Media and Islamist radicalization. An analysis of reciprocal media effects on Islamist radicalization processes, the characteristics, and causes of local media coverage of the Islamist scene

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Philip Baugut
• Subject Area: Communication Sciences
• Term: from 2018 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 407501391

• Final Report Year: 2023

Final Report Abstract

Islamism is a global problem that is often preceded by local radicalization processes with potential for public arousal. Therefore, in five local hotspots with a strong Islamist scene, communication studies were conducted to determine (a) how reporting and propaganda affect Islamist actors, (b) how the relevant reporting patterns can be described, and (c) what influences that reporting is subject to. The findings showed that the Islamist radicalization of local actors can also be explained by reporting and its interaction with propaganda. Reporting patterns that emphasize and construct the dangerousness of the local scene, for example, by stereotypically placing Islam in a radicalization context, helping individual heads of the scene to gain local prominence, associating local Salafist groups with violence and providing a platform for staging violence, proved to be problematic. Islamist actors viewed journalistic media on the one hand as an indicator of a state-media fight against Islam that required resistance, and on the other hand as an incentive to gain media attention through radicalization. The findings suggest that the journalistic emphasis on Islamist dangers contributed to a climate of opinion in which state actors ultimately used repressive measures to induce the Salafist scene to withdraw from the public sphere. In line with these media impact findings, the focus of the strongly event-driven local reporting was on Islamist violence and state (counter)measures. Dangers of Islamism were constructed precisely by a lack of differentiation between Islam, non-violent and violent Islamism. Reports that varied between hotspots could largely be explained by key events. These consisted of activities by the local scene, which received the desired media platform in case of violence, while non-violent activities ultimately led to media exaggerations of dangers that no longer corresponded to the desired representation of the respective scene. Relevant reporting patterns were explained (a) on a micro level by journalists’ rather passive role conception and uncertainty about the actual potential for danger, (b) on a meso level by a lack of editorial resources, and (c) on a macro level by media competition, journalistic co-orientation and the complexity of the Islamism issue. Accordingly, journalism became dependent on information from the security authorities, which gave them the potential to instrumentalize the media. Overall, it became clear that journalistic production conditions are ultimately also relevant parameters for media-ethical action in the context of prevention and (de-) radicalization.

Publications

• Describing perceptions of media influence among radicalized individuals. The case of jihadists and non-violent Islamists. Paper presented at the AEJMC Conference, Toronto, Canada
  Baugut, P. & Neumann, K.
  
• Describing Perceptions of Media Influence among Radicalized Individuals: The Case of Jihadists and Non-Violent Islamists. Political Communication, 37(1), 65-87.
  Baugut, Philip & Neumann, Katharina
  
• Journalism’s extraordinary audience: The characteristics and circumstances of news media consumption among Islamists. Journalism, 22(11), 2781-2799.
  Baugut, Philip & Neumann, Katharina
  
• Online news media and propaganda influence on radicalized individuals: Findings from interviews with Islamist prisoners and former Islamists. New Media & Society, 22(8), 1437-1461.
  Baugut, Philip & Neumann, Katharina
  
• “Suicide bombers directly ascend to paradise“. How news media and propaganda influence Islamist radicalization. Vortrag im Gressly-Fleck-Kolloquium am Department für Kommunikationswissenschaft und Medienforschung (DCM) der Université de Fribourg, Schweiz
  Baugut, P.
  
• Diskriminierung durch Medien. Warum negative Stereotype in den Medien Diskriminierungsgefühle auslösen und Aufklärung über die Medienlogik wichtig ist. RISE: Jugendkulturelle Antworten auf islamistischen Extremismus.
  Baugut, P.
  
• Wie der Online-Boulevardjournalismus die Gefährlichkeit der islamistischen Szene konstruiert – und Muslime unter Generalverdacht stellt Eine Analyse der Berichterstattung von krone .at. Studies in Communication and Media, 9(3), 445-481.
  Baugut, Philip
  
• Schattenseiten der Digitalisierung. Warum Medienethik im Extremismus-Konzept unverzichtbar ist. Journal EXIT-Deutschland. Zeitschrift für Deradikalisierung und demokratische Kultur. Februar.
  Baugut, P.
  
• All radicalization is local. Media influence on local Islamist radicalization processes in five German and Austrian hotspots. International Journal of Communication, 17.
  Neumann, K. & Baugut, P.