4. Conclusion
Neither Western analysts nor Muslim commentators, including jihadis, have seen a group like Islamic State before, relentless not only in its approach to the battlefield but also to the conflicts of the media arena, especially online. IS has been described as “the first terrorist organization to use the internet efficiently to spread its ideology and recruit followers in the region and abroad” (Cohen, 2016; abstract). Of course, many organizations, including those with a religious agenda, use a variety of media to communicate their messages, encourage adherents and draw in new followers. For example, the Roman Catholic Church’s Pope Francis has been called a “master communicator” who operates nine Twitter accounts, all in different languages, and has successfully changed perceptions of the church (Thompson, 2015). Nor is Islamic State the only jihadist group to publish a magazine and to seek to harness media to its purposes. One example is the Global Islamic Media Front, which publishes a magazine called Al Risalah, an Arabic name which means “a letter” (Magazine-by-the-mujahideenof-shaam-al-risalah-issue-1., 2015, p. 3).
