ABSTRACT
To this end, the Global Jihadist movement have employed a range of legitimation mechanisms to successfully propound their ideology and narrative, and have engaged in a number of strategies in order to manufacture legitimacy amongst audiences in the Muslim world and beyond. Essentially, all of this frenetic activity has taken place within the confines of the new media ecology, as characterised in the previous chapter. This chapter seeks: (i) to explore how aspects of the new media ecology have been employed to propound the Jihadist narrative and disseminate ideas and acts
that fall under the rubric of ‘radicalisation’; (ii) to analyse the strategies and mechanisms through which these messages, acts and discourses, published or broadcast in this new media environment are supported and ‘legitimised’ (the ways in which Jihadists convince others of their claims, and persuade others to adopt their worldview); and (iii) to assess the efficacy of these legitimation strategies on radicalisation of audiences of Jihadist material, exploring how legitimacy has been conferred upon, or conversely divested from, radicalising discourses.
