Today, violence is increasingly mediated by digital means. Social networks, digital platforms, and technological tools serve as arenas for new practices of violence: harm, coercion, abuse, threats, surveillance, harassment, and humiliation. These processes generate new and distinct experiences of vulnerability and victimization.

The discourse, speed, and scale with which violent videos circulate amplify and transform the experience of violence—both for victims and for society at large, which is exposed to such content through social media. In turn, the regulation and governance of violence are also shifting in the digital age, as new actors emerge to analyze, investigate, collect data, and construct narratives from the vast amounts of material uploaded online.

Zur's research addresses these dynamics, seeking to understand how the interplay between violence and digitization reshapes violence itself, its place and status in society, its forms of emergence, and its governance in the contemporary era.

You can read more about different aspects of violence in the digital age (digital gender-based violence, violence against youth, digital sexual violence) on our blog Violence in the Digital Age, which brings together student work from the course of the same name. The blog is recommended for parents, educators, practitioners, and anyone seeking to gain a deeper understanding of the world we live in.