La guerra come saga: Telegram come dispositivo seriale nel conflitto russo-ucraino = War as Saga: Telegram as a Serializing Device in the Russo–Ukrainian Conflict

This article examines the role of Telegram in the construction and circulation of narratives about the Russian-Ukrainian war in Italy, arguing that the platform functions as a serializing device through which the conflict is organized into structured and recurring storylines. Drawing on a socio-semiotic and netnographic approach, the research analyses a corpus of institutional, non-institutional, anti-institutional and counter-institutional channels active in the Italian context between 2022 and 2024, reconstructing the logics through which Telegram organizes, legitimizes and stages antagonistic versions of the war. The analysis shows how the absence of a central visibility algorithm, the cross-platform vocation, the distributed architecture and the fringe status of Telegram foster the emergence of a rhizomatic narrative ecosystem. This ecosystem is characterized by initiatory access to channels, discovery-oriented practices, and a truth regime grounded in opposition to informational hegemony. Within this environment, narrator-performers - milbloggers, OSINT analysts, political influencers, institutional hubs - simultaneously act as characters within the fabula and as authentication devices for the narrative, producing a continuous dramaturgy of the conflict. The study identifies three main forms of seriality: a chronological seriality, anchored in specific theatres of war (Kyiv, Mariupol, Bakhmut); a thematic seriality, based on recurrent storylines ranging from fantasy sagas to spy stories, from conspiratorial frames to accusations of genocide or sabotage; and a mythic-memorial seriality, drawing on symbolic repertoires such as the Second World War, the orc/fantasy imaginary, or Russian patriotic mythology. Finally, the article shows how user experience acquires performative traits: users act as players engaged in quests of search, verification, decoding and counter-narration, turning Telegram into a hybrid environment midway between video games, competitive arena and ritual space. The platform thus not only hosts war narratives but also deeply shapes their serial form, their modes of legitimisation, and the symbolic conflict they enact.

本文探讨了电报（Telegram）在意大利境内俄乌战争相关叙事的建构与传播中所扮演的角色，提出该平台可作为序列化载体，将冲突拆解为结构化且反复出现的叙事主线。本研究采用社会符号学与网络民族志方法，对2022年至2024年间活跃于意大利语境中的机构性、非机构性、反机构性及反体制性电报频道语料库展开分析，重构了电报组织、合法化并呈现战争对立叙事的内在逻辑。分析结果表明，电报缺乏中心化可见性算法、具备跨平台属性、采用分布式架构且处于边缘地位，这些特质共同催生了一个根茎式叙事生态系统。该生态系统的特征包括：频道准入门槛较低、以探索式操作为核心，以及以对抗信息霸权为基础的真理体系。在此生态中，叙事表演者——军事博客作者、开源情报（OSINT）分析师、政治意见领袖、机构性频道运营者——同时作为叙事故事（fabula）中的角色与叙事认证载体，持续构建起关于冲突的戏剧化叙事。本研究归纳出三种核心序列化模式：其一为时序序列化模式，锚定具体战场（基辅、马里乌波尔、巴赫穆特）；其二为主题序列化模式，依托从奇幻史诗、间谍故事到阴谋论框架、种族灭绝或破坏指控等反复出现的叙事主线；其三为神话-纪念序列化模式，借鉴第二次世界大战、兽人/奇幻想象、俄罗斯爱国主义神话等符号体系。最后，本文揭示了用户体验如何呈现表演性特质：用户以参与者身份投身于搜索、验证、解码与反叙事的任务之中，将电报打造为介于电子游戏、竞技赛场与仪式空间之间的混合场域。该平台不仅承载战争叙事，更深度塑造了叙事的序列化形式、合法化路径，以及其所呈现的符号性冲突。