Through a gendered lens : women ISIS recruits in the media -

Abstract

At a time when ISIS was making daily headlines all over the world, a particularly intriguing phenomenon appeared in the media: the recruitment of women by ISIS social media users. In this study, I analyze the coverage of this phenomenon as it has been treated by two major networks- CNN and Al-Arabiya. In assessing this news coverage, I utilize critical media and social constructionist theories. Meanwhile, content and discourse analysis were used for my methodology. I intend to discover how both CNN-U.S. and Al-Arabiya covered the news of women joining ISIS, in order to see how framing, representation, and symbolization of women took place in media, as well as the extremist groups' consequences on media's news. My findings suggested that females joining ISIS were constructed as deviant through CNN-U.S. and Al-Arabiya's use of language. Women were represented in a feminine way (e.g. emotional and powerless), taking secondary and stereotypically roles and were represented according to their appearance. Nonetheless, media stereotyped women involved in extremism by framing their stories around nationality and ethnicity.