Just look at the pictures: Imagery use in jihadi magazines, 1984-2022
A sandwich lunch will be provided
Propaganda is widely believed to be a force multiplier for rebel groups, but the unwieldiness of audiovisual data has made it difficult to examine in replicable ways. In this working paper, I try to specify the quantity and quality of imagery use in radical Islamist propaganda by deploying layout parsing and image classification tools on a near-complete collection of jihadi magazines from 1984 to the present day (~2000 issues). The findings corroborate the observation from qualitative research that jihadi magazines have become more graphical over time, but also highlight less obvious patterns relating to image content, colour palettes, and more. The paper illustrates the growing wieldiness of image data, which bodes well for the study of visual aspects of politics.
Date: 2 December 2022, 13:00 (Friday, 8th week, Michaelmas 2022)
Venue: Manor Road Building, Manor Road OX1 3UQ
Venue Details: Seminar Room C
Speaker: Thomas Hegghammer (University of Oxford)
Organising department: Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR)
Organisers: Christine Sheldon (University of Oxford), Prof Lenka Bustikova (University of Oxford), Dr Neil Ketchley (Associate Professor in Politics, St Antony’s College), Marta Antonetti (University of Oxford), Zack Grant (University of Oxford), Professor Petra Schleiter (University of Oxford)
Part of: Politics Research Colloquium and Oxford Constitutional Studies Forum
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editors: Helen Morley, Holly Omand, Rebecca Freeman, Joby Mullens, Daniel Burton