Fake news in wartime reporting: The case of the Israeli-American attack on Iran in 2026
Abstract
Contemporary international conflicts are increasingly shifting from political-diplomatic arenas and conventional battlefields to informational spaces shaped by algorithms and propaganda aimed at securing the consent and support of the international community. By analyzing characteristic examples of fake news disseminated during media reporting on the conflict involving Israel, the United States, and Iran, this study examines the manipulative techniques most frequently employed in practice. The paper seeks to critically analyze their scope, speed, and persuasive capacity, bearing in mind that, by marginalizing truth, the media achieve short-term propagandistic effects with long-term consequences for the construction of a new security and political paradigm. The results of the analysis of characteristic narratives indicate a fundamental transformation in comparison with wars fought only a few decades ago – unlike the bombing of Iraq or the NATO aggression against Serbia, when television imagery served as the principal carrier of propagandistic meanings, the process of digitalization has transferred this role to social networks, digital platforms, and artificial intelligence.