Daesh Propaganda, the organization’s strategies to amplify his presence

Ahmed Lamloum

Daesh terrorist  organization is known for; firstly its savage crimes, secondly: promoting it. Some specialists believe that the media activity of the organization is an indicator that measures the organization’s effect on the ground.

One year following Daesh’s loss of the Syrian city of Raqqa (liberated by the Syrian Democratic Forces in October 2017), the BBC’s monitoring service published a report on the organization’s media performance after losing the last major city it has controlled since its establishment.

The loss of the city of Raqqa in October 2017 caused a severe shock to media activity. On November 23, 2017, the organization stopped publishing it news via its accounts on “Telegram” for 25 hours.

“This silence is unprecedented. The pace of media publishing has considerably slowed down in the past few weeks, but it has not stopped in full for 24 hours,”  Charlie Winter, a researcher at the International Center for Extremism and Political Violence said.

The total number of articles published by the organization through its media outlets in November 2017 was 307 articles, including data on carrying the  responsibility of the attacks, photos and videos. Also, in December only 326 news were published comparing to 950 news per month in 2017 until September, which reflects the severe damage the media experienced after the loss of Raqqa.

However, the organization showed signs of gradual recovery in promotional activity by January 2018, in terms of quantity and quality of promotional material. The average number of publications on its media platforms from January to September this year was about 610 items per month, which reflects a drop of 66% compared to the same period of 2017.

With the beginning of the recovery of Daesh’s media, there were significant differences in the content produced due to its loss in battles. The organization stopped producing video clips and pictures that promote “good life under its rule” which included content about children studying at the schools of the organization, the markets full of fresh products, and religious Daesh police, known as the “Hesba” which walking the streets.

These images and videos were replaced by unspecified attacks and battles in an attempt to prove the organization’s ability to repulse the attack. However, the days when the organization declared control over large areas and entire cities have ended.
Daesh also stopped issuing “Rumiyah” magazine, published in English in addition to 10 other languages, which was a key aspect of the media activity of the organization. The magazine stopped completely in October 2017. This is a major development for an organization that seeks to reach an international audience. It only kept publishing the Arabic-language weekly Al-Nabaa.

It also lost its own radio station “al-Bayan”, which was broadcasted from the Iraqi city of Mosul and the Syrian city Raqqa. It was an important element in promoting the organization as a state with media outlets.

The organization tried to minimize the impact of its inability to broadcast the radio channel, by producing a voice news bulletin on its Telegram channel. In recent months, it tried to develop and improve its media content on Telegram, which is used for encrypted messaging.

Since April, Daesh has added English translation for the Arabic content it publishes through its channel on Telegram as well as adding French translations in order to  reach larger audience.

Since August, Daesh has produced video, audio, and written version of a new weekly series called “Soldiers’ Harvest”, which is mainly for publishing statistics on the attacks it carried out, along with the timing, place, attack type and targets.

The release of such content illustrates how the organization wants to magnifies its presence. Due to its military setbacks, it is likely to continue investing heavily in its media outlets to keep its fighters and supporters in line and to recruit new soldiers.