As was noted a recent event hosted at Boston University’s Pardee School, Activism, Advocacy, and Scholarship on Islam in the Digital Realm: Prospects, Progress, and Challenges, not all “mass media” is created equal, particularly not across the social media divide. Just as various concerns and topics (e.g. women’s suffering, as Ali rightly notes) are lost/dropped in the shuffle, so too are the varieties in content. That is, any suggestion of positive action taken by IS — even just as a lens by which to understand its potential (and unfortunate) appeal to local populations — is filtered out, too. This compounds the issues Ali addresses, allowing neither the full breadth of IS’ horrors nor the beguiling allure presented to mask said atrocities for susceptible audiences to be fully known.

As was noted a recent event hosted at Boston University’s Pardee School, Activism, Advocacy, and Scholarship on Islam in the Digital Realm: Prospects, Progress, and Challenges, not all “mass media” is created equal, particularly not across the social media divide. Just as various concerns and topics (e.g. women’s suffering, as Ali rightly notes) are lost/dropped in the shuffle, so too are the varieties in content. That is, any suggestion of positive action taken by IS — even just as a lens by which to understand its potential (and unfortunate) appeal to local populations — is filtered out, too. This compounds the issues Ali addresses, allowing neither the full breadth of IS’ horrors nor the beguiling allure presented to mask said atrocities for susceptible audiences to be fully known.