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Article published In:
Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict
Vol. 12:2 (2024) ► pp.263–288

A multimodal analysis of (de)legitimation through argumentation in extremist discourse: The case of Dabiq

ORCID logo | Universiti Malaya
ORCID logo | Universiti Malaya
ORCID logo | The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand
Even after the demise of its territorial caliphate in 2019, ISIS persists as a potent threat, adapting to new technologies and maintaining its status as an active insurgency. Amidst the backdrop of the terror group’s demonstrated resilience, this paper examines its practice of (de)legitimation and language of persuasion through a multimodal argumentation analysis. It combines the argumentation strategies (topoi) proposed by Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) and tools from Social Semiotics with argumentation theories, achieved through a comprehensive enthymematic deconstruction of arguments in ISIS’s e-magazine, Dabiq. The findings reveal four interrelated sets of plausibly inferable premises, namely, advantage and disadvantage; threat and obligation; negative consequence and history; and authority and Shariah law. These premises fall within broad social, political, historical, and religious categories and are deliberately crafted to lend support to ISIS’s desired conclusions, aimed at systematically altering the addressees’ state of knowledge and eventually eliciting acceptance from the intended public.
Keywords: argumentation, (de)legitimation, extremism, ISIS, multimodal argumentation, persuasion, topoi
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The persuasiveness of ISIS
  • 3.Data and method
    • 3.1Argumentation scheme and DHA
    • 3.2Visual argumentation
  • 4.Findings and discussion
    • 4.1 Topoi of advantage and disadvantage
    • 4.2 Topoi of threat and obligation
    • 4.3 Topoi of negative consequence and history
    • 4.4 Topoi of authority and Shariah law
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Data
  • Disclosure statement
  • References
Published online: 11 December 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00089.ras
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