Pulling Back the Curtain: An Inside Look at the Islamic State's Media Organization

Abstract

Over the past five years, there has been a significant amount of discussion on the propaganda created and disseminated by the Islamic State. This discourse, which mainly relies on what the group creates for external publication, has been unable to answer questions regarding the structure, policies, and management of the groups media arm. This Combating Terrorism Center report draws on 13 internal documents that discuss the Islamic States media organization in great detail. These documents, obtained by the Department of Defense from Afghanistan, provide an insightful look at how the Islamic State managed its media network. More specifically, this report utilizes these documents to (1) demonstrate that Amaq News Agency is an official node of the Islamic States media organization, (2) show the level of detail and direction given to the creation of a wide range of products, (3) illustrate the way the Islamic States Diwan of Central Media used policies and programs to centralize control over the propaganda production process, and (4) outline the importance the media organization placed on information security.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 2018
Accession Number
AD1061034

Entities

People

  • Daniel Milton

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Best Practices
  • Cameras
  • Closed Loop Systems
  • Department Of Defense
  • Feedback
  • Governments
  • Information Security
  • Internet
  • Language
  • Military Operations
  • Organizational Structure
  • Quality Control
  • Security
  • Social Media
  • Terrorism
  • United States
  • United States Military Academy

Readers

  • International Journalism and Media Studies.
  • Organizational Process Management (OPM).
  • Strategic Security Studies