Intersections of ISIS media leader loss and media campaign strategy: A visual framing analysis

Abstract

The decision to target leaders of groups like ISIS to hamper their effectiveness has served as a longstanding principle of counterterrorism efforts. Yet, previous research suggests that any results may simply be temporary. Using insights from confiscated ISIS documents from Afghanistan to define the media leader roles that qualified for each level of the cascade, CTC (Combating Terrorism Center) records to identify media leaders who died, and a content analysis of all ISIS images displayed in the group’s Arabic weekly newsletter to identify the group’s visual framing strategies, this study assesses whether and how leader loss helps explain changes in the level and nature of the group’s visual output over time. ISIS’s quantity of output and visual framing strategies displayed significant changes before, during, and after media leader losses. The level of the killed leader within the group’s organizational hierarchy also corresponded to different changes in ISIS’s media framing.

Keywords

cascade activation framing ISIS leaders media campaign propaganda terrorism visual imagery decapitated leaders

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aday

Livingston

(2008) Taking the state out of state–media relations theory: How transnational advocacy networks are changing the press–state dynamic. Media, War & Conflict 1(1): 99–107. DOI: 10.1177/1750635207087630.

Adelman

(2018) One apostate run over, hundreds repented: Excess, unthinkability, and infographics from the war with I.S.I.S. Critical Studies in Media Communication 35(1): 57–73. DOI: 10.1080/15295036.2017.1393100.

Al-Himma Library (2016) Oh you media operative, you are a mujahid. Al-Himma Library Publications. Available at: https://ia601902.us.archive.org/22/items/mojahed_ilamee_is/مجاهدأنتأيهاالإعلامي.pdf (accessed 8 April 2019).

Artrip

Debrix

(2018) The viral mediation of terror: ISIS, image, implosion. Critical Studies in Media Communication 35(1): 74–88. DOI: 10.108 0/15295036.2017.1393099.

Bastug

Guler

(2018) The influence of leadership on the strategies and tactics of Islamic State and its predecessors. Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism 13(1): 38–59. DOI: 10.1080/18335330.2018.1432879.

Batziou

(2011) Framing ‘otherness’ in press photographs: The case of immigrants in Greece and Spain. Journal of Media Practice 12(1): 41–60. DOI: 10.1386/jmpr.12.1.41_1.

Benraad

(2010) Assessing AQI’s resilience. CTC Sentinel 3(6): 4–8. Available at: www.scribd.com/document/34976922/Assessing-AQI-s-Resilience-CTC-Sentinel-Myriam-Benraad (accessed 12 April 2019).

Bin Laden

(2010). Letter from UBL to ‘Atiyatullah Al-Libi 3. Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. Available at: https://ctc.usma.edu/app/uploads/2013/10/Letter-from-UBL-to-Atiyatullah-Al-Libi-3-Translation1.pdf (accessed 12 April 2019).

Bloom

Tiflati

Horgan

(2017) Navigating ISIS’s preferred platform: Telegram. Terrorism and Political Violence. Epub ahead of print 11 July 2017. DOI: 10.1080/09546553.2017.1339695.

10.

Bruce

(2014) Framing Arab Spring conflict: A visual analysis of coverage on five transnational Arab news channels. Journal of Middle East Media 10: 1–26. DOI: 10.12816/0023470.

11.

Bruscella

Bisel

(2018) Four flows theory and materiality: ISIL’s use of material resources in its communicative constitution. Communication Monographs 85(3): 331–356.

12.

Chouliaraki

Kissas

(2018) The communication of horrorism: A typology of ISIS online death videos. Critical Studies in Media Communication 35(1): 24–39. DOI: 10.1080/15295036.2017.1393096.

13.

Collignon

et al. (2008) Audio-visual integration of emotion expression. Brain Research 1242: 126–135.

14.

Cottle

(2009) Global Crisis Reporting: Journalism in the Global Age. Berkshire, England: Open University Press.

15.

Damanhoury

(2018) Dissecting visual conflict: A comparative analysis of ISIS and the Egyptian military’s photographs in 2016–2017. PhD dissertation, Georgia State University.

16.

Damanhoury

Winkler

(2018) Picturing law and order: A visual framing analysis of ISIS’s Dabiq magazine. Arab Media & Society. Available at: https://www.arabmediasociety.com/picturing-law-and-order-a-visual-framing-analysis-of-isiss-dabiq-magazine/ (accessed 9 April 2019).

17.

Dodwell

Milton

Rassler

(2016) The Caliphate’s Global Workforce: An Inside Look at the Islamic State’s Foreign Fighter Paper Trail. Combating Center of Terrorism at West Point. Available at: https://ctc.usma.edu/app/uploads/2016/11/Caliphates-Global-Workforce1.pdf (accessed 18 November 2019).

18.

Domke

Perlmutter

Spratt

(2002) The primes of our times? An examination of the ‘power’ of visual images. Journalism 3(2): 131–159.

19.

Entman

(1991) Framing U.S. coverage of international news: Contrasts in narratives of the KAL and Iran Air incidents. Journal of Communication 41(4): 6–27.

20.

Entman

(2003) Cascading activation: Contesting the White House’s frame after 9/11. Political Communication 20(4): 415–432.

21.

Entman

(2004) Projections of Power: Framing News Public Opinion, and U.S. Foreign Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

22.

Entman

(2006) Framing U.S. coverage of international news: Contrasts in narratives of the KAL and Iran airline incidents. Journal of Communication 41(4): 6–27.

23.

Entman

(2008) Theorizing mediated public diplomacy: The U.S. case. International Journal of Press/Politics 13(2): 87–102.

24.

Entman

Usher

(2018) Framing in a fractured democracy: Impacts of digital technology on ideology, power and Cascading Network Activation. Journal of Communication 68(2): 298–308.

25.

Fahmy

(2005) Emerging alternatives or traditional news gates. Gazette: International Journal of Communication Studies 67(5): 381–398. DOI: 10.1177/0016549205056048.

26.

Fahmy

(2010) Contrasting the visual frames of our times: A framing analysis of English and Arabic press coverage of war and terrorism. International Communication Gazette 72(8): 695–717. DOI: 10.1177/1748048510380801.

27.

Gill

Corner

(2015) Lone-actor terrorist use of the Internet and behavioural correlates. In: Jarvis

et al. (eds) Terrorism Online: Politics, Law, Technology and Unconventional Violence. London: Routledge, 47–65.

28.

Gill

et al. (2017) Terrorist use of the Internet by the numbers: Quantifying behaviors, patterns, and processes. Criminology & Public Policy 16(1): 99–117.

29.

Goffman

(1974) Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. New York, NY: Harper & Row.

30.

Griffin

(2004) Picturing America’s ‘war on terrorism’ in Afghanistan and Iraq: Photographic motifs as news frames. Journalism 5(4): 381–402.

31.

Gvineria

(2009) How does terrorism end? In: Davis

Cragin

(eds) Social Science for Counterterrorism: Putting the Pieces Together. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 257–298. Available at: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2009/RAND_MG849.pdf (accessed 30 March 2019).

32.

Huang

Fahmy

(2013) Picturing a journey of protest or a journey of harmony? Comparing the visual framing of the 2008 Olympic torch relay in the US versus the Chinese Press. Media, War & Conflict 6(3): 191–206. DOI: 10.1177/1750635213495601.

33.

ISI (nd) In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful clarification regarding the media of the Islamic State. Countering Terrorism Center at West Point. Available at https://ctc.usma.edu/app/uploads/2018/08/Clarification-Regarding-the-Media-of-the-Islamic-State.pdf (accessed 12 April 2019).

34.

ISIS’s Central Media Diwan (2018a) Clarification regarding the media of the Islamic State. Countering Terrorism Center at West Point. Available at: https://ctc.usma.edu/app/uploads/2018/08/Clarification-Regarding-the-Media-of-the-Islamic-State-Arabic.pdf. (accessed 12 April 2019).

35.

ISIS’s Central Media Diwan (2018b) General guidance and instructions: Combatting Terrorism Center at West Point. Available at: https://ctc.usma.edu/app/uploads/2018/08/General-Guidance-and-Instructions-Arabic.pdf (accessed 12 April 2019).

36.

ISIS’s Central Media Diwan (2018c) Organizational structure of the media office. Combatting Terrorism Center at West Point. Available at: https://ctc.usma.edu/app/uploads/2018/08/Organization-structure-of-the-media-office-Arabic.pdf. (accessed 12 April 2019).

37.

Iyengar

Kinder

(1987) News that Matters: Television and American Opinion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

38.

Joscelyn

(2015) Graphic promotes the Islamic State’s prolific media machine. FDD’s Long War Journal. Available at: https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2015/11/graphic-promotes-islamic-states-prolific-media-machine.php (accessed 5 July 2019).

39.

Kertzer

Zeitzoff

(2017) A bottom-up theory of public opinion about foreign policy. American Journal of Political Science 61(3): 543–548.

40.

Klausen

(2015) Tweeting the jihad: Social media networks of Western foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 38(1): 1–22. DOI: 10.1080/1057610X.2014.974948.

41.

Klausen

et al. (2012) The YouTube jihadists: A social network analysis of Al-Muhajiroun’s propaganda campaign. Perspectives on Terrorism 6(1): 36–53.

42.

Klein

(2010) The end of Al Qaeda: Rethinking the legal end of the war on terror. Columbia Law Review 110(7): 1865–1910.

43.

Knüpfer

Entman

(2018) Framing conflicts in digital and transnational environments. Media, War & Conflict 11(4): 476–488. DOI: 10.1177/1750635218796381.

44.

Kovács

(2015) The ‘new jihadists’ and the visual turn from al-Qa’ida to ISIL/ISIS/Da’ish. Bitzpol Affairs 2(5): 47–69.

45.

Kraidy

(2017) The projectilic image: Islamic State’s digital visual warfare and global networked affect. Media, Culture & Society 39(8): 1194–1209. DOI: 10.1177/0163443717725575.

46.

Kraidy

(2018) Fun against fear in the Caliphate: Islamic State’s spectacle and counter-spectacle. Critical Studies in Media Communication 35(1): 40–56. DOI: 10.1080/15295036.2017.1394583.

47.

Mahood

Rane

(2017) Islamist narratives in ISIS recruitment propaganda. Journal of International Communication 23(1): 15–35. DOI: 10.1080/13216597.2016.1263231.

48.

Manor

Crilley

(2018) Visually framing the Gaza war of 2014: The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Twitter. Media, War & Conflict 11(4): 369–391. DOI: 10.1177/1750635218780564.

49.

Medina

(2014) Social network analysis: A case study of the Islamist terrorist network. Security Journal 27(1): 97–121. DOI: 10.1057/sj.2012.21.

50.

Melki

Jabado

(2016) Mediated public diplomacy of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria: The synergistic use of terrorism, social media, and branding. Media and Communication 4(2): 92–103. DOI: 10.17645/mac.v4i2.432.

51.

Menarchik

(1985) Memo to Don Gregg Folder: Terrorism II [3 of 3]. OA/ID19849. Bush Vice Presidential Records. National Security Affairs. George Bush Presidential Library.

52.

Milton

(2016) Communication Breakdown: Unraveling the Islamic State’s Media Efforts. Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. Available at: https://ctc.usma.edu/communication-breakdown-unraveling-the-islamic-states-media-efforts/ (accessed 12 April 2019).

53.

Milton

(2018a) Down, but not out: An updated examination of the Islamic State’s visual propaganda. Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. Available at: https://ctc.usma.edu/down-but-not-out-an-updated-examination-of-the-islamic-states-visual-propaganda/ (accessed 12 April 2019).

54.

Milton

(2018b) Pulling back the curtain: An inside look at the Islamic State’s media organization. Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. Available at https://ctc.usma.edu/pulling-back-the-curtain-an-inside-look-at-the-islamic-states-media-organization/ (accessed 12 April 2019).

55.

Moore-Gilbert

(2019) A visual uprising: Framing the online activism of Bahrain’s Shi’I opposition. Media, War & Conflict 12(3): 225–247. DOI: 10.1177/1750635217741913.

56.

National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) (2019) Global Terrorism Database (data file). Available at: https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd (accessed 15 October 2019).

57.

O’Halloran

et al. (2016) Interpreting text and image relations in violent extremist discourse: A mixed methods approach for big data analytics. Terrorism and Political Violence. DOI: 10.1080/09546553.2016.1233871.

58.

Robinson

(2002) The CNN Effect: The Myth of News, Foreign Policy, and Intervention. New York: Routledge.

59.

Roggio

(2010). Al Qaeda in Iraq is ‘broken,’ cut off from leaders in Pakistan, says top US general. Long War Journal. Available at: https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2010/06/al_qaeda_in_iraq_is-3.php (accessed 8 April 2019).

60.

Scheufele

(1999) Framing as a theory of media effects. Journal of Communication 49(1): 103–122.

61.

Schwalbe

Dougherty

(2015) Visual coverage of the Lebanon war: Framing conflict in three U.S. news magazines. Media, War & Conflict 8(1): 141–162. DOI: 10.1177/1750635215571204.

62.

Seib

Janbek

(2011) Global Terrorism and New Media: The Post-Al Qaeda Generation. London: Routledge.

63.

Sharpe

(2015) Your chi-square test is statistically significant: Now what? Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation 20(8). Available at: http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=20&n=8 (accessed 10 February 2019).

64.

Torres-Soriano

(2016) The caliphate is not a tweet away: The social media experience of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 39(11): 968–981.

65.

Valentino

Hutchings

White

(2002) Cues that matter: How political ads prime racial attitudes during campaigns. American Political Science Review 96(1): 75–90.

66.

White House (2011) Remarks by the President on Osama Bin Laden, 2 May. Available at: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2011/05/02/remarks-president-osama-bin-laden (accessed 3 April 2019).

67.

White House (2019) Statement from the President on the Death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, 27 Oct. Available at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-president-death-abu-bakr-al-baghdadi/ (accessed 18 November 2019).

68.

Wignell

Tan

O’Halloran

(2017) Violent extremism and iconisation: Commanding good and forbidding evil? Critical Discourse Studies 14(1): 1–22.

69.

Winkler

et al. (2016) The medium is terrorism: Transformation of the about to die trope in Dabiq. Terrorism and Political Violence. Available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09546553.2016.1211526?scroll=top&needAccess=true (accessed 30 November 2017).

70.

Winkler

Damanhoury

Lemieux

(2018a) Validating extremism: Strategic use of authority appeals in al-Naba’ infographics. Journal of Argumentation in Context 7(1): 33–71.

71.

Winkler

Damanhoury

Dicker

Lemieux

(2018b) Images of death and dying in ISIS media: A comparison of English and Arabic print publications. Media, Conflict & War 12(3): 248–262. DOI: 10.1177/1750635217746200.

72.

Winkler

et al. (2019) Dynamic/static image use in ISIS’s media campaign: An audience involvement strategy for achieving goals. Terrorism and Political Violence. DOI: 10.1080/09546553.2019.1608953.

73.

Winter

(2015) Islamic State propaganda: Key elements of the group’s messaging. Terrorism Monitor 13(2): 7–11.

74.

Winter

(2018) Apocalypse, later: A longitudinal study of the Islamic State brand. Critical Studies in Media Communication 35(1): 103–121. DOI: 10.1080/15295036.2017.1393094.

75.

Zawahiri

(2005) Zawahiri’s letter to Zarqawi. Counter Terrorism Center at West Point. Available at: https://ctc.usma.edu/harmony-program/zawahiris-letter-to-zarqawi-original-language-2/ (accessed 15 November 2019).

76.

Zelin

(2014) The war between ISIS and al-Qaeda for supremacy of the global jihadist movement. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy 20(1): 1–11.

77.

Zelin

(2015) Picture or it didn’t happen: A snapshot of the Islamic State’s official media output. Perspectives on Terrorism 9(4): 85–97. Available at: http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/445/html (accessed 8 July 2019).

78.

Zelizer

(2010) About to Die: How News Images Move the Public. New York: Oxford University Press.

79.

Zelizer

(2018) Seeing the present, remembering the past: Terror’s representation as an exercise in collective memory. Television & New Media 19(2): 136–145.