ABSTRACT
The relationship between media and war is an old one. This chapter relates "media" to "war", an almost equally all-encompassing term that is used to describe conflicts small (Falklands War), large (Second World War), and even metaphorical (War on Poverty). It is vital to understand the role that media plays in telling the story of wars (whether impending, ongoing, or long past) in a way those populations can understand. Media help to "emplot" the events of war, give them narrative shape, and influence the understanding not only of participants but also of future generations and historians. The scholarship on the media of today's war, also known as Global War on Terror (GWOT) is obviously much smaller and of much more recent vintage than the work that has been done on previous conflicts. Social media has revolutionized the way that jihadists like the Islamic State communicate with their followers.
