Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont CMC Senior Theses CMC Student Scholarship 2021 Viral Jihad: A Genealogy of al-Qaeda and ISIS' Propaganda Renee Perper Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses Part of the International Relations Commons, and the Near and Middle Eastern Studies Commons Recommended Citation Perper, Renee, "Viral Jihad: A Genealogy of al-Qaeda and ISIS' Propaganda" (2021). CMC Senior Theses. 2694. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/2694 This Open Access Senior Thesis is brought to you by Scholarship@Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in this collection by an authorized administrator. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Claremont McKenna College Viral Jihad: A Genealogy of al-Qaeda and ISIS’ Propaganda Submitted to: Heather Ferguson & Hicham Bou Nassif By: Renee Perper For Senior Thesis Two Semester Thesis March 3, 2021 Abstract: For the past twenty years, the United States has been at war. Yet, while invocations of war often evoke images of soldiers on the battlefield, the war the U.S. has been fighting looks far different. In the past two decades, the U.S. has attempted to curb the impact of terrorist organizations’ media usage. This paper explores the genealogy of that media battle through a case study of al-Qaeda and ISIS’ media apparatuses. It argues that, often overlooked, is the role that media plays as a foundational element in both groups’ organizational structures. Moreover, this paper will demonstrate how ISIS has expounded on the success of al-Qaeda’s media strategy, thereby creating an online caliphate. Ultimately, this paper will conclude that new strategies and ways of thinking about the war on terror will need to be developed in for the U.S.