An Analysis of the Representation Pattern of the Ramadan War with Emphasis on the Theoretical Implications of Media Defense in Cognitive Warfare (Case Study: Iran International Website)

Karami, Sepehr; Zarifian Yeghaneh, Mohammad Hossein

doi:10.22083/cssms.2026.585591.1152

An Analysis of the Representation Pattern of the Ramadan War with Emphasis on the Theoretical Implications of Media Defense in Cognitive Warfare (Case Study: Iran International Website)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Sepehr Karami ¹

Mohammad Hossein Zarifian Yeghaneh ²

¹ MSc. Student in Media Management, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Farabi Campus, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. Email: sepehrkarami@ut.ac.ir

² Assistant Prof., Faculty of Management and Accounting, Farabi Campus, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. (Corresponding Author) Email: mhzarifian@ut.ac.ir

https://doi.org/10.22083/cssms.2026.585591.1152

Abstract

Introduction: The nature of contemporary conflicts has shifted from physical battlefields toward cognitive, perceptual, and media domains. Cognitive warfare, increasingly recognized as the sixth dimension of modern conflict, targets the beliefs, perceptions, and decision-making processes of populations in order to erode social capital, weaken national cohesion, and undermine collective resilience. Persian-language transnational media outlets are among the most influential actors in the media environment surrounding Iran, particularly during periods of crisis. Iran International, registered in London under Volant Media UK Ltd and regulated by Ofcom, has attracted considerable scholarly and journalistic attention because of questions concerning its ownership structure and editorial orientation. Reports published by The Guardian and the Financial Times have highlighted Saudi private investment in the network’s establishment and its substantial operational losses, raising questions about the relationship between media ownership and representational patterns, as conceptualized in Herman and Chomsky’s propaganda model. This study focuses on the Ramadan War, referring to the escalation of military conflict involving the Islamic Republic of Iran, the United States, and Israel beginning on February 28, 2026. This period was selected because of the exceptional intensity of media coverage and the proliferation of competing narratives.
The study develops an integrative theoretical framework drawing on Claverie and du Cluzel’s theory of cognitive warfare, which conceptualizes the human mind as the primary battlespace. Herman and Chomsky’s propaganda model explains how ownership and sourcing filters shape media content, while Entman’s framing theory and McCombs and Shaw’s agenda-setting framework explain how selective emphasis influences public perceptions. Woolley and Howard’s concept of computational propaganda addresses the algorithmic amplification of narratives, whereas Putnam’s social capital theory identifies institutional trust as one of the most vulnerable dimensions of social infrastructure during cognitive operations. In this study, media defense refers to the strategic use of managerial, content-based, and technological capacities to protect cognitive boundaries and sustain narrative initiative during crises.
Methods: The study employed a quantitative content analysis. The statistical population comprised all news items published on Iran International’s website between March 1 and May 23, 2026. Data were collected using a web crawler, and after relevance screening, 851 news items were analyzed using a census approach. The unit of analysis consisted of textual elements, including headlines, leads, and body text. A researcher-developed coding framework was employed, comprising three dimensions: 14 textual components derived from the cognitive warfare literature, 31 media and propaganda techniques, and 8 cognitive-social themes. Coding was non-exclusive, allowing multiple codes to be assigned to each news item. Intercoder reliability was assessed using Cohen’s kappa and Krippendorff’s alpha on a subsample of 120 news items, producing coefficients ranging from 0.76 to 0.85. Co-occurrence analysis based on the Jaccard coefficient was conducted to identify meaningful patterns of technique co-occurrence.
Findings: At the textual component level, Internationalization of Crisis appeared in 91.9% of the news items, followed by Personalization of Crisis (72.4%) and Inducing Urgency (69.3%). These three components formed the core representational structure, with the strongest co-occurrence observed between Internationalization of Crisis and Personalization of Crisis (J = 0.73).
At the level of media techniques, Half-truths was the most frequently observed technique (91.2%), followed by Magnification (51.8%), Exaggeration (41.9%), Negative Portrayal (41.4%), and Demonization (37.1%). On average, more than six techniques co-occurred within each news item, indicating a systematic combination of persuasive strategies. The dominant representational pattern relied primarily on the selective presentation of partial truths combined with emotional amplification rather than outright fabrication.
At the level of cognitive-social themes, Erosion of National Will appeared in 40.3% of the news items, followed by Weakening National Consensus (32.4%) and Substitution of Foreign Narratives (25.6%). These findings suggest a representational pattern associated with the gradual erosion of social hope, collective solidarity, and civic agency.
Conclusion: The findings generated three sets of theoretical implications for media defense. First, proactive information transparency requires the timely dissemination of accurate information before competing narratives become established, thereby reducing opportunities for selective misrepresentation. Second, strengthening collective resilience requires positive emotional communication, documentary narratives grounded in solidarity and hope, and complementary cognitive inoculation and prebunking strategies. Third, rebuilding institutional trust depends on transparent representations of institutional performance and the reinforcement of horizontal networks of social trust.
Overall, the findings indicate that Iran International’s representational pattern exhibited a coherent and multilayered structure consistent with the characteristics of cognitive warfare. Rather than relying primarily on fabricated information, the coverage was characterized by the selective presentation of partial truths combined with emotional amplification. Future research could extend this work through comparative analyses of multiple media outlets, audience reception studies, and longitudinal investigations across different phases of armed conflict.

Keywords

Ramadan War

Media Defense

Cognitive Warfare

Social Capital

Iran International Website

Subjects

Cognitive Changes Based on Cyberspace and Social Media

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