Our capacity to know and understand war depends on a range ofmedia ecosystems that work differently in different parts of theworld. In Ethiopia, Myanmar and Kazakhstan, governmentsengaged in security crackdowns, genocide or war have been active inshutting down the web or controlling access to online media. This has had distorting effects on how political violence has come to be representedand understood in social and mainstream media (MSM). During the last decade this has not been obvious to audiences in Europe or North America. However, Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has started to bring home the realities of war in a way not previously experienced in the West. The principal device for bringing these images to our attention is thesmartphone