IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/inafri/v15y2023i1p7-22.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Media and Terrorism in Africa: Al-Shabaab’s Evolution from Militant Group to Media Mogul

Author

Listed:
  • Alta Grobbelaar

Abstract

It is no surprise to come across information or video on social or mainstream media that was posted by a terrorist organisation like Al-Shabaab. In this regard, researchers have attempted to answer the question of what terrorist organisations aim to achieve by gaining a strong foothold in cyberspace. This article explores the evolution of Al-Shabaab in terms of their media usage and presence—from a local insurgency using magazines and radio stations, to what can be described as a media mogul in Africa. The author explores how and why this group chooses to pursue a strong cyber presence, and what, if anything, Africa and the international community can do about it.

Suggested Citation

  • Alta Grobbelaar, 2023. "Media and Terrorism in Africa: Al-Shabaab’s Evolution from Militant Group to Media Mogul," Insight on Africa, , vol. 15(1), pages 7-22, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:inafri:v:15:y:2023:i:1:p:7-22
    DOI: 10.1177/09750878221114375
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09750878221114375
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09750878221114375?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Onook Oh & Manish Agrawal & H. Raghav Rao, 2011. "Information control and terrorism: Tracking the Mumbai terrorist attack through twitter," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 33-43, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shabir Hussain & Farrukh Shahzad & Adam Saud, 2021. "Analyzing the State of Digital Information Warfare Between India and Pakistan on Twittersphere," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(3), pages 21582440211, July.
    2. Bairong Wang & Jun Zhuang, 2018. "Rumor response, debunking response, and decision makings of misinformed Twitter users during disasters," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 93(3), pages 1145-1162, September.
    3. Ahmed Aleroud & Aryya Gangopadhyay, 2018. "Multimode co-clustering for analyzing terrorist networks," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 20(5), pages 1053-1074, October.
    4. Li, Lifang & Zhang, Qingpeng & Tian, Jun & Wang, Haolin, 2018. "Characterizing information propagation patterns in emergencies: A case study with Yiliang Earthquake," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 34-41.
    5. M. Elshendy & A. Fronzetti Colladon & E. Battistoni & P. A. Gloor, 2021. "Using four different online media sources to forecast the crude oil price," Papers 2105.09154, arXiv.org.
    6. Yogesh K. Dwivedi & Gerald Kelly & Marijn Janssen & Nripendra P. Rana & Emma L. Slade & Marc Clement, 2018. "Social Media: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 419-423, June.
    7. Jengchung Victor Chen & I-Han Lu & David C. Yen & Andree E. Widjaja, 2017. "Factors affecting the performance of internal control task team in high-tech firms," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 787-802, August.
    8. Fry, John & Binner, Jane M., 2016. "Elementary modelling and behavioural analysis for emergency evacuations using social media," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 249(3), pages 1014-1023.
    9. Yanxin Wang & Jian Li & Xi Zhao & Gengzhong Feng & Xin (Robert) Luo, 2020. "Using Mobile Phone Data for Emergency Management: a Systematic Literature Review," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 22(6), pages 1539-1559, December.
    10. Zhan, Yuanzhu & Xiong, Yu & Xing, Xinjie, 2023. "A conceptual model and case study of blockchain-enabled social media platform," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    11. Jengchung Victor Chen & I-Han Lu & David C. Yen & Andree E. Widjaja, 0. "Factors affecting the performance of internal control task team in high-tech firms," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-16.
    12. Fang Liu & Dongming Xu, 2018. "Social Roles and Consequences in Using Social Media in Disasters: a Structurational Perspective," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 693-711, August.
    13. Agarwal, Puneet & Aziz, Ridwan Al & Zhuang, Jun, 2022. "Interplay of rumor propagation and clarification on social media during crisis events - A game-theoretic approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 298(2), pages 714-733.
    14. Anat Hovav, 2014. "Using scenarios to understand the frontiers of IS: Fifteen years later (a postscript)," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 347-352, July.
    15. Paras Bhatt & Naga Vemprala & Rohit Valecha & Govind Hariharan & H. Raghav Rao, 2023. "User Privacy, Surveillance and Public Health during COVID-19 – An Examination of Twitterverse," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 25(5), pages 1667-1682, October.
    16. Jyoti Prakash Singh & Abhinav Kumar & Nripendra P. Rana & Yogesh K. Dwivedi, 2022. "Attention-Based LSTM Network for Rumor Veracity Estimation of Tweets," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 459-474, April.
    17. Martínez-Rojas, María & Pardo-Ferreira, María del Carmen & Rubio-Romero, Juan Carlos, 2018. "Twitter as a tool for the management and analysis of emergency situations: A systematic literature review," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 196-208.
    18. Hsinchun Chen & Yilu Zhou & Edna F. Reid & Catherine A. Larson, 2011. "Introduction to special issue on terrorism informatics," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 1-3, March.
    19. Chulhwan Chris Bang, 2015. "Information systems frontiers: Keyword analysis and classification," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 217-237, February.
    20. Ahmed Aleroud & Aryya Gangopadhyay, 0. "Multimode co-clustering for analyzing terrorist networks," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-22.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:inafri:v:15:y:2023:i:1:p:7-22. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.