Description
drones and targeted killing; I argue that discourses on counter-terrorism and violence enacted in world politics are co-constituted and normalised in the way videos of targeted killing are circulating on social media platforms.
This paper argues that drone videos on YouTube and other platforms are a synoptic and ultimately cinematic experience for audiences. As synoptic and cultural artefacts they create fantasy relationships between watchers and watched, and geopolitical visions of dangerous spaces. Looking at online videos of drone strikes and their specific performative function on YouTube can help to expand the debate on drone warfare and targeted killing. Manhunting becomes an entertainment product that lacks political or historical context but underpins the way counter-terrorism is being fought by seeping into the everyday while the ’everywhere’ and ’infinite’ nature of the ’War on Terror’ is further embedded in the very same.
