Using local perspectives to counter ISISįor the last two years, the most relevant academic, governmental, and multilateral institutions have been working to counter the sophisticated digital communication strategy developed by ISIS since 2014. Given these facts, it is more important than ever to analyze and understand the role of audiovisual communication in the radicalization of terrorists and to define an efficient way to counter it. Finally, one month before the January 7 attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo, ISIS released a video where a group of young French citizens asked their peers to enlist in the ranks of terrorist group. One month earlier, ISIS had released a video on social media encouraging young French citizens to commit terrorist attacks. Something similar happened on June 26, when a terrorist inspired by ISIS committed a terrorist attack in Lyon.

On October 31, fourteen days before the attacks in Paris, ISIS released a video encouraging young people in France to join the terrorist group. During the last two weeks, events have shown that threats to those countries were not only digital, but also real. France follows, with almost 20 in the same timeframe.

The country that has received the most threats by ISIS via videos broadcasted on social media is Russia, with more than 25 in two years. But at the same time, there are significant grounds to suspect that the ISIS audiovisual communication through social networks might be linked with the terrorist attacks. It would be simplistic to conclude that the terrorists of Paris committed the attack because they watched ISIS videos on the internet. It is hard to measure the real impact that the audiovisual strategy of ISIS on social media has in the radicalization process of a terrorist.

Isis videos