The Representational Strategies of Lionization and Victimization in ISIS’s Online Magazine, Dabiq
September 18, 2023
This paper is a multimodal critical discourse study of self-representation in ISIS’s e-magazine, Dabiq, employing Social Movement Theory and Van Leeuwen’s Socio-semantic Inventory. By analyzing the linguistic and non-linguistic features in the representation of social actors and actions in Dabiq, ISIS’s implied ideology at the macro level, which is to convince the prospective recruits and ...
Upvoting Extremism: Collective Identity Formation and the Extreme Right on Reddit
September 18, 2023
Since the advent of the Internet, right-wing extremists and those who subscribe to extreme right views have exploited online platforms to build a collective identity among the like-minded. Research in this area has largely focused on extremists’ use of websites, forums, and mainstream social media sites, but overlooked in this research has been an exploration ...
Online influence, offline violence: language use on YouTube surrounding the ‘Unite the Right’ rally
September 18, 2023
The media frequently describes the 2017 Charlottesville ‘Unite the Right’ rally as a turning point for the alt-right and white supremacist movements. Social movement theory suggests that the media attention and public discourse concerning the rally may have engendered changes in social identity performance and visibility of the alt-right, but this has yet to be ...
Hard(Wired) For Terror: Unraveling the Mediatized Roots and Routes of Radicalization
September 18, 2023
(Hard)Wired for Terror is divided into two parts. In the first part, (the ‘Roots’ ) we provide a historical, semantic analysis of the concepts of radicalism, extremism and terrorism, and how they are interconnected. Furthermore, a comprehensive overview is presented of the state of the art in which the current radicalization and terrorism research is ...
Abu Musab al-Suri Goes Online: Conditions for the Success of Jihadist Online Strategies
September 18, 2023
This paper utilizes Social Movement Theory to analyze the online strategies of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. Applying Social Movement Theory, this paper argues that the relative online successes of each group can be explained through this theory of radicalization through social engagement. This paper looks at the writings of al-Qaeda strategist, Abu Musab al-Suri, ...