Daniel, I think it’s important to always remember that any tool can be used for positive of negative purposes. Of course, what constitutes positive or negative is also a subjective thing, but the main point is that new media can be used as part of a strategy to continue, perpetuate or complement existing conflict just as much as it can be to resolve or transform it.
True, those more interested in contributing to one side of a conflict — effectively becoming combatants as you say — generally are the loudest and most visible. However, they also are arguably the less credible and perhaps only reach out to those people who have the same opinions or attitudes, seeking merely to reinforce existing opinions or inflaming those close to the edge anyway.
In the Caucasus this is certainly the case, and especially regarding the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno Karabakh. Here to is another interesting aspect, however. That is, it is the media in both countries that is responsible for propaganda and misinformation. In such a situation, therefore, I am not sure blogs and hate groups have much potential as a weapon.
Arguably there is no need as the public is getting most of their information from nationalist and subjectively-skewed articles anyway. In many cases too, the misinformation spread via blogs usually comes from the media too, whether it be pro-government or pro-opposition. Anyway, long and the short of it is that, like everything else, blogs are merely a tool.
They can be used for the purpose of war or for the purpose of peace and it is in the case of the latter that I’ve been examining the role of new and social media for conflict transformation and resolution on my own Frontline blog. I also touch upon the same issue on Global Voices, the most recent example being here:
For the past two years Global Voices has covered the use of new and social media to overcome differences between Armenians and Azerbaijanis still locked in conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh. […]
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Most recently, those same online tools even brought Armenians and Azerbaijanis together in Tbilisi to cooperate on joint social media projects. link
Anyway, for now the words of hate and conflict drown out the more tolerant ones, but I do believe part of the ‘information war’ is and should be also countering propaganda, nationalism and misinformation on blogs as well as in the mainstream media. For now, in the Caucasus at least, blogs are the only medium available.
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