The ConnectIST team is pleased to present the 65th issue of the Istanbul University Journal of Communication Sciences, which contains five original research articles and one short note. Before introducing the studies, I thank our issue editors, Professor Emeritus Arthur Asa Berger from the San Francisco State University and Prof. M. Nurdan Taşkıran from the Istanbul Medipol University. With our guest editors, we set the theme as “Conflicts, Communication & the Media” held our second virtual conference with the abstract senders. Going on wars, migrations, polarization in societies, and clash of ideologies were the themes that connected our authors. While dealing with these issues, each of our authors gave examples of conventional or social media practices in his/her country in their articles. It was interesting to notice that we all experience more or less the same things in different settings!

In this issue, we present the following articles: Tolga Gürocak revealed the forms of polarisation caused by the Russia-Ukraine War among Ekşi Sözlük writers in “Conflict and polarization caused by the Russia-Ukraine War on social media: The case of Ekşi Sözlük.” The conflict between the defenders of the two sides in one of the largest internet communities in Türkiye ranged from “bashing opposing views” to “insulting other authors.” In the short note titled “Looking at Russian-Ukrainian War from a Lithuanian point of view: Ideology, media, and the Russian world,” Tomas Kačerauskas drew the readers’ attention to the ongoing war, media and the clash of ideologies by referring to global and local phenomena. Liana Markariani and Maia Toradze, in “Manipulative mechanisms and reasons behind sharing fake news during Russo-Ukrainian War: A three-fold study,” analyzed the impact of fake news, the reasons behind sharing pseudo-positive false information and their influence on social media users’ behavior. The researchers concluded that Russian propaganda in Georgia during the analysis was intense. Georgians displayed an inclination for positive information about Ukraine, a preference rooted in a perceived common enemy and a shared sense of camaraderie with Ukrainians.

In the research article titled “The rapid diffusion of fake news: An analysis of content on migration, refugees, and conflict on international fact-checking platforms,” Gabriela Oana Olaru examined fact-checking efforts by the International Fact-Checking Network member organizations across ten countries between January and November 2023. The author identified four recurring issues in most countries analyzed: disinformation about protests in France, fake news related to conflicts, and information about financial aid, opportunities, and refugee accommodation facilities. Ilgar Seyidov, in “The role of the media following the second Nagorno-Karabakh War: The Cases of AzadliqRadiosu and MeydanTV in Azerbaijan,” made a topic-oriented framing analysis to determine how the Azerbaijani media reflect the post-conflict situation. The author’s main finding was that construction/negative peace was the central theme of the news for a year, which is quite thought-provoking. Finally, in “An analysis of anti-Syrian’s signature campaign in Türkiye: The cases from Change.org,” Şükrü Şimdi examined the individual actions taken against Syrian immigrants through 154 online signature campaigns launched on Change.org in Türkiye. The findings indicated that the campaigns frequently employed discriminatory stereotypical categories, portraying Syrians as an economic burden, potential/imaginary enemies, not willing to integrate, betrayers of their homeland, fleers from the war, and even terrorists.

Before bringing this introduction to a close, let me remind everyone that our journal can continue to publish academic studies in communications sciences through your most valued support and participation. We look forward to appearing before you once again with our 66th issue.