Metaphors in Daesh Propaganda: A Spark Lit in Iraq to Burn the Whole Globe

Within massive publications on Daesh propaganda, the function and utility of metaphors is underexplored. The selection of metaphors is an act of meaning creation and they reflect a shared cognitive universe among in-groups. The qualitative study at hand analyzes official media output of Daesh in four 1-week periods, each starting after a landmark event with approximately one year intervals between them (2014-2017). The selected periods can be described as times of “glory”, “victory”, “loss” and “collapse”,respectively, for Daesh. Through analysis of 31 propaganda items in English and Arabic, 778 metaphorshave been coded to provide insight about the cognitive universe shaped and shared by Daesh media. Theresults support our hypothesis that Daesh shows skill in adjusting selection of metaphors, verbal or visual,in support of seasonal communication priorities. Moreover, the metaphors listed in the article have potential to become an important tool for professionals formulating counter-narratives, providing them a catalogue of source domains to draw on to counter Daesh messages together with their cognitive roots.