Graduation project
AN OVERVIEW OF CRISIS 2: INVESTIGATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WHATSAPP AND THE COPYCAT PHENOMENON OF BANK RAIDS IN LEBANON 2022-2023
Rawan Khater
An immersive audiovisual essay reflects on how the use of Whatsapp accelerated Lebanon’s economic crisis.
A loss of trust in governmental and banking institutions, and the devaluation of the national currency characterize the severe liquidity crisis Lebanon has been facing since August 2019. Delving into the affects of instant messaging technology in exacerbating a deeply polarized social, political, and media landscape, Rawan Khater’s ongoing research investigates how recent bank raids in Lebanon were serialized through WhatsApp. The copycat phenomenon exposes the impact of everyday technologies, as individuals took matters of releasing their trapped savings into their own hands, affected by the dissemination of unchecked information at an unprecedented scale. The spatialized video essay uses digital effects and performed audio and video clips to create an immersive reflection on how news events are influenced by instant messaging technology, specifically WhatsApp.