Shock and Inspire

This chapter provides a systematic overview of Islamic State (IS) video production, highlighting its key features, organization, and role in the group’s full-spectrum propaganda effort. To do so, the chapter combines a quantitative, descriptive analysis of overall video production (in terms of production volume and quality), with a qualitative analysis of the major “scripts”—that is, frequent standardized combinations of spoken and visual components constructing micro-narratives that partake of IS’s broader propaganda message. Mainstream media has contributed to establish IS’s videos as “instant icons” that shape the dominant visual representation of IS and Islamism more generally among Western populations.