Images, visions and narrative identity formation of ISIS

Heck, Axel

doi:10.1080/23269995.2017.1342490

Cited by 22 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Notorious for the high-quality production and viral distribution of a large number of visual material addressing audiences worldwide, the IS group developed a unique communication strategy that earned it critical acclaim in the international community (Heck, 2017). At first, the vast majority of its official media releases were in Arabic, 2 but gradually the group launched several magazines in different languages to reach audiences beyond a specific language.…”

Section: The Group's Transnational Magazinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As more audiences were confronted with this sophisticated media material, the group's transnational magazines did not escape the attention of qualitative researchers. A few studies focused on how Dabiq magazine was used to develop and create a narrative identity (i.e., Heck, 2017; Ingram 2016, 2017). Heck (2017) analyzed two articles in Dabiq and revealed insights about how the group legitimized its existence and justified terrorism based on identity narratives.…”

Section: Literature Review and Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The age of terrorism media: The visual narratives of the Islamic State Group's Dabiq magazine

Fahmy

2019

International Communication Gazette

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Soon after the Islamic State group declared itself to be the new ‘Caliphate’ on June 28, 2014, it launched an official transnational English-language magazine called Dabiq. The magazine, with a global outreach that transcended national and regional boundaries, covered the group's strategic direction, military strategy, and alliances. This research seeks to explain the crucial role its photographs had in framing the group's visual narratives and how these narratives transformed over time. Drawing on recent literature, this work discusses the new trends in terrorism media and incorporates new ways to operationalize and measure framing in the context of visual communication and global terrorism. The work concludes by a discussion of the global implications of the findings and points out limitations and suggestions for future research.

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Section: The Group's Transnational Magazinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Review and Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

The age of terrorism media: The visual narratives of the Islamic State Group's Dabiq magazine

Fahmy

2019

International Communication Gazette

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“…The pledge is made to the 'leader', not to any organisation. On 17 November 2014, Monis posted a brief statement in Arabic on his website: Download extremist sermons and speeches (Rocca, 2017;Winter, 2018) Access online propaganda and recruitment material (Berger, 2015;Mahood and Rane, 2017) Download Islamic State online magazines Dabiq and Rumiyah (Droogan and Peattie, 2017;Jacoby, 2018;Wignell et al, 2018) View violent extremist videos of bombings, shootings and beheadings (Abrahams et al, 2017;Cottee and Cunliffe, 2018) Network with other jihadists by encrypted apps (Shehabat et al, 2017) Develop an online or social media 'foot-print' (Weirman and Alexander, 2018) Broadcast an intent ('leakage') to commit a terrorist attack (Schuurman and Eijkman, 2015) Pledge loyalty (bay'ah) to Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the caliph of Islamic State (Wagemakers, 2015) Use images of the Islamic State Black Standard flag (Bahari and Hassan, 2014) Leave a terrorist or propaganda message (Zelin, 2015) Leave a martyrdom video (Hafez, 2007;Heck, 2017) Send messages or upload images or video during the attack (Burke, 2016) The wording of the statement reveals more about Monis' narcissism than any professed loyalty to the caliph. Monis pledged allegiance only to 'God', 'his messenger' (the Prophet Muhammad) and 'the Caliphate of the Muslims'.…”

Section: Man Haron Monis -No Leakage No Terrorist Messagementioning

confidence: 99%

The Sydney Lindt café siege: The role of the consultant psychiatrist

Scott

2019

Aust N Z J Psychiatry

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Background: In December 2014, after a 16-hour siege of the Lindt café in Sydney, Iranian-born gunman Man Haron Monis shot dead a hostage precipitating the police action which broke the siege. Objective: This paper reviews the demographic and other factual details of Monis as documented by the NSW Coroner’s Inquest and critically analyses the published findings of the Coroner particularly in relation to the role of the psychiatrist who advised senior police and negotiators during the siege. Results: At the time of the siege, there was no formal protocol that delineated the role of a psychiatrist in hostage negotiations. Despite the psychiatrist’s credentials including his extensive experience with siege-hostage incidents and his counter-terrorist training, the Coroner was unfairly critical of the psychiatrist. Conclusion: The Coroner’s censure of the psychiatrist was clearly prejudiced by hindsight bias. During the siege, the psychiatrist properly considered and evaluated all the available intelligence and other information known about the gunman. As the psychiatrist advised, Monis was a narcissist and the siege was not an Islamic State-inspired terrorist attack. Given that he announced he was armed with a bomb, Monis represented a ‘ credible threat’ to the hostages. The psychiatrist’s endorsement of the police strategy to ‘ contain and negotiate’ was prudent in the circumstances. The Coroner’s disparagement of the senior psychiatrist may have the unintended consequence that psychiatrists may be reluctant to assist in hostage-sieges or other critical incidents.

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“…(2) The ISIS interpretation of Islam is "evidence" of its religious superiority and legitimacy, therefore other interpretations are not authentic. (3) A narrative concerning the desire for global dominance by ISIS as a result of the stated religious supremacy of Salafi-Jihadist Sunnis (Heck 2017). One observer noted "the common elements of a typically romantic narrative found in many of our classical literary stories in which the heroic righteous ISIS underdog fighter is struggling against an unjust and evil western adversary for a sacred Islamic ideal and a better future in the form of a Caliphate" (Spencer 2017: 263).…”

Section: Isis: Creating and Communicating A Brandmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are some good reasons for pursuing this approach though. These terrorist organizations have proven themselves to be very adept at simultaneously communicating to different groups and interests, which has provoked both policy-oriented and academic interest (Heck 2017;Holbrook 2014). Leading brands of terrorist organizations, such as ISIS, have been very successful in communicating their political cause through branding and marketing strategies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brand ISIS: Interactions of the Tangible and Intangible Environments

Simons

2018

Journal of Political Marketing

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This article investigates how the infamous terrorist organization Islamic State (ISIS) uses branding and political marketing as means to increase their intangible value and assets in order to influence their tangible (operational) capacities. In order to investigate the logic of a terrorist organization as a political actor a perspective of political communication is applied as a means to understand more clearly the propaganda of the word and the propaganda of the deed. A systematic communication approach is used to raise awareness of the ISIS brand in order to differentiate the organization and to create a greater sense of credibility and authenticity in an increasingly crowded marketplace of terrorist organizations seeking for attention, support, and fear. Aspects of political marketing are used in order to create sets of relationships of attraction and avoidance with different target audiences. The 15 issues of the magazine Dabiq are examined and analyzed within this approach. However, intangible communication and tangible realities do affect each other. This is evident when there is a swing from military victories to military defeats, which impacts on the quality and quantity of communicational materials produced by ISIS.

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Images, visions and narrative identity formation of ISIS

Cited by 22 publications

References 34 publications

The age of terrorism media: The visual narratives of the Islamic State Group's Dabiq magazine

The age of terrorism media: The visual narratives of the Islamic State Group's Dabiq magazine

The Sydney Lindt café siege: The role of the consultant psychiatrist

Brand ISIS: Interactions of the Tangible and Intangible Environments

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