Simulated Nationalism: Hyperreality and the Visual Politics of the Tigray War on Social Media

ABSTRACT This article examines how images and hashtags circulated on Twitter during the Tigray War (2020–2022) functioned as hyperreal simulations of nationalism. Drawing on Jean Baudrillard's theory of hyperreality and employing a qualitative visual discourse analysis of 30 curated images, the study investigates how digital artefacts displaced empirical realities with aestheticised narratives of legitimacy, victimhood and resistance. By integrating insights from visual culture, digital nationalism and affect theory, the analysis reveals how these visual texts mobilised affective publics and constructed simulated national imaginaries. The study argues that in the digital spectacle of war, nationalism is not merely expressed but fabricated through stylised and emotionally charged representations. These findings contribute to sociological debates on nationalism, conflict and media by demonstrating how hyperreal aesthetics and platform dynamics converge to reconfigure political meaning in the posttruth era.