The Weaponization of Social Media

media) all requires different product development styles and have different
production cultures associated to them as Jenkins et al. also highlights:
“Each medium has its own affordances, its own systems of
representation, its own strategies for producing and organizing
knowledge. Participants in the new media landscape learn to navigate
these different and sometimes conflicting modes of representation
and to make meaningful choices about the best ways to express their
ideas in each context”. 82
This latter point is often a challenge for more “linearly thinking” government
institutions, especially military organisations and their Public Affairs (PA)
and Information Operations (Info Ops) departments. Lastly, also the
question of how to maintain audience interest in a narrative scattered across
multiple platforms and design is a challenge when projecting a narrative
in social network media.
Nevertheless, despite the challenges involved with working with cross-media
narratives in social network media using cross-media communication
approaches, it is important for understanding how effects, at an operational
level, are achieved in and through social network media in contemporary
conflicts. Not least effects associated with psychological warfare and
deception. The latter, much debated though, many observers have claimed
that the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria have been very good at conducting
as an integral part of their terror campaign throughout 2013 and 2014.
ISLAMIC STATE IN IRAQ A CASE-STUDY ON NARRATIVE BASED CROSS-
MEDIA PRODUCTION 83
Today social network media is the weapon of choice for terrorist groups.
It facilitates recruiting, enables target-selection, and provides a conduit for
propaganda, to include the dissemination of interlinked stories (words and
images) that supports their narrative, recruitment and fundraising. This is
to a very high degree also the case for the Islamic State (IS) in Syria and
Iraq today. A significant part of IS’s activities is their online propaganda
activities that advance their narrative. Just how they are doing this from
a cross-media and narrative perspective is an interesting case study into
the weaponization of social media. From looking at their strategy, overall
narrative, strategic (information) objectives, target audiences (TA) and
associated social network media use we can see the contours of a very
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