The communication of horrorism: A typology of ISIS online death videos Introduction: horrorism and ISIS' aesthetics of death (original) (raw)
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The communication of horrorism: a typology of ISIS online death videos
Critical Studies in Media Communication, 2018
In this article, the authors theorize the communicative logic of ISIS online death videos from the burning and shooting of individual hostages to mass battleground executions. Drawing on Adriana Cavarero's reflections on contemporary violence, they demonstrate how ISIS' digital spectacles of the annihilated body confront Western viewers with horror-or rather with different "regimes of horrorism" (grotesque, abject and sublime horror). These spectacles of horror, the authors argue, mix Western with Islamic aesthetic practices and secular with religious moral claims so as to challenge dominant hierarchies of grievability (who is worthy of our grief) and norms of subjectivity. In so doing, the authors conclude, ISIS introduces into global spaces of publicity a "spectacular thanatopolitics"-a novel form of thanatopolitics that brings the spectacle of the savaged body, banished from display since the 19th century, back to the public stage, thereby turning the pursuit of death into the new norm of heroic subjectivity.
Since the rise of the Islamic State the world has seen a proliferation of public executions in which spectacle and theatricality have come to play an important role. Their propaganda has adopted an aesthetic style in which violence is openly displayed, celebrated and glorified. This thesis explores the role that aesthetics has in the performed and mediated execution videos of the Islamic State, by analysing the ISIS execution video that was recorded in the amphitheatre of the Ancient Syrian city of Palmyra in May 2015. The first part of the thesis is focussed on the execution as a visual spectacle within a mass-cultural tradition of display and theatricality, by discussing theory of 17th and 18th century executions in Europe. This will be followed by a discussion on the cinematic representation of executions and its effect on spectatorship. The second part will be placing the ISIS execution videos within the contemporary debate on the relation between the image and violence, by discussing the ISIS propaganda in relation to the work of Jean Baudrillard and Susan Sontag. Finally in the third part an in depth visual analysis is conducted on the Palmyra execution video, in which the role and function of aesthetics is fully explored. A study on the aesthetics of the Palmyra video resulted in the findings that the video is fully immersed in a complex set of different political, cultural, religious and historical discourses. By hijacking cinematic tropes and incorporating a theatrical ritualistic narrative, the Islamic State reintroduces a performed violence that trivialises and challenges the notions of spectatorship and enables them to showcase and sell their fantasies and controversial ideas.
Islamic State & The Artaudian Theatre Of Cruelty
Intrigued by the idea that the Islamic State's media is performing Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty, we questioned in this article whether Islamic State's use of media does indeed compare to the hellish visions of the notorious French dramaturge, and consequently ask ourselves, if so, how we should interpret and give meaning to the eventual connection between two subjects that seem so far apart, and yet so close to each other: the Theatre of Cruelty and the gruesome religiously inspired videos of Islamic State.[i] The results of our analysis confirm significant parallels between the Theatre of Cruelty and the cruel videos of Islamic State. Considering the fact that the message of cruelty is central to many of their videos, we conclude that 'Islamic State's media productions indeed implement the characteristics underlying Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty.' But what does all this mean? Cruelty and violence are indeed elements of human being's nature. Humankind has to embody it in one way or the other, and from that perspective, it is much better to incorporate these darker sides of men in the metaphysical sphere. We are deliberately speaking here of humankind, irrespective of religious or ethnic background, because there are Westerners and Easterners that have learnt this dear lesson: acknowledging the dark side of men and expressing it in art.
Deconstructing ISIS: Philippe-Joseph Salazar's Aesthetics of Terror
Philosophy & Rhetoric, 2019
Philippe-Joseph Salazar's 2017 masterpiece Words Are Weapons poses a fundamental question: Should we read al-Qaeda? Can we teach the aesthetics that made ISIS infamous? Or in studying the phenomenon do we perpetuate its influence? Government and media campaigns to counter falsehoods, take down propaganda, or superimpose interpretation seek to silence the enemy while preserving the presumed sensibilities of their intended audience. Yet such strategy leaves the door open to the infinitely more seductive power of mystery. Like Arendt's work on Eichmann, Salazar's book challenges us to confront the extreme violence of ISIS in its absolute form. What he finds is a mirror onto Western society—a culture of paralysis in the face of danger and indifference in the face of zealotry. The book is arguably the single indispensable work to date for understanding the psychological and communicative complexities of the war formerly known as the “Global War on Terrorism.”
Images of death and dying in ISIS media: A comparison of English and Arabic print publications
Media, War & Conflict
Images of death and dying in the media around the globe have a symbiotic relationship with nation states as they can bolster state control by defining who has the right to take lives in the interests of the community, by identifying enemies of the state, by demonstrating dominance over enemies, and by lending a moral posture to the state’s war efforts. Previously, the growing corpus of research on media’s display of death and about to die images has focused almost exclusively on media outlets that bolster established states on the global stage. By analyzing 1965 death and about to die images displayed in Dabiq, ISIS’s English-language magazine, and al-Naba’, the same group’s Arabic-language newspaper, this study adds an understanding of the messaging strategies deployed by groups striving to challenge, rather than reinforce, existing national boundaries. The findings suggest that while ISIS adopts some standard media practices, it also utilizes unique and audience targeted approache...
The Structure and Visual Rhetoric of the Martyrdom Video: An Enquiry into the Martyrdom Video Genre
2019
Since its inception in the 1980s, the genre of vehicular martyrdom videos has served to promote radical Islam. Its history has been generally unsystematic but it has led to the development of several story elements and formal requirements whose occurrence in martyrdom videos has become a contingency. In going beyond the structure of the martyrdom attack genre, this article provides an exemplary analysis of the visual rhetoric of the martyrdom video based on an adapted reading of Roland Barthes’ Rhetoric of the Image, adapted for the analysis of audiovisual content. The effectiveness of the genre in matters of recruitment is found in the genre’s use of pathos: the genre suggests that a martyr goes to the beyond and, from that place, sends a message to this world. This is most evident in the visual language of the genre which is ideologically informed on the level of connotation.
The aesthetics of violent extremist and counter-violent extremist communication
Countering Online Propaganda and Extremism: The Dark Side of Digital Diplomacy, 2019
For more than a decade, foreign ministries have employed online platforms in order to combat violent extremism. The US State Department first migrated online with a desire to counter the online narrative of Al-Qaeda and disrupt its recruitment strategies. Presently, counter violent extremist (CVE) activities conducted on social media are still premised on the assumption that extremist recruitment and support is facilitated through the dissemination of simple, clear narratives, and that there is subsequently a need for counternarratives to draw people away from extremism. This chapter extends recent work by arguing that should scholars of violent extremism and CVE pay attention not only to narrative but also to the broader aesthetics of communication. We do so because within the CVE literature, there is currently a focus on language and narratives, and scant attention to other communicative media such as photographs, videos, and music. This is problematic for several reasons. First, in the Digital Age, communication is reliant upon a broad range of multimedia, and to focus only on linguistic narratives in CVE is to ignore a large part of the media ecology. Second, research suggests that aesthetic media such as photographs have more of an impact on audiences than words alone. Third, an attention to aesthetics allows for an exploration of emotions and how they are of fundamental importance to CVE. Here, we argue that narratives do not simply appeal to people because of their content, but because of how they resonate with their emotions. If extremist groups are able to elicit sympathy or inspire followers through the use of images, CVE must also offer compelling images that resonate emotionally with publics. This chapter begins by offering an aesthetic understanding of communication and CVE in the contemporary media ecology. This framework advances the study of CVE beyond a qualitative analysis of narratives and toward a focus on how people interpret, make sense of, and feel emotions toward the world. Here, we build upon important work that has found that aesthetic media such as images are integral to people's understandings, emotions, and beliefs about events and issues in world politics (Bleiker, 2001; Williams, 2003; Hansen, 2011). We then focus on analyzing the narratives and images published by the CVE Twitter channel @Coalition, which is a collaborative channel operated by member states of the Global Coalition against Daesh. This CVE channel is an important case study for several reasons. First, @Coalition differs from most CVE channels as its content represents the policies and actions of both 'Western' and majority Muslim countries (such as the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Jordan). As such, the narrative disseminated on @Coalition with regard to the Muslim faith, and Daesh's self-proclamation as an Islamic state, may differ from narratives disseminated by Western Ministries of Foreign Affairs (such as that of the British Government @UKAganistDaesh). Second, as this channel is spearheaded by the US State Department, UK Foreign Office, and the United Arab Emirates Sawab center, its messaging may be viewed by Muslim social media users as more authentic, leading to higher levels of engagement and a greater willingness to share @Coalition content. Third, @Coalition is meant to complement the Global Coalition's off-line activities.
Shock and Awe: Performativity, Machismo and ISIS
Looking at the ISIS beheadings through the analytical lens of performativity opens up insights concerning the significance of media discourse between the US/UK and ISIS, as well as interrelated competition regarding ideas of masculinity and sexual superiority. By considering the beheadings as performed violence, taking into account Juris" ideas about performativity in particular, it is understood that they are instances of violence in which their perpetrators communicate and "seek to produce social transformation by staging symbolic rituals of confrontation."[i] This understanding of performed violence is in line Jabri"s understanding of violence as a means of political communication, resulting from its social and cultural context[ii], and Butler"s ideas about performativity in relation to sexual identity, or gender as performed and communicated through violence, media and other means. [iii][iv] The ISIS beheadings are part of a wider war of images,[v] furthermore, as well as war of masculinities [vi], and can be better understood as part of a tit-for-tat struggle between ISIS and the UK/US, using media to communicate competitive ideas of sexual superiority. By considering the ISIS beheadings through media and sexual discourse, their meaning and even causeincluding the role of the US and UK in provoking such public political violencecan be better understood.
Jihadi Beheading Videos and their Non-Jihadi Echoes
Perspectives on Terrorism, 2018
In recent years, the Islamic State terror organization has become notorious for its evil brutality. The brutal nature of its propaganda (distributed mostly online) inspires Jihadi sympathizers around the world, encouraging them to use violence against " the enemies of Islam ". This form of violent behavior has also been adopted and imitated by others – including non-Muslim individuals and groups – regardless of their geographic location, worldview, religion, ethnicity, or nationality. Drawing from numerous examples, this article illustrates two processes: first, the " mainstreaming " of beheadings among Jihadists, and second, the imitation of this method (decapitation) by individuals motivated by other kinds of extremism.
Jihadi Audiovisuality and Its Entanglements: Meanings, Aesthetics, Appropriations (Edinburgh University Press), 2020
In 12 case studies, this book examines the different ways in which Jihadi groups and their supporters use visualisation, sound production and aesthetic means to articulate their cause in online as well as offline contexts. Divided into four thematic sections, the chapters probe Jihadi appropriation of traditional and popular cultural expressions and show how, in turn, political activists appropriate extremist media to oppose and resist the propaganda. By conceptualising militant Islamist audiovisual productions as part of global media aesthetics and practices, the authors shed light on how religious actors, artists, civil society activists, global youth, political forces, security agencies and researchers engage with mediated manifestations of Jihadi ideology to deconstruct, reinforce, defy or oppose the messages.