Mere Duplication or Original? ISIS Ability to Adapt Propaganda to Different Target Audiences

ISIS’s ability to recruit new members and spread its message has been widely attributed to its prolific production of propaganda items and its ability to adapt its message based on target audience. We tested these two hypotheses by analysing magazines published by ISIS central media in three languages (English [Dabiq] , Turkish [Konstantiniyye] and French[Dar al-Islam]) in two one-month periods in 2015 and 2016. To see how far the terrorist organization could generate original content in different languages instead of translations, we conceived a pre-trained deep learning model that measured similarity between articles in magazines, leveraging a sentence-based approach. In order to test ISIS ability to adjust message based on target audience, we further conducted qualitative content analysis. Our deep learning model test results showed, except for re-publication of one article in the second period, ISIS was in fact able to publish discrete propaganda items. The results of the qualitative content analysis showed ISIS was successful in differentiating thematic coverage of its propaganda content for English-, French-, and Turkish-speaking audience.