Changing patterns of media consumption: Palestinian diaspora and citizen journalism during the war in Gaza.

This study analyses the media consumption of the Palestinian diaspora in Sweden and France before and after Hamas's attack on 7 October. It investigates the types of media used, sharing patterns and comparisons between different media platforms. Although no significant differences were detected between the respondents who lived in France and Sweden, the study argues that there has been a trend towards an increasing use of social media and especially citizen journalism. The negative perceptions of and diminished reliance on the mainstream media can be explained in part by the concept of relative deprivation in the form of feeling deprived of fair media coverage. The perceived bias in mainstream media reporting was believed in part to be a symptom of an increased social polarization. Some respondents preferred to share media reports and their views on them only with like-minded individuals privately, which further contributed to the boundary maintenance between diasporic and host communities. Moreover, the current study uniquely analyses how the media coverage of violent conflicts can contribute to survivor guilt in the diaspora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]