“The lions of tomorrow”: a news value analysis of child images in jihadi magazines

Amy-Louise Watkin*, Seán Looney

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)
15 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This article reports and discusses the results of a study that investigated photographic images of children in five online terrorist magazines to understand the roles of children in these groups. The analysis encompasses issues of Inspire, Dabiq, Jihad Recollections (JR), Azan, and Gaidi Mtanni (GM) from 2009 to 2016. The total number of images was ninety-four. A news value framework was applied that systematically investigated what values the images held that resulted in them being “newsworthy” enough to be published. This article discusses the key findings, which were that Dabiq distinguished different roles for boys and girls, portrayed fierce and prestigious boy child perpetrators, and children flourishing under the caliphate; Inspire and Azan focused on portraying children as victims of Western-backed warfare; GM portrayed children supporting the cause peacefully; and JR contained no re-occurring findings.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)120-140
Number of pages21
JournalStudies in Conflict & Terrorism
Volume42
Issue number1-2
Early online date26 Dec 2018
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 26 Dec 2018
Externally publishedYes

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