‘To Be or Not To Be a Cyberterrorist’, That Is the Question! The Political Communication of al-Qaeda and Islamic State on Social Networks

• Main Author: Belim, Célia
• Publication Date: 2017
• Format: Article
• Language: eng
• Source: Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
• Download full: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/29297
• topic: Cyberterrorism; Digital Political Communication Strategy; Social Networks; Al-Qaeda; ISIS.

The digital political communication de­veloped by terrorists, analysing two ca­ses, al-Qaeda and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), is the main focus of this article. It is, concretely, explored, in the context of communication strategy, the use of social networks, in terms of the message evoked by these terrorist groups of modern times. Being an applied study with empirical techniques, such as content analysis and semiotic analysis, the major aim is founded, generally, in deconstructing and reconstructing the social networks communication strategies (objectives, means, message, target audience) of the terrorist groups and, deeply, in scru­tinizing the content and form of messa­ge. The data collection comprises politi­cal messages of the terrorist groups in a digital approach. To theoretically enrich the investigation, it is adopted the fra­mework of uses and gratifications. Results highlight that, thematically, “context codes” and “communication tools” are the most present in tweets related to both groups. Other issues expose the intention to build a bellige­rent and warmongering ambience. Pro­pagandistically, “strength mood” and “dissuasion” are salient, suggesting an image of dominance. “Holy war” as the major claim in tweets corroborates the ideological frame: the alliance between religion and belligerence. The videos analysed broadly convey counterpropa­ganda (inter and extra terrorist groups) and instigation to war, but not much claims (one in five videos), and are ba­sed on form techniques.