Turning Murders Into Public Executions, ‘Beheading Videos’ as Alternative Media

• In Event: Mediating the Caliphate: Global, Regional and Digital Dimensions of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria

Abstract

The production, circulation and exposure to videos produced by kidnappers are increasingly a common feature of certain news media, online and social media platforms. They range from a person reading a list of demands to more complex sequences featuring the decapitation of the kidnapped person. Drawing on the longer history of public’s fascination with filmed beheadings, this paper focuses on three phases of hostage videos in the Arab world: 1980’s Beirut hostages videos, Iraqi videos of the 2000s and the more recent videos produced by ISIS. By blending mainstream production and circulation practices with alternative/underground practices, these ‘beheading videos’ are treated as integral to processes of socio-political change and as a bridge to link local, trans-local and transnational manifestations of politics. Anchored in social movement media theories, this paper uses a mixed method approach combining case studies, historical method and textual analysis.

Author

• Joe F. Khalil, Northwestern U in Qatar