is child abuse and war is supreme child abuse. these games should be outlawed. why must the objective of a game be to destroy someone or something?
the future? It is not inconceivable that a nation or private enterprise could put up a satellite or 2 to be used by *gamers* who *rent* mini to maxi drones anywhere on the planet – with payloads – to target places etc for small or large rewards. Probably doable even today.
have a nce day.
William Gibson wrote about such a scenario in his 2015 novel ‘The Peripheral’. Gamers are hired to play a “realistic assassination game” not knowing they are actually killing real people.
The real game is to see how many synonyms for al-Qaeda can be made up before the world catches on. The name of the game is SHAM.
• al-Gore
• al-Sharpton
Apologies, couldn’t resist Chapelle show humor.
So the violent, repressive Wahhabi-Sunni bastards the US supports in Syria are as juvenile, callous and moronic as the drone strike operators in America. Good to know. Stop advertising this offensiveness.
Propaganda aside, what is the aim of this group?
That means they are part of the Saudi/Turkey/CIA-backed Al Qaeda linked “moderates.” Basically, they’re identical in goals to ISIS except they don’t want global jihad, if you believe them – i.e., they want to create a Saudi Arabia-style state in Syria – will this be controlled by the House of Saud, then? Elections seem unlikely, women’s rights, forget about that, but ethnic cleansing of Shia and Alawite villages is on the agenda. This is who we’re supposed to be supporting?
What kind of atrocities have they perpetrated?
In response, the US intervened at the UN to stop them from being declared a terrorist group.
What kind of news coverage is this? Celebrating their propaganda efforts without reporting on their agenda and activities? Going along with U.S. State Department talking points without bothering to question them? Mackey-style reporting from Hussain – what are they, angling for jobs with the New York Times or Washington Post? I mean, what’s the point of this article? Trying to sell Ahrar al-Sham as a ‘moderate group’ to Intercept readers?
Here’s a more realistic picture:
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/09/01/al-qaeda-is-gaining-strength-in-syria/
..the US intervened at the UN to stop the UN from declaring Ahrar al Sham as a terrorist group.
SHE’S THE MONSTER’S MOTHER.
good.
From Wikipedia:
The UN, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Iran and Egypt have designated Ahrar al-Sham as a terrorist organization while according to the U.S. Department of State, “Ahrar al-Sham is not a designated foreign terrorist organization”.
Hmmm funny how that works. This is always the easiest way to figure out who the U.S. and its allies supports. It’s very clear that these people could never afford brandnew GoPros for everyone to strap on their heads. This has the stamp of the Saudi government all over it.
What the ‘democratization’ of the making of slick, carefully crafted, edited propaganda means is NOT really a change in what sorts of propaganda we see, it just means that instead of those engaged in ‘yellow journalism’ having to produce it for themselves, or the propaganda departments (government owned, or private contractors) having to make it themselves, it means the front liners are taking raw footage to fit the requests of their propaganda people, who then cut, edit, and insert all the stuff that makes it about as honest a depiction of reality as a car commercial, with all the emotional hooks of the best ads, and then put it out there where the gatekeepers of our media (the owners, and the government that those owners want to keep on good terms with) can find the ones that tell the fictions they want and put them in front of our eyes.
Good insights. Every battle, every encounter has been a studio lot to consciously produce propaganda. In fact, it seems at times the main purpose. And that propaganda, let’s call it a movie release, is sent for distribution to the “gatekeepers” of the media as you call them. In this context, distribution to a series of Western movie theater chains. The Western theater chains in the case of Syria look to have exclusive contracts with myriad anti-Assad/Russian film makers who are not militias, not rebels, certainly not moderates, but radical genocidal religious fanatics.
My only question would be where are these game-makers located, as they have a very fine sense of Western media and an understanding of how to manipulate narratives for Western audiences. It is like the game makers graduated from the UCLA school of media and film. It is not like the terrorists told the new guy from Uzbekistan who is good with Photoshop to conjure up something in time for the next news cycle.
i recall in the mid 90’s seeing the emergence of violent video games, in particular some guy with a sword wacking heads. Then came GTA. And i recall wondering what sort of mindset these games might instill in many youth who were literally absorbed into them.
i dont believe that the effect was overwhelming for the player but as you aptly point out, it sure has changed the message machine.
You’re not actually suggesting that violent video games are responsible for young men joining various insurgencies, are you?
Agreed, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
@Orville Keep in mind that the Syrian war emerged from long term state oppression that repressed a populace through a facist state police and mass execution. Peace emerges from justice, not opression. As long as opression exists, the war (and others) will continue.
Beak, either you somehow mixed up Israel/Palestine with Syria, or you’re as gullible/ignorant as the Trump supporters who think he’s a truthteller.
Your statements are the methods that depict how to stifle conversation. Your goal is revealed not to increase your knowledge or share information. You betray yourself when you insult others.
Impostors as common as trolls, as others have noticed. Compare “Pearce” 10:36 am vs 10:39 am in this thread.
As the ability to make sophisticated video grows, its influence grows as well. Add in internet communications, and it can have a greater reach. This can have good points as well as bad. One can hope that peacemaking groups- or at least those on the opposite side of al-Sham and IS- can produce their own images of the conflict.