Communication strategies of the Islamic State in the contemporary scene of mediatization

Abstract

This article discusses the group commonly referred to as the Islamic State (IS; ISIS) as a place of mediatic production and its connections with contemporary mediatic and non-mediatic culture. It examines the ways in which the type of terrorism practiced by the group, its strategies, and its very emergence are inseparable from its interaction with the means of communication; how its existence and action are tied to the media logic. It proposes that this phenomenon is representative of mediatization, the contemporary condition of society and culture in which means of communication establish a particularly dominant relation with other social institutions so that it is not possible to conceive them outside such dynamics. Based on the discussion of works that analyze aspects of the question studied, complemented by the examination of materials made public by the ISIS through different platforms, and written about it in diverse media, the article deals with the formation of the group and the ways in which it incorporated the patterns, as well as technologic and symbolic resources of interaction of various media formats, ranging from mass media to the “new” media. In this process, ISIS is able to circulate its messages among a multiplicity of audiences.

Keywords: Islamic State, terrorism, mediatization.