"The study is divided into three parts, the first of which describes the Islamic State’s publishing house, Maktabat al-Himma, and its activities and offers a rough chronology of when the group published various works. The second part examines the group’s classroom textbooks, drawing comparisons
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with the Saudi religious curriculum and highlighting the Islamic State’s unique program of “ISization” that makes them especially lethal. The paper’s third part features a deep dive into other literature produced by the group, including book-length editions, manuals of ritual observance, and instructions to fighters, as well as shorter pamphlets. The paper closes with a series of concluding observations and policy recommendations, as well as appendices that include a list of the works surveyed, translations by the author of selections from the classroom textbooks, images of textbook covers, and a glossary of terminology IS uses in its literature." (Executive summary, page xi)
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"This book presents the first systematic and historical contextualisation of the development of Hamas’s media strategy. It determines three key phases in Hamas’s development and explores the complex and important relationship at work between its politics and use of media. Assessing four elements
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of the Hamas media strategy – the media message (discourse), the media objectives, the infrastructure, and the target audience – this book tracks how Hamas grew its media infrastructure, and looks at how the idea of resistance has permeated the media discourse. Determining both tactical and strategic objectives and detailing the various layers of the target audience, it offers the first in-depth academic study of the Hamas media strategy." (Publisher description)
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"1. Hyper-local factors were the most important components in both radicalisation and counter-radicalisation. Participants placed significant emphasis on the role of ‘heads’ of the neighbourhoods (who are the “only ones able to warn and convince young people against wrongdoing.” Heads of nei
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ghbourhoods have personal qualities that build trust within communities and make them effective first responders. These qualities can be summarised as follows: A credible, non-corrupt person who does not use his position to ‘swindle’ or make a profit; A person who promotes moderate stances and uses moderate speech; Local to the area, not just the region or the city, and speaks common people’s language; and Non-politically aligned and not promoting the values of one particular party or another. Another hyper-local element that helped improve communities’ resilience to radicalisation is the effective presence of security forces clamping down on radical preachers, which helps reduce the spaces of recruitment. Among the most important points highlighted by focus group participants was socio-economic deprivation that contributed to the primary method of radicalisation, which was “not out of religious conviction, but desire of money.” 2. Radicalisation happens offline and involves face-to-face recruiters making direct contact. Participants underlined the importance of hyper-local interaction as “television and social media do not have a drastic influence on young people’s minds. What impacts their thinking are their personal relationships with people they trust.” This concept works both positively and negatively as participants explained that in the incidents of radicalisation they were aware of, recruiters always knew their targets." (Major findings, page 8)
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"Die Medienstrategen des IS wissen, was das Publikum von ihnen erwartet. Ihr hämmernder Text, der Statements, Tweets, Videos, Bilder übertönt, wie hermetisch abgeriegelt ihr Reich ist. Sie bestimmen unser Bild vom "Islamischen Staat". Dafür etikettieren sie ihre Opfer um, leihen sich Tote und l
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gen sich ein Image zurecht." (Seite 230)
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"Das Radio galt in Russland lange als Biotop – ein Rückzugsraum für professionellen Journalismus. Die Berichterstattung über den Krieg in der „Volksrepublik Donec’k“ offenbart jedoch das Gegenteil. Manche Radiosender begreifen sich als Verlautbarungsorgane der Aufständischen, Moderatoren
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wirken als Agitatoren. Sie gehören zur neosowjetischen Generation der 20- bis 30-Jährigen. Das ist die Generation Putin. Doch am Mikrofon sind sie längst keine Putinisten mehr, sondern viel radikalere Revanchisten vom Schlage Girkins." (Abstract)
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"Visual images have been a central component of propaganda for as long as propaganda has been produced. But recent developments in communication and information technologies have given terrorist and extremist groups options and abilities they never would have been able to come close to even 5 or 10
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years ago. There are terrorist groups who, with very little initial investment, are making videos that are coming so close to the quality of BBC [British Broadcasting Corporation] or CNN [Cable News Network] broadcasts that the difference is meaningless, and with access to the web they have instantaneous access to a global audience. Given the broad social science consensus on the power of visual images relative to that of words, the strategic implications of these groups' sophistication in the use of images in the online environment is carefully considered in a variety of contexts by the authors in this collection." (Publisher description)
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"The Lebanese paramilitary political party Hizbullah is the leading Islamist group in the world in terms of possessing a sophisticated image management strategy. This strategy is reliant on a number of components, from media outlets and products to public displays to the use of personified politics.
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Its purpose is to support Hizbullah’s political activities and cultivate legitimacy for the group among its target audiences. This paper focuses on Hizbullah’s image management strategy over the past five years. It examines the strategy’s purpose and components, showing how they have come together to transform Hizbullah into a brand. It also shows how Hizbullah has used this strategy to modify its image over the years to ensure political survival. Hizbullah’s most notable achievement in this regard has been the merger of credibility and adaptability, a key characteristic for brand longevity. But the Arab Spring has brought new challenges for the group, and it remains to be seen how Hizbullah’s image management strategy might deal with those challenges." (Abstract)
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"Media and Terrorism brings together leading scholars to explore how the world's media have influenced, and in turn, been influenced by terrorism and the war on terror in the aftermath of 9/11. Accessible and user-friendly with lively and current case studies, it is a perfect student text and is an
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essential handbook on the dynamics of war and the media in a global context." (Publisher description)
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"The contributors to this volume consider whether it is possible to establish carefully tailored hate speech policies that are cognizant of the varying traditions, histories, and values of different countries. Throughout, there is a strong comparative emphasis, with examples (and authors) drawn from
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around the world. All the authors explore whether or when different cultural and historical setting justify different substntive rules given that such cultural relativism can be used to justify content-based restrictions and so endanger freedom of expression." (Back cover)
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"This article describes and analyzes a little understood Afghan Taliban propaganda tool: chants or taranas. These melodic refrains effectively use historical narratives, symbology, and iconic portraits. The chants are engendered in emotions of sorrow, pride, desperation, hope, and complaints to mobi
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lize and convince the Afghan population of the Taliban’s worldview. The chants represent culturally relevant and simple messages that are communicated in a narrative and poetic form that is familiar to and resonates with the local people. They are virtually impossible for the United States and NATO to counter because of Western sensitivities concerning religious themes that dominate the Taliban narrative space, not to mention the lack of Western linguistic capabilities, including the understanding and mastering the poetic nature of local dialects." (Abstract)
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"With a rise in terrorist activity spreading fear through highly publicized attacks, Pakistan’s media landscape has increasingly been used as a battleground between those seeking to promote violent conflict and others seeking to manage or deter it. Pakistan’s media community has not yet develope
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d an adequate or widely accepted strategy for responding to this context of persistent extremism and conflict. The rapid rise of extremist radio stations in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) provinces has paralleled an increase in terrorist attacks, facilitated by affordable access to FM radio, loose government regulation of broadcast media and militant control of pockets in KPK and FATA. Negative media attitudes toward the Pakistan-U.S. relationship often reflect national political differences and market incentives for sensationalist coverage. These attitudes can be transformed through changes in the diplomatic relationship between the countries based on open communication rather than institutional media reform." (Abstract)
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"This one-volume encyclopedia features around 250 essays on the varied experiences of social movement media over the planet in the 20th and 21st centuries [...] The guiding principles have been to ensure that experiences from the global South are given voice; that women are properly represented amon
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g contributors; that the wide spectrum of communication formats is included; that further reading is provided where relevant; and that some examples are provided of repressive social movement media, not exclusively progressive ones. Thematic essays address selected issues such as human rights media, indigenous peoples' media, and environmentalist media, and on key concepts widely used in the field such as alternative media, citizens' media, and community media. The encyclopedia engages with all communication media: broadcasting, print, cinema, the Internet, popular song, street theatre, graffiti, and dance." (Sage website)
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