„Hello, I’m John Cantlie“

Dschihadistische Propaganda und die gespenstische Medialität von Bedrohung

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14464/zsem.v39i3-4.685

Keywords:

terrorism, propaganda video, jihad, hostage video, Islamic State (IS), media theory, terrorism research, rhetoric, John Cantlie, Jacques Derrida

Abstract

Using the example of a video series by the ‘Islamic State’, the article sheds light on the threatening effect of terrorist propaganda. Beyond inducing terror, video pro­paganda aims at an epistemic unsettling of its viewers by using their anticipation and imagination. Viewers are being confused by the fact that their assumption concerning the deceptive nature of propaganda is actually in part, but never fully confirmed. The video series presents British journalist John Cantlie, a prisoner of ‘IS’ since 2012, as an ideological defector who is now supporting the caliphate. It is deliberately left open whe­ther, or better: to what extent, Cantlie is forced to do these performances or to what extent he is possibly actually meaning what he says. Drawing upon Derrida’s concept of the ‘spectre’ and its traces in media theory and terrorism studies, Cantlie is re-con­ceptualized as a figure of indecision and unavailability which is crucial for understan­ding the threatening rhetoric and mediality of djihadist propaganda.

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Published

2024-06-21