Online propaganda use during Islamist radicalization

ABSTRACT

While a plethora of previous studies have described extremist propaganda content that seeks to radicalize individuals, there has been a lack of research on how individuals who have become Islamists perceive and describe the propaganda they have used. To address this issue and to explore the personal drivers and circumstances of propaganda usage, we conducted in-depth interviews (n = 44) with radicalized Muslim prisoners and former Islamists in Germany and Austria. Our results found that several types of propaganda are used in sequence as individuals undergo cognitive and behavioral radicalization. Propaganda during cognitive radicalization is characterized by religious frames, which strictly advocate Islam as the ‘right’ way, while propaganda used during the behavioral radicalization phase is characterized by suggestions that violence is effective, urgent, and the only way to help Muslims. This use of different kinds of propaganda can be explained by individuals’ needs and the professionalism of Islamist leaders.

KEYWORDS:

• Propaganda
• radicalization
• Islamism
• prisoners
• qualitative interviews

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Philip Baugut (PhD, LMU Munich) is an assistant professor at the Department of Communication and Media at LMU Munich, Germany. His research interests include political communication with a special focus on the relationship between media and extremism.

Katharina Neumann (PhD, LMU Munich) is a research associate at the Department of Communication and Media at LMU Munich, Germany. Her research deals with the relationship between media and extremism. She focusses on media effects on Islamists and right-wing extremists.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft: [Grant no. 407501391].