ISIS: the virtual state—a theoretical and visual analysis of digital propaganda

This study examines how ISIS integrated territorial governance with digital communication strategies to project and symbolically extend state-like authority beyond the territories it physically controlled. Drawing on Meyrowitz’s concept of No Sense of Place, Horton and Wohl’s theory of parasocial interaction, and the complementary perspectives of Agenda-Setting and Cultivation Analysis, the article investigates how ISIS employed visual communication to construct narratives of legitimacy, belonging, authority, and collective identity across networked media environments. using qualitative visual analysis of archived ISIS media materials, the study identifies recurring representations of militaristic power, governance, domestic normalcy, religious legitimacy, and gamified aesthetics to construct a coherent symbolic vision of the caliphate for geographically dispersed audiences. The findings suggest that digital communicaiton enabled authority to transcend territorial boundaries, mediated representations encouragedperceptions of familiarity and identification; recurring narratives foregrounded particular understandings of legitimacy and obligation; and repeated visual patterns contributed to the construction of an internally coherent mediated reality. The article argues that the concept of virtual statehood should not be understood as a substitute for territorial governance but rather as its communicative extension through networked media. Although ISIS’s territorial caliphate collapsed, the communicative logics evident in its propaganda remain relevant for understanding contemporary forms of digitally mediated extremism. The study concludes by emphasizing the importance of examining how evolving communication infrastructures shape the projection of ideological authority across transnational digital environments.