Global terrorism is a significant, ongoing worldwide threat and academic work continues to enhance our understanding of how these groups operate. This study addresses how terrorist groups use strategic communication, focusing on how communication channels are built and interconnected in the context of the Islamic State (ISt), also known as ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh. Specifically, this project explores how such an organization constructs an information and communication strategy using social media. These communication channels have contributed to sowing terror, facilitating recruitment, and shaping the identity of the Islamic State. Accordingly, this article seeks to address the question of how the ISt constructs its strategic communication, particularly how it develops, adapts and refines its information and communication strategy.

In terms of methodology, the approach combines discourse analysis with interviews with sensitive sources. The analysis focuses on two critical periods of ISIS’s communication activity, both selected for their strategic intensity: September to December 2014, corresponding to a peak in recruitment following the creation of the A’maq agency and the execution of journalist James Foley, and February to May 2015, marked by the assassination of Jordanian pilot Maaz al-Kassasbeh. These periods represent turning points in the organization’s strategy, oscillating between attraction (mass recruitment) and deterrence (demonstrations of force).

The selected corpus includes all official ISIS publications: Dabiq and Dar Al-Islam magazines, as well as A’maq agency communications, alongside a Twitter ecosystem estimated to involve 46,000 active users (Berger & Morgan, 2015). This multi-channel approach enables a comprehensive understanding of the communication strategy, from institutional productions to individual relays on social networks. As the majority of the analyzed content has since been removed due to its explicit violence, this study relies on specialized archives and six expert interviews, four of which involve individuals from sensitive services. This triangulation of sources compensates for limited access while preserving the confidentiality of sensitive data.