scholarly journals ISIS’s media strategy as image warfare: Strategic messaging over time and across platforms

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moran Yarchi
Keyword(s):  
Online Communication ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Media Image ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Power Projection ◽  
The Media ◽  
Strategic Messaging ◽  
The Military ◽  
Over Time

The media plays a crucial role in contemporary conflicts because an image war is occurring alongside the military confrontation. The Islamic state of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) sets a prime example for the usage of image as part of its fighting strategy, using various platforms to communicate its narrative. This study evaluates ISIS’s image front by analyzing its messages promoted through various online communication platforms: audio statements made by ISIS leaders, official videos, Dabiq and Rumiyah magazines, Islamic chants ( nasheeds), and Amaq news reports. The findings indicate that ISIS uses messages strategically in an attempt to create and maintain its image as a powerful organization. The three main themes are power projection, violence, and Islamic religious messages (while different emphases are placed on various platforms). Most messages target Muslims, while others (usually threats) target the organization’s various enemies. It appears that ISIS invests considerable resources and efforts into promoting its narrative as part of the image war—projecting its power, based on religious arguments, on one hand, and demonizing and threatening its enemies on the other, using repeated themes, descriptions, metaphors, and visual images (videos, pictures, and infographics). The study’s analysis indicates that ISIS puts a lot of emphasis on the media/image aspects of its battle, and uses all of the tools in its tool box in an attempt to succeed in the image war, a central front in contemporary conflicts.

scholarly journals Twenty-five years of cyber threats in the news: a study of Swedish newspaper coverage (1995–2019)

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Max Boholm
Keyword(s):  
Informal Learning ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Newspaper Coverage ◽  
Threat Perception ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Unauthorized Access ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Cyber Threats ◽  
The Media ◽  
Over Time

Abstract This paper explores how cyber threats are represented in Swedish newspapers. The sample comprises 1269 articles from three newspapers (Aftonbladet, Göteborgs-Posten, and Svenska Dagbladet) covering 25 years (1995–2019). The study provides a text-near and detailed analysis of the threats covered. The study analyzes these threats along several dimensions: their modality (e.g. unauthorized access or manipulation); to what extent ambiguous themes (e.g. attack, crime, and warfare) are specified in context; how cyber-threat coverage has changed over time; and the event orientation of the coverage, i.e. whether articles address topical events and, if so, which ones. There are five main findings. First, the Swedish newspaper cybersecurity discourse covers multiple threats; in total, 34 themes (present in at least 4% of articles) have been identified. Second, the representation of cyber threats varies in specificity. While generic themes such as attack and warfare are mostly specified in terms of their modality, they sometimes are not, leaving the representation vague. Third, this study, given its general approach, provides insights into media representations of particular cyber threats. For example, this study finds the meaning of “hacking” in the media to be more diversified and nuanced than previously assumed (e.g. as simply meaning “computer break-in”). Fourth, newspaper coverage of cyber threats has changed over time, in both quantity (i.e. the amount of coverage has increased) and quality, as three general trends have been observed: the state-ification and militarization of threats (i.e. increased attention to, e.g. nations and warfare as threats), the organization-ification of threats (i.e. increased attention to, e.g. government agencies and companies as threats), and the diversification and hyping of threats (i.e. cumulatively more threats are added to the cybersecurity discourse, although attention to particular threats is sometimes restricted in time). Finally, parallel to coverage of particular topical events (e.g. the “I love you” virus), newspaper representations of cyber threats largely exemplify “amplification without the event,” i.e. threats are covered without linking them to topical events, as is otherwise typical of news reports. The findings in relation to previous studies of cybersecurity discourse and the implications for informal learning and threat perception are discussed.

scholarly journals MEDIA IMAGES OF THE ARMED FORCES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF AMERICAN, INDIAN AND PAKISTANI PRESS

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 931-942
Author(s):  
Muhammad Riaz Raza ◽  
Muhammad Usman Saeed ◽  
Zafar Ali
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York Times ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
Media Images ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Media Image ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Military ◽  
American Army

Purpose of the study: This study aims to analyze and compare the media images and coverage of three countries regarding their security forces. For this purpose, researchers have examined the media image of the American Army in the New York Times, the Indian Army in Indian Express, and the Pakistani Army in The Dawn. Methodology: The researchers selected news stories of three sampled newspapers; New York Times, Indian Express, and The Dawn for one year from 1st January 2018 to 31st December 2018 purposively for the content analysis. Spearman correlations, central tendency, frames of the stories in terms of positive, negative, and neutral have been examined. The researchers have examined coverage patterns of security forces at the object, attribute, and network levels in the light of agenda-setting theory. Main Findings: There are significant differences in the image of the armed forces. Indian Express covered the Indian army positively with the special emphasis on the success of the armed in internal military operations and the glorification of the military leadership. Similarly, New York Times covered the American Army favourably with a particular focus on external military operations for peace and security purposes. Whereas, The Dawn covered Pakistan Army differently. Applications of this study: The study will be helpful and of great importance for media owners, media regulatory bodies, military establishments, foreign and international relations. The study will also be a significant contribution towards civil-military relationships in geostrategic locations of the sub-continent. Since these countries have been involved in war-on-terror in this region as far as peace and stability are concerned, the study will be a roadmap for the peacekeeping forces. Novelty/Originality of this study: Few research studies have been witnessed so far on the media image of these countries. This study is new and different in nature as the military image of three different countries in terms of civil-military relationship has been measured on their mainstream media.

scholarly journals Media image of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as a component of the popularization of the military service among young people

2021 ◽  
pp. 6-16
Author(s):  
M. Yenin ◽  
A. Stefanovych
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
New Media ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
National Level ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Media Image ◽  
Sociological Approach ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Military

The article is devoted to the problem of covering news about the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Ukrainian mass media, which shape the image and prestige of this profession at the national level. Different approaches to defining the concept of “image” and the specifics of building a media image are considered. It is established that the image of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has an impact not only on the civilian population, but also performs an educational and motivating function on servicemen. The main attention to the conceptualization of the concept of “image” is focused on the sociological approach, in particular, a significant role is given to symbolic interactionism. Image, in particular media image as a phenomenon that involves the two-way interaction of the exchange of certain symbolic signs, is studied. This approach helps to determine the role and influence of the media in the process of transmitting information to the audience. The specifics and position of military service in Ukraine are considered, its popularization as one of the elements of military-patriotic education is analyzed. An analysis of the issue of youth readiness to defend Ukraine is presented and what factors may reduce the attractiveness of military service. It was found that information in the media, which forms the image of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, can influence the involvement of young people in the military sphere. Based on the content analysis of the new media segment (Telegram messenger), the main areas in the field of view of journalists that related to the activities of the Armed Forces have been identified. The positive and negative characteristics of the media image of the armed forces have been studied. A number of narratives that can have a positive impact on the promotion of military service among young people have been identified through the use of qualitative paradigm techniques (interviews and focus group discussions).

scholarly journals THE CHRONOTOPE OF EVENTS IN ONLINE NEWS STORIES (COVERAGE OF THE SYRIAN CRISIS IN THE RUSSIAN MEDIA)

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (6/1) ◽  
pp. 109-116
Author(s):  
Iman Ali Iman ◽  
Galina N. TROFIMOVA
Keyword(s):  
Online News ◽  
Online Media ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
Media Image ◽  
Maximum Expansion ◽  
News Stories ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Syrian Crisis ◽  
The Media ◽  
Number Of Publications

The article is devoted to the study of the problem of formation of space-time coordinates of the media image of the event presented in the news reports on the online feeds of online media. The authors rely on the research of scientists from around the world devoted to the problem of changing and identifying such a thing as a chronotope in a literary text. Considering the theory of the chronotope, put forward by M.M.Bakhtin through the prism of journalistic activity, the authors reveal significant correspondences and the possibility to apply the main provisions of this theory to the study of the features of the event coverage in journalistic texts. Thus, in their opinion, the chronotope of the crisis event at its initial presentation in the online media space at the information and news alert level has specific characteristics, to which the author refers multifragmentary media reflection, representativeness, narrative and semantics. As a result, the authors come to the conclusion that the time component of the chronotope of the media image of this event is stable, but the intensity of its development is confirmed by the number of publications per unit time. The spatial component of the chronotope of this event is formed through the information resources that report the event. The maximum expansion of the space (25 sources) was on the 2nd and 8th hours, and the most stable wide boundaries of the space had from the 8th to the 12th hours (18-20 sources). According to the Bakhtin’s theory, the supertext essence of the chronotope, namely, “the impression that is fixed in the reader’s consciousness in the process of perceiving the author’s narrative strategies”, is essentially nothing more than an image of the event formed by a journalist or journalists in the process of covering the event in the media.

scholarly journals Mitigating the Menace of Boko Haram: The Media Conundrum

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben-Collins Emeka Ndinojuo
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Boko Haram ◽  
Complex Situation ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
The Media ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Conflict Risk ◽  
The Military

Terrorism has become a recurrent feature in news headlines in both national and international news organisations. The Boko Haram group has become the foremost terrorist organisation in Nigeria and was labeled as the deadliest terrorist organisation by Global Terrorism Index of 2016 with over 6000 deaths to their name in 2015 alone. The United Nations recently released a report that over 5 million displaced persons by the Boko Haram conflict risk starvation and death in 2017. Their area of operation has expanded from Nigeria into Cameroon, Niger and Chad across sub-Saharan Africa and rumored to spread from Mali, Iraq and Syria with the pledge of allegiance by the Boko Haram Leader to the Islamic State (ISIS). This paper advocates that lack of viable community media organisations that provide information on rural communities may have played a part in the rise of the group. Journalists reporting conflicts are put in a complex situation where their access to conflict zones has been limited thus impacting on the quality of their reporting. The military is enjoined to provide greater access and protection for journalists covering the conflict as accuracy and objectivity are key elements in reporting and resolution of crises.

scholarly journals The media image of “solidarity” in the crisis

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (2 (11)) ◽  
pp. 125-140
Author(s):  
Magdalena Ratajczak ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Community Building ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Media Image ◽  
The Media

This article describes the narratives about refugees and migrants as well as information about the COVID-19 pandemic, in the context of mutual understanding, solidarity with others, community-building in a crisis, all presented through the media of photographs. This article is the result of an analysis of visual images on the internet. These two crises reveal different attitudes to solidarity in Europe, both among the citizens as well as politicians of different countries.

The Media and the Military

1997 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Young ◽  
Peter Jesser
Keyword(s):  
The Media ◽  
The Military

ICERD in Malaysian online news reports: A cross-linguistic comparative corpus analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Siti Aeisha Joharry ◽  
Nor Diyana Saupi
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Online News ◽  
Corpus Analysis ◽  
Search Term ◽  
International Convention ◽  
Online Newspapers ◽  
News Reports ◽  
The Media ◽  
Online Sources

The International Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), which was not ratified in Malaysia, created a heated public discourse in the media. This cross-linguistic comparative study investigates the representation of ICERD in Malaysian news reports of two online sources in Malaysia – the widely read English portal: The Star Online, and its Malay equivalent: Berita Harian. A corpus-assisted discourse analysis was conducted to examine how news on ‘ICERD’ were reported in both English and Malay online newspapers. Initial comparative analysis of both newspapers revealed that the search term co-occurs statistically more frequently with the verb ‘ratify’ and its equivalent: ‘meratifikasi’. Patterns indicate that ‘ICERD’ was mostly referring to the act of sanctioning the agreement –particularly to ‘not ratify’ or ‘tidak akan meratifikasi’, which is concurrent with the timeframe of events. Interestingly, different patterns can be found in Berita Harian (e.g. the expression of ‘thanks’ or gratitude of not ratifying ICERD) that are not as revealing in The Star Online reports. Some inconsistencies were also reported between the two newspapers, e.g. referring to different ministers’ speech about the initial plan to ratify ICERD alongside five (The Star Online) or six (Berita Harian) other treaties in the following year.  

The War of US against ISIS in Psychological Warfare and Internet as the New Frontline

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 129
Author(s):  
Urtak Hamiti
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
Good News ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Media Center ◽  
The People ◽  
Psychological Warfare ◽  
The Media ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Hearts And Minds

Barbaric, savage, horrific-these were terms to define the decision of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to murder its captured Jordanian pilot by burning him alive inspired a thesaurus of horror and revulsion. The men who did it, the perpetrators were described by the media as mad men, thugs, monsters. To most of the people, the act itself seemed inexplicable and without sense. However, behind the choreographed and videotaped violence lies a calculated horrible cold logic. Although, ISIS is often portrait as a mighty force on the ground in Syria and Iraq, facts state that they control mainly communications between various provinces in both countries, and, as most guerrilla armies, are militarily weak by conventional measure. ISIS has little or almost none defense against the bombing campaign that is facing now, while US has formed a coalition that is confronting them on the ground as well, after President Barack Obama published the “New Security Doctrine” which includes degrading and finally destroying ISIS. ISIS, however, have proven to be very organized in promoting dramatic acts of violence against their enemies and promoting them two achieve two goals: use terror tactics as a psychological weapon against all those facing them and all those that are to face them in combat. Secondly, through usage of social network platforms to promote killings and executions, the aim of ISIS is to encourage recruits from out of Syria and Iraq, and elsewhere, to join them in their cause. Online operations of ISIS fall under a production group called the Al Hayat Media Center. The Center was created to seduce Westerners into joining the ranks of ISIS and also to distribute propaganda through social and media platforms. It is difficult to assess the success of this operation, but solid sources provided by US military and intelligence estimate that at least 300 Americans are fighting in the ranks of ISIS (at least two Americans have been killed fighting for ISIS in Iraq/Syria region) while the number of Europeans is in thousands. The US Response to this psychological kind of warfare came when President Barack Obama established the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (CSCC) aiming to combat terrorist propaganda. The main strategy of CSCC is not directly to confront ISIS operatives, but rather than that to deal with the people they are trying to recruit. Now, with almost entire international public opinion on their side, it is time for US to more actively respond to ISIS especially in the manner of psychological warfare since it is obvious that operations of “winning hearts and minds” of people in Iraq and Syria are not enough compared to ruthless tactics of ISIS which “winning hearts and minds” by brute force, terror, and vivid violent images. The online propaganda war is a new component to conflicts of 21st century that allows enemies to reach one another’s home fronts directly. ISIS might seem not so strong on the ground but it has captured one fundamental flaw of the media of 21st century-the one that bad news is always good news and that televised violence will always have an audience. ISIS has proclaimed that its goal is to create a caliphate of 21st century but its psychological warfare and propaganda is inspiring individuals throughout the West to commit horrible terrorist crimes. Could this be another mind game set up by ISIS, it remains to be seen. However one thing is for certain, US and its allies must tackle ISIS not only by planes and other military means, but also by a strategy that would eliminate its influence in spreading their propaganda.

Problems of military-political interaction between the countries of the West and Central Asia at the turn of the XX–XXI centuries

2020 ◽  
pp. 27-33
Author(s):  
Boris G. Koybaev
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Bases ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
The West ◽  
Regional Environment ◽  
Western Influence ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Political Interaction ◽  
The Military

Central Asia in recent history is a vast region with five Muslim States-new actors in modern international relations. The countries of Central Asia, having become sovereign States, at the turn of the XX–XXI centuries are trying to peaceful interaction not only with their underdeveloped neighbors, but also with the far-off prosperous West. At the same time, the United States and Western European countries, in their centrosilic ambitions, seek to increase their military and political presence in Central Asia and use the military bases of the region’s States as a springboard for supplying their troops during anti-terrorist and other operations. With the active support of the West, the Central Asian States were accepted as members of the United Nations. For monitoring and exerting diplomatic influence on the regional environment, the administration of the President of the Russian Federation H. W. Bush established U.S. embassies in all Central Asian States. Turkey, a NATO member and secular Islamic state, was used as a lever of indirect Western influence over Central Asian governments, and its model of successful development was presented as an example to follow.

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