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The Visualization of an “Islamic State in Iraq and greater Syria” – Religio-political conflict mediatized
Abstract
The Syrian uprising is increasingly shaped by religious language. Not so much the call for freedom and self-expression dominates the public sphere but rather attempts at religiously framing the conflict between the Baath regime and the Syrian people. Images seem to be a key instrument among the different actors in mutually contesting their interpretation of reality as they allow conveying information much more direct than lingual descriptions as well as to simplify complex contexts and do not pose as high a risk of objection as lingual communication does. These images, still or moving, can act as support for an ideology on a formal as well as structural level and thereby fulfil tactical and strategic purposes. They have to be regarded as (artistic) treatment of socially dynamic processes which shall create a personal relation of the audience with the depicted subjects. The paper will analyze the media representation of the “Islamic State in Iraq and greater Syria” (ISIS), an extreme Islamist (or Jihadist) group linked to al-Qa’ida by exploring graphics mainly distributed on the Internet. It argues that Jihadist groups are foremost able to operate for a long time in unstable environments like Iraq and Syria because they communicate effectively with their audience in and out of the battlefield-country. The paper will particularly analyze means of visual communication and look at which motifs, subject matters, themes and typologies the ISIS applies to access the horizon(s) of experience and the cultural memory of its recipients in manifold ways and poses its ideological framework as a basis for the interpretation of the ongoing violent conflict. It will show how specific traditions of motifs are rebuilt, reconstructed or even changed and how a convergence of image and word are employed in order to support the group’s ideology and political goals.
Discipline
Media Arts
Geographic Area
Iraq
Syria
The Levant
Sub Area
None