D’al-Qaïda à État islamique : vers une typologie du discours d’influence illustrant la diversité de l’offre jihadiste

This thesis explores the diversity of jihadist influence activities by looking at one of the media through which the jihadists address their audience. In recent years, new jihadist organizations have emerged and new information and communication technologies have allowed the decentralization of their propaganda production. Thus, the jihadist discourse no longer relies on the only work of a specific branch of the organization or its high-ranking officials. Various types of actors are now engaged in different communication production for the jihadist movement, which has allowed a clear diversification in the framing of its narrative. However, even though we currently have a considerable amount of information on how organizational leaders define this ideology, few studies have focused on the new actors that are now part of this decentralized movement struggling for the governance of jihad through this propaganda. In order to fill this gap in the literature, we examine a set of 205 English-language video productions that have been produced and disseminated by different jihadist organizations in the Middle East since 2006 when al-Qaeda in Iraq rebranded and restructured itself, which was a crucial event in the current struggle for governance of global jihad. Our methodology is a mixed method approach of sociological discourse analysis considering both the textual content of these videos and the context in which they are presented. To carry out this study, we draw on social movement theory, more particularly on the collective action framing theory and the notion of repertoire of action from the resource mobilization theory. Related to this, one of the main contributions of this thesis is the systematic operationalization of the various forms of framing we propose. By relying on some vulnerability factors more specifically associated with the attractiveness of the jihadist engagement, we argue that it is possible to better understand the mobilization techniques implemented in this form of propaganda. In the end, having a better knowledge of this discourse allows us to consider a typology of influence discourse and to expose the diversity of the jihadist discourse with respect to this typology. More specifically, we detect variations over time and through the various organizations of the global jihadist movement, particularly with regard to the use of advertising, identity, educational, media and moral discourse. In addition, we shatter some myths that persist in the public space, the media and even in the scientific literature, especially with respect to the existence of a jihadi “single narrative”, the sophistication of the video productions and the staging of victimizations, extreme violence and atrocities. Thus, at the end of this study, there are several contributions related to this thesis and they are both theoretical and practical. First, it contributes to the collective action framing theory by proposing an operationalization of its main concepts. Secondly, it explains how the jihadist discourse has diversified over the years and what is the state of its current diversity, particularly with respect to the distinctions between al-Qaeda and Islamic State discourses. Finally, it also offers the possibility to empirically design response strategies that best suit the diversity of the jihadist ideology and to support these approaches on the main attraction factors associated with the specific types of discourse we seek to counter.

Keyphrases: Discours, Influence, Jihadism, Discourse, Propaganda, Social movements, Terrorism