The IS media machine

By THE DATA TEAM

ISLAMIC STATE is well-versed in self-promotion. Official channels are mostly blocked, so the group uses search terms and hashtags to enable viewers to find and share its publicity materials online using social media. Slickly made and shocking, a regular stream of films depicting the beheading, shooting (and worse) of non-believers, gays, enemy soldiers and other victims have been widely reported by Western media. But these violent messages are only a tiny part of IS’s total media output according to a recent analysis by the Quilliam Foundation, a British anti-extremist think-tank. Between July 17th and August 15th this year it identified over 1,100 discrete messages—radio broadcasts, videos, tweets and articles created by IS using six core media teams and 38 regional units—and sifted them by theme.