Media Persuasion and the Islamic State by Neil Krishan Aggarwal
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Written by Juan Ricardo David D.C. LEJARDE
LINK TO ARTICLE
EXCERPT
Scholarly portrayals of the group often focus on the mediums they used to spread propaganda such as social media, video platforms, and the internet. Irrespective of the medium, less attention is given to the set of methods they employed to influence the consumers of their media (Bodine-Baron et al. 2016; Blaker 2016; Khawaja and Khan 2016).
In his book, Media Persuasion in the Islamic State, Dr. Neil Aggarwal argues that his specialization in cultural psychology may hold the answers to the puzzle of the Islamic State’s propaganda. Dr. Aggarwal takes a chronological view of the subject, beginning with the propaganda materials of its precursor organizations and tracing the evolution of its methods until the time the caliphate was declared in Raqqa, Iraq. Through comprehensive research on various documents, videos, and other forms of cultural output like songs and poems, Dr. Aggarwal paints a compelling and fairly unified picture of the group’s messaging.
AUTHOR
Juan Ricardo David D.C. LEJARDE is currently studying Master of Arts in Asian Studies specializing in West Asia at the Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman.
