Studio Session 2 Reflection

This week was interesting because we began to group together and separate the different aspects that make the ISIS terrorist group so successful. What we ultimately determined was that social media, as made possible by the Internet, is what the ISIS movement, in all of its forms, is centered around. Their main hubs of function are Youtube--which helps gain followers, serves as intimidation, and is where they showcase their actions, Twitter--which is also used for recruitment and a reactionary tool by which ISIS and those for and against the group can voice their opinions, and Bit Coing--where ISIS games followers and members that contribute to their funding. All of these hubs are how they eliminate names on their hitlist. ISIS is trying to eliminate threats to their faith, and they are using social media to reach parts of the world that they may not physically be able to reach, but other followers might be. For example, ISIS recently released a hit list on their Youtube and Twitter accounts so that supporters all over the globe that had better access to these individuals could capture and murder them. Here we see how ISIS uses social media to transcend borders, which I think is the main takeaway I had from today.