ISIS as Portrayed by Foreign Media and Mass Culture. Report presentation
Moscow, Valdai Discussion Club Conference Hall
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ISIS AS PORTRAYED BY FOREIGN MEDIA AND MASS CULTURE
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On February 25, 2016, within the framework of the Valdai Discussion Club conference "The Middle East: from violence to security" there was a presentation of the report "ISIS as Portrayed by Foreign Media and Mass Culture", prepared by employees of the Faculty of Communications, Media and Design, National Research University Higher School of Economics.

The first part of the report examines the construction of ISIS image in the print media of the USA, Great Britain and several Asian countries in the period from June 29, 2014 (Declaration of ISIS Caliphate in controlled areas of Iraq and Syria) to November 30, 2015. The authors found out that all publications represented this terrorist organization as an enemy that must be destroyed, and with whom it is impossible to negotiate. There are no publications that would paint ISIS in a positive light (for example, as fighters for a just cause).

Analyzing the frequency of references to the terrorist organization in the Western media, the authors determined two peaks - in connection with the execution of an American photojournalist James Foley in August 2014 and the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015.

Among the personalities mentioned by the Western media in the ISIS context, leads Barack Obama (30% of mentions). Second place is occupied by Bashar al-Assad (16%), the third - by Vladimir Putin (9%). The only representative of ISIS, which entered in the Top-20 mentions, is the leader of the terrorist organization Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. In this connection, the authors mention a high level of impersonality of ISIS image in world media: unlike Osama bin Laden, al-Baghdadi did not become a popular hero in the news.

Assessing the overall tonality of ISIS coverage in traditional media, the authors stress that media try to describe a fundamentally new socio-political phenomenon with outdated language, which does not allow to convey the essence of the phenomenon.
 
Other matter is popular culture, studied in the second part of the report. Analyzing ISIS image in popular culture by the example of cinema, the authors conclude that the artistic works show greater ingenuity and freshness of the language than the traditional media.

Summing up the presentation of the report, Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Valdai Discussion Development and Support Foundation, drew attention to the role of popular culture in shaping perceptions of global issues by millions of people. According to him, the authors were able not only to investigate the nature of ISIS media coverage, but also to show how the activities of this terrorist organization is reflected in the Western mentality.