The media image of the ISIS group and the appearance of its propaganda discourse in Iraq (survey study)

According to James Verini, a well-known American journalist, the rise of ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) dates back to the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. “He’s going to die now: Mosul and the fall of the caliphate,” he said. And it has excluded some media people in this regard.

 Therefore, the researcher saw the need to study this contemporary phenomenon, which has become a source of concern for the world, taking the lives of thousands of innocent people and displacing large numbers of Iraqi families.

 The researcher has chosen the title “The media image of the ISIS group and the appearance of its propaganda discourse in Iraq from the point of view of Dhi Qar journalists” for the present dissertation, which has two approaches; The first approach is to express the nature of ISIL propaganda image using various media and the second approach is to examine the relationship between media traits and years of service of journalists and the effects of this media image in forming the structure of propaganda discourse and its impact on media and psychological warfare.

 In the executive chapter, the researcher addresses the issue: “What is the opinion of the journalists who are members of the Iraqi Journalists’ Union – Dhi Qar Branch about the media image of the ISIL group and the manifestations of its propaganda discourse in Iraq?” And has the media image become a phenomenon through which ISIL has been able to create a propaganda discourse that intimidates others and achieves costly victories, and this has sometimes led to mass failures and setbacks in some areas?

 The researcher also points out the importance of research and the urgent need for it and emphasizes that the importance of this research stems from recognizing the methods used to achieve terrorist goals to prevent its development in the future; As for the aims of the research, it should be said that we have had several goals, including: expressing the concept of the propaganda image that ISIL has used as tools of show and propaganda pressure; An image that casts a shadow over the Iraqi, Arab and world media and uses the events that ISIL has carried out inside Iraq in order to intimidate the people through these unexpected events that ISIL has spread in the media in general.

 Despite the fact that ISIL was present in Iraq and the Levant, the researcher chose only the Iraqi border for the dissertation because the situation between Iraq and Syria is different and the investigation period is from (10/06/2014 to 13/06/2019). The date is considered the military end of ISIL, but the thinking and behavior of ISIL is not over yet.

 The researcher has selected journalists from Dhi Qar province who were members of the Journalists’ Union as a research community; The researcher pays attention to the characteristics of each sample, his method of work and his use of media to express the unspoken, reveal facts and express its dimensions, as well as how to mediate the content and hopes to achieve results through this dissertation that recognize methods and ISIS brutal patterns help; The propaganda methods that ISIL has used to intimidate, mislead public opinion and balance the media in the future.

The researcher found that savagery in ISIL’s propaganda discourse is part of psychological warfare. The researcher hopes to use the results of his dissertation in order to defend the country and the people and to reform the media process (in general) in the face of such horror, and to eliminate the demagogic forms that have distinguished ISIL and are creative and calculated. Which was unpredictable and grew in the beginning and stabilized in the minds of the people and disrupted the political, security and social systems of Iraq.