ISIS AND SOCIAL MEDIA: THE GLOBALIZATION OF TERRORISM
- Narrative Description
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIS, is a non-governmental organization that is vying for political control in Iraq and Syria. ISIS, sometimes known as ISIL, controls territories in these regions. ISIS has been responsible for a great amount of unrest in both Iraq and Syria, and has caused a lot of trouble with sectarian and terrorist violence in the regions.
ISIS has been highly successful in recruiting new members through use of social media networking strategies. Because of this success, the membership in ISIS has been younger than some of the other successful terrorist groups in the region; there has also been significant foreign involvement in the group, with young people from all parts of the world flocking to Turkey and then to Iraq and Syria to join the freedom fighting movement, as the members of ISIS refer to their movement (Ryan, 2014).
ISIS is not particularly subtle about their online presence, which makes them an excellent candidate for study. Ryan (2014) writes, “ISIS showcases its recruiting success via Twitter and Facebook, where foreign recruits themselves become propaganda tools of the group's digital war, according to Gabriel Weimann, a professor of communication at Haifa University, Israel, who has been tracking terrorists' use of the Internet for nearly 15 years” (Ryan, 2014). Thus, the focus for this discussion will be the use of media by ISIS, particularly focusing on the ability that ISIS seems to have insofar as recruiting fighters via social media.
This is a very recent phenomenon, so it makes the perfect subject for research. Although much research has been done on the use of social media by other terrorist groups like al-Qaida, but ISIS is quite different. Although they share some some characteristics, it is important to discover the reasons why ISIS has been so successful with their online recruiting program. This will help foreign nations recognize warning signs for recruitment in their citizens and also note the potential for an attack.
ISIS has been highly successful, even with foreign recruitment-- the focus of this particular discussion with center around why the group has been so successful in this particular field of recruitment, where other groups have not been nearly as successful. Without an understanding of their success, it will be impossible to stem the flow of foreign fighters that continue to flock to Turkey and over the borders into Syria and Iraq to fight with ISIS.
C. Research Required for Project
A thorough understanding of social media and other modern media technologies will help immensely insofar as completing the research for this project is concerned, How people interact over social media is important, as is a good understanding of generally how these groups recruit followers. Once the generalized research is completed, historical background data on terrorist cells in Iraq and Syria will be obtained. In addition, research will focus on ISIS propaganda, ISIS's public relations and children, and how ISIS's members recruit fighters by using social media.
The research will also consist of a survey questionnaire that will be targeted at young Muslims. This questionnaire will be given to both male and female Muslims from all walks of life, and will show them the videos that ISIS uses to recruit foreign combatants. The survey will then ask the individuals to rate their responses to the video and the Tweets that ISIS uses to convert young Muslims to the cause. This is a descriptive survey, and will also compare the results of the ISIS social media presence with the presence of another terrorist group, which has yet to be chosen. In addition to the survey, the databases will be searched for important articles relating to these issues, focusing on peer-reviewed articles that integrate information regarding new social media technologies--notably Twitter and Facebook-- with recruitment for various causes.
D. Previous Work on Project
There has been minimal work done on this particular topic before. Although another course did give me a project to work on that discussed social media in terrorist campaigns, it was merely the project that got me interested in this topic; that paper did not focus on ISIS or even the use of social media to recruit young fighters. It was much more of an overview than it was a full research paper. Although that paper gave me an excellent foundation of background knowledge on the topic, it did not go in depth and it did not allow me to conduct original research into the topic.
E. Qualifications for Project
I have experience working with Muslim people, as some of my closest friends are Muslim. I feel that this is a very important topic to discuss, and as a result, the research that I will do into the topic will be thorough and balanced. I feel that my ability to do thorough and balanced research is my biggest skill in this case.
References
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Cohen, K., Johansson, F., Kaati, L., & Mork, J. (2014). Detecting Linguistic Markers for Radical Violence in Social Media. Terrorism And Political Violence, 26(1), 246-256. doi:10.1080/09546553.2014.849948
Gerwehr, S., & Daly, S. (2006). Al-Qaida: Terrorist Selection and Recruitment (1st ed.). Retrieved from http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/reprints/2006/RAND_RP1214.pdf
Iaccino, L. (2014). Isis and Jihadi Terrorists 'Post 90 Tweets Every Minute' to Spread Propaganda.International Business Times UK. Retrieved 18 December 2014, from http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/isis-jihadi-terrorists-post-90-tweets-every-minute-spread-propaganda-1473064
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Ryan, L. (2014). Al-Qaida and ISIS Use Twitter Differently. Here's How and Why..www.nationaljournal.com. Retrieved 18 December 2014, from http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/al-qaida-and-isis-use-twitter-differently-here-s-how-and-why-20141009
Seymat, T. (2014). How nasheeds became the soundtrack of jihad. euronews. Retrieved 18 December 2014, from http://www.euronews.com/2014/10/08/nasheeds-the-soundtrack-of-jihad/
Telegraph.co.uk,. (2014). How terrorists are using social media - Telegraph. Retrieved 18 December 2014, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/islamic-state/11207681/How-terrorists-are-using-social-media.html
