ISIS: An Online News Media Analysis of International Recruitment
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Abstract
Beginning in the summer of 2014 through the summer of 2016, ISIS and the ISIS conflict in Iraq and Syria have frequented the headlines of mainstream news media in the Middle East and in the U.S. With consideration to the number of potential frameworks available to each news organizations, the objective of this paper is to identify the frameworks employed online by 2 U.S. mainstream news organizations and 2 Middle Eastern mainstream news organizations. A total of 189 articles were selected for the study based on key words associated with ISIS and their recruitment efforts. Overall, 7-parent codes and 14-child codes were identified, totaling 2537 excerpts and 6241 unique coding applications. The 7-parent codes identified in the study were victim, villain, so-called, religious influence, economic influence, political influence, and social influence. The 14- child codes included a breakdown of the parent code for victim (oppressed, defensive, guilty by association, conscious deception), villain (radicalized, enemy other, sympathizer, oppressor, aggressor), economic influence (revenue, impoverishment, anti- capitalism, and western impact), and religious influence (Western-centric view). The paper concludes with an analysis and discussion of results followed by recommendations for future research in the area.