User:Hannah171501/New sandbox

Editing the Article (Added text in bold)

According to Rob Wainwright, author of "Fighting Crime and Terrorism in the Age of Technology," in order for ISIS to spread its message, they have utilized more than one hundred sites. This shows how vastly social media is used by terrorist groups. Known terrorist group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also translated to ISIS, uses the widespread of news over social media to their advantage when releasing threatening videos of beheadings. As of November 16, 2014, following the beheading of former U.S. Army Ranger Peter Kassig, there have now been five recorded executions of Westerners taken captive in Syria. James Foley, David Cawthorne Haines, Alan Henning, and Steven Sotloff are also among the men kidnapped and executed by ISIS. The videos of the brutal beheadings are both posted online by ISIS, where they can be viewed by anyone using their own discretion, and sent to government officials as threats. Posting the executions online allows the terrorist groups the power to manipulate and cause havoc among the population viewing them, and the videos have the ability to instill fear within the Western world. The videos are typically high production quality and generally show the entirety of the gruesome act, with the hostage speaking a few words before they are killed on camera.

In the case of U.S. aid worker Peter Kassig, his video did not show the actual beheading act and he did not speak any final words before the execution.His silence and the fact that the actual execution was not included in the video raised question about his video was different than the rest. In response to Kassig's beheading, his family expressed their wish that news media avoid doing what the group wants by refraining from publishing or distributing the video. By refusing to circulate the video of the beheading, it therefore loses the ability to manipulate Americans or further the cause of the terrorist group.

In addition to beheading videos, ISIS has released videos of their members doing nonviolent acts. For example, Imran Awan described one such instance in his article “Cyber-Extremism: Isis and the Power of Social Media” where one video showed members of the Islamic State were seen helping people and visiting hospitals. These videos gave a humanistic nature to the terrorist group members, therefore, contradicting what civilians think terrorist groups should be.

Edgar Jones has mentioned in his article, “The Reception of Broadcast Terrorism: Recruitment and Radicalisation,” that ISIS has utilized documentaries and even their own magazine, Dabiq, in order to recruit new members and to get their message out to the public. This illustrates just a couple of the various mediums that ISIS has used.

According to Wainwright, social media is also used by ISIS and other terror groups to recruit foreign people to join the terrorist cause. In some cases, these new recruits are sent back to their home country to carry out terrorist attacks. Others who can not physically move to the terrorist cause have been known to carry out acts of terrorism in their own countries due to the propaganda that they are exposed to online. This exhibits how ISIS can brainwash or expand on ideas that individuals may have.

Shortly after a series of coordinated Christmas bombings in Kono, Nigeria, in 2011, the Nigerian-based terror group Boko Haram released a video statement defending their actions to YouTube. Boko Haram has also used Twitter to voice their opinion. Some examples of Boko Haram using Twitter as shown in Innocen Chiluwa and Adetunji Adegoke's article “Twittering the Boko Haram Uprising in Nigeria: Investigating Pragmatic Acts in the Social Media” are included here:

Twt51. @Boko_Haran. How many jets does the president have? How many jobs would that have created? Boko Haram to the rescue (#wherewedarethread)

Twt52. @Boko_Haran. The government is the terrorist. When last did you have light for 24 hrs? Boko Haram are the freedom fighters.

This also demonstrates how terrorist groups use social media to exploit their own interests.

Works Cited

Awan, Imran. “Cyber-Extremism: Isis and the Power of Social Media.” Society, vol. 54, no. 2, Apr. 2017, pp. 138–149. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s12115-017-0114-0.

Chiluwa, Innocent, and Adetunji Adegoke. “Twittering the Boko Haram Uprising in Nigeria: Investigating Pragmatic Acts in the Social Media.” Africa Today, vol. 59, no. 3, Spring 2013, pp. 83–102. EBSCOhost, doi:10.2979/africatoday.59.3.83.

Jones, Edgar. “The Reception of Broadcast Terrorism: Recruitment and Radicalisation.” International Review of Psychiatry, vol. 29, no. 4, Aug. 2017, pp. 320–326. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/09540261.2017.1343529.

WAINWRIGHT, ROB. “Fighting Crime and Terrorism in the Age of Technology.” Brown Journal of World Affairs, vol. 24, no. 2, Spring/Summer2018 2018, pp. 191–203. EBSCOhost, 199.245.164.25:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=131613728&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

== This is excellent work, Hannah. Your sources are good, and you've given good thought to what information can help fill content gaps in the WP page. You'll need to think about how best to integrate this information by introducing it and explaining its significance (think sandwich). That will require adding more specific text. Complete draft is due by March 11. JAirhart 16:00, 7 March 2019 (UTC)