Hypermedia Seduction for Terrorist Recruiting

Citation

du Preez, M. (2009), "Hypermedia Seduction for Terrorist Recruiting", Online Information Review, Vol. 33 No. 1, pp. 210-211. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520910944490

Terrorism is one of the modern world's most pressing issues and probably one of the most difficult issues to deal with. In this volume Probst claims that terrorism is effective because it is too often treated either as a criminal offence or a form of conventional warfare. Furthermore, countries do not address terrorism as a form of asymmetric conflict and psychological warfare, but attempt to combat it with traditional military tactics, which often rebounds to the benefit of the terrorists.

In September 2006 NATO sponsored a five‐day Advanced Research Workshop on Hypermedia Seduction for Terrorist Recruiting in Eilat, Israel. The primary objective of the workshop was to acquire an understanding of the efficacy of terrorists' use of the internet, the scope of their internet‐based activities, and to analyse the content, graphics and source codes thereof. Hypermedia Seduction for Terrorist Recruiting is a compilation of the main lectures presented in the workshop. Researchers from diverse disciplines and from across the world participated. These include experts on security, Islamic studies, design and marketing and psychology.

The ultimate goal of the workshop was threefold: to evaluate the effectiveness of terrorist propaganda on the web, the influence of such propaganda on the target audience, and to recommend practical steps that can be taken to counter the effectiveness of terrorist propaganda. The discussions focused mainly on the Global Jihad. This included an analysis of terrorist web sites in terms of common graphic and linguistic motifs, the methodologies used by terrorists to target different audiences and a discussion of how extremist groups reach out to young children across the world.

The 21 papers presented at the workshop are divided into five sections:

1. 1.

   Understanding symbolism in Islamic Fundamentalism and the Imagery of Jihad.

2. 2.

   Radical Islamist web sites – an overview.

3. 3.

   Mining the Jihadist network.

4. 4.

   The seductive web: technology as a tool for persuasion.

5. 5.

   The seducative web: terrorism, media and psychological effects.

Readers of this collection can, like the workshop participants, learn more about the “science of seduction”. They can apply this knowledge to counter the extremists' messages and to hamper their cyberspace operations. Each chapter concludes with a list of references but the volume unfortunately lacks an index.

The workshop provided a lively and stimulating venue for discussing these pressing issues and helped to lay the foundation for future work in this field. Hypermedia Seduction for Terrorist Recruiting is a continuation of this foundation work. It opens up the discussion to other researchers and interested parties who did not attend the workshop but who want to conduct future hypermedia seduction research or actively participate in countering extermists' cyberspace activities. The book is intended for a very specific audience.