A Critical Analysis of the Jihadi Discourse through Online Magazines with Special Reference to ‘Wyeth’ Magazine
Abstract
‘Jihadism’ (also known as the jihadi movement) is a popular term that signifies the Islamic terror movement which thrives on extremist ideologies and violence. In addition to the conventional practices, the online medium is currently being employed for disseminating these extremist ideologies across the globe. Radicalisation and recruitment of geographically dispersed individuals as ‘jihadists’ for supporting Islamic terror activities tend to be the primary intent for using the digital platforms as the medium of communication in this context. One such initiative by the Lashkar-e-Taiba of Jammu and Kashmir was the release of the ‘Wyeth: The Resistance in Flow’, an e-magazine which was launched on April 2018. The first issue which was posted with an open access option was primarily designed to influence the Indian youth population through the radical interpretations of Islam. Hence, it is crucial to analyse and understand the jihadi discourse of the Wyeth magazine in order to curb and counter-attack such initiatives at its initial phase. For this purpose, the present study aims to examine the content of the Wyeth magazine and analyse the basic traits of the jihadi propaganda and its potential to aid in the self-radicalisation process.
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Biographies
M. Neelamalar, MA, MPhil, PhD is presently working as Associate Professor in the Department of Media Sciences, Anna University, Chennai, India. She has a total teaching experience of 18 years and two years of experience in the media industry. She has published research articles in various national/international journals. She has presented papers in national/international conferences, and for this purpose, she has visited countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Canada and Mauritius. She has authored five books on media including two textbooks, Media Law and Ethics and Radio Programme Production. Her other books are Kargil Revisited: Images and Perceptions of Kargil War after Ten Years and Media Coverage of 26/11 Mumbai Terror Attacks: A Study on the Print Media Coverage and its Impact on the People and Nationalism and National Integration in Tamil Films. She has also published a fiction titled An Endless Refuge, focussing on research scholars.
Mangala Vadivu Vivakaran is a PhD research scholar from the Department of Media Sciences, Anna University, Chennai. She has completed her Masters in Electronic Media and has submitted her Doctoral thesis. She was one of the contributing authors of the book titled New Directions in Media published by Bloomsbury. She has also attended and presented research papers in various national and international conferences. Her area of research includes Social Media, Higher Education, Instructional Technology, Networked Learning, Learning Analytics, Educational Media and Research 2.0.
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Article first published online: December 27, 2019
Issue published: December 2019
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