We live in an age of information availability that is unprecedented in the history of mankind. Never before have the vast majority of individual persons had such access to both information gathering but also information production. Social media allows the individual or organizations to spread their ideas rapidly and disperse them globally to a massive multi-national audience. This fact has not be lost on extremist organizations such as Al Qaeda and of late the Islamic State (IS).
Some like to consider groups like the IS, perhaps in light of their continued acts of barbarity, to be primitive, cave dwelling, hill fighters who will be easily defeated; sadly the truth is that they are not and will not be. Like Al Qaeda before them, the IS has shown itself to be adept at information operations (info ops) and publicizing their cause through the use of modern technology and both traditional and social media outlets. Not only are they highly adept, they are in many ways performing better than Western info ops.
The IS produces their own magazine called Dabiq, they produce recruiting videos designed to recruit internationally, and the most shock oriented of all the recent videos of the beheadings of American journalists. Despite, or perhaps because of, the ferosity displayed in these media releases they are succeeding in attracting members to their cause. They are attracting volunteers from Canada, volunteers from Britain, and volunteers from the United States in amongst others from across the globe. In fact when it comes to British recruitment for the IS, more British Muslims have volunteered to join the IS than the British army. Regardless of the condemnation of the IS and other similar organizations, their ideology and goals appear to be well received by significant numbers of Western citizens.
What the Western world also needs to understand as that the messages designed by organizations like the IS and Al Qaeda are intentionally designed to have a specific effect. The greatest media coup thus far for an extremist organization was Al Qaeda's successful attack on the World Trade Centre on 9/11. This attack was a pure info op from its inception. Immediately after those two towers fell everyone across the United States and throughout the world knew who Al Qaeda was, what their goals were, and what they were capable of doing to actualize them; shock and awe media in its purest form. The intent of the latest stream of beheading videos is designed in the same vein; the IS know that such videos shock the West and that the Western media will disperse them and dicuss their impact. Unfortunately extremist organizations know that Western media is a strategic point that can be effectively used to push their message.
The sophistication of info ops by groups such as the IS should be cause for concern; those who control the message control the argument. The IS is capable of producing modern quality videos, magazines, and distribute them through modern media outlets and their efforts have proven to be successful in gaining support and disseminating their ideology. To destroy an extremist organization their ideology must be attacked as vigorously as their fighters or it will continue to survive as a smouldering fire waiting to erupt once more.
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