The Palestine Within
Exploring Diasporic Identity, Emotional Struggle, and Social Media’s Role in Shaping Resistance and Belonging
Keywords:
Auto-ethnography, Palestine, social media representation, poetry, art-in-motion, Western identity, Palestinian identityAbstract
The Palestine Within, an auto-ethnography, explores the complex relationship between the way in which individuals of Palestinian descent living in the West perceive their cultural and ethnic identity and how the ongoing genocide in Palestine is portrayed on social media. As an individual of Palestinian descent myself, over the course of a week-long data collection process I compiled and analyzed media content from the social media applications of Instagram and TikTok, journaling emotional reactions, themes, and concepts evoked by each post in the process. The research aimed to explore how the cultural identity of individuals apart of diasporic communities are shaped by the representation of Palestine within social media content, which amplified feelings of guilt, alienation, and moral conflict. Three key findings were revealed following a thematic analysis: (1) an internal conflict between Canadian/Western identity and Palestinian ethnicity, (2) the emotional struggle of questioning one's legitimacy in expressing Palestinian identity amidst the genocide, and (3) the privilege and responsibility of Palestinians in the West to engage in resistance and activism. Using the words written in the journals during the data collection process to inform a poetic literary response, I crafted a poem to express the nuanced emotions and reflections that arose from the data collection process. The project culminated in a visual body art-in-motion performance that embodied the key findings, combining interpretive art with poetry to convey the emotional complexity of the diaspora experience during a crisis. This study illustrates the difficulties diaspora communities encounter in balancing their lived experiences in the West with their ancestral ties by examining the emotional and social effects of media consumption on identity formation. The findings underscore the power of social media in shaping identity and activism, highlighting the role of diaspora communities in global resistance movements, even from afar.
Downloads
References
Abu-Ayyash, S. (2024, Jan-Mar). Representations of Palestinian Culture in the Digital Public Sphere: A Semiotic Analysis of the Thobe and the Keffiyeh. Social Media + Society, 10(1), 1-14. Communication and Mass Media Complete. https://doi.org/10.1177/205630512312242
Akinreni, T., Reñosa, M. D. C., Putri, A. Z., Scott, K., & McMahon, S. A. (2024, December). A methodological review of solicited diaries as a qualitative tool in health research in low- and middle-income countries. SSM - Qualitative Research in Health, 6(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmqr.2024.100492
Atad, E., Lev-On, A., & Yavetz, G. (2023, June). Diplomacy under fire: Engagement with governmental versus non-governmental messages on social media during armed conflicts. Government Information Quarterly, 40(3). Communication and Mass Complete. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2023.101835
Darwish, M. ( أوراق الزيتون. .( 2013 al-Ahliyyah lil-Nashr wa al-Tawzīʻ.
Ellis, C., Adams, T. E., & Bochner, A. P. (2011). Autoethnography: An Overview. Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung, 36(4 (138)), 273-290. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23032294
Friedemann, M. L., Mayorga, C., & Jimenez, L. D. (2011, September). Data collectors’ field journals as tools for research. Journal of Research in Nursing, 16(5), 453-465. https://doi.org/10.1177/1744987110387319
Hall, M. (2024, July). Legacy media outlets also stand in dock over Gaza: How RNZ, ABC and other Western media failed to challenge Israeli war narratives. Source: Pacific Journalism Review: Te Koakoa, 30(1), 28-47. Communication and Mass Media Complete. https://doi.org/10.24135/pjr.v30i1and2.1339
Meeks, L. (2019, July 30). Defining the Enemy: How Donald Trump Frames the News Media. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 97(1), 211-234. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1077699019857676
Naji, J., & Iwar, M. (2013, September 1). Simulated stereotypes turning the unreal real: An analysis of representations of the 'Other' in traditional media forms and digital games. Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research, 6(2), 115-131. Communication and Mass Media Complete. https://doi.org/10.1386/jammr.6.2-3.115_1
Nasser, R. (2019, April). Identity beyond borders: national identity and the post-colonial alternative. Social Semiotics, 29(2), 145-171. Communication and Mass Media Complete. https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2018.1425317
Neshat, S. (1997). Women of Allah. Marco Noire Editore. Shomrom, B., & Schejter, A. (2021, July 12). Violence and crime as inhibitors of capabilities: the case of Palestinian-Israelis and Israeli mass media. The Communication Review, 24(2), 167-191. Communication and Mass Media Complete. https://doi.org/10.1080/10714421.2021.1951534
Snyder, M. M. (2015). Leaning Into Autoethnography: A Review of Heewon Chang’s Autoethnography As Method. The Qualitative Report, 20(2), 93-96. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2015.2099
Türk, V. (2024, August 15). 40,000 Palestinian lives lost in Gaza: UN Human Rights Chief pleads for end to fighting stating that 130 people have been killed every day in Gaza over the past 10 months - Question of Palestine. Welcome to the United Nations. Retrieved July 21, 2025, from https://www.un.org/unispal/document/gaza-40000deaths-turk-ohchr-15aug24/
United Nations. (2024, December 18). Noting More than 45,000 Palestinians Have Been Killed in Gaza, Assistant Secretary-General Tells Security Council 'Ceasefire Is Long Overdue' | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases. Meetings Coverage and Press Releases. Retrieved July 21, 2025, from https://press.un.org/en/2024/sc15944.doc.htm
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Aniliese Spencer
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright Policy
The Motley Undergraduate Journal is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Share-Alike License. Under this license, users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit) and remix (adapt) the contribution, including for commercial purposes, providing that the original work is properly cited. Under Creative Commons, authors retain copyright in their articles.
Author Self Archiving Policy
Authors are permitted to post their work online in institutional/disciplinary repositories or on their own websites. Pre-print versions posted online should include a citation and link to the final published version in The Motley Undergraduate Journal as soon as the issue is available; post-print versions (including the final publisher's PDF) should include a citation and link to the journal's website.
