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Al Qaeda-affiliated websites, such as the Global Islamic Media Front, the Ansarullah Media and Bab-ul-Islam, have been increasingly replacing messages of the terror network with content from the Syria and Iraq-based Sunni extremist group "Islamic State" (IS), according to a new report by IHS, a global analytics firm. The jihadist forums have reportedly even failed to cover al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri's recent announcement of the formation of an al Qaeda branch in South Asia and Myanmar.

In the past, al Zawahiri had been the main focus of these websites, with his messages often being posted there first. According to the report, there are also signs that IS' increasing social media presence is part of the militant group's strategy to establish itself in South Asia. The Karachi-based Tehreek-e-Khilafat, a disgruntled Taliban faction, has already publicly switched its loyalties and pledged alliance to IS.

Omar Hamid, Head of Asia Pacific Country Risk at IHS and author of the report, says in a DW interview that IS and al Qaeda are on a collision path, and that IS' success in gaining control of social media sites that had traditionally been controlled by Al-Qaeda or the TTP, reflects the group's burgeoning presence in South Asia.

DW: What has your monitoring of jihadists sites revealed?

Omar Hamid: Our monitoring of these sites has shown a gradual move from highlighting al Qaeda (AQ) and Zawahiri in particular, to highlighting IS and its declared leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. It is almost as if Zawahiri had been turned into a nonperson.

Hamid: 'IHS' monitoring of jihadist social media has indicated that IS is attempting to establish a presence in South Asia'

So while some coverage is still given to AQ and the Afghan Taliban, the bulk of coverage has shifted to IS. Even when there is coverage of AQ or AQ allies, Zawahiri is cut out of it.

What does this development in social media say about the influence of the Islamic State in South Asia?

IHS' monitoring of jihadist social media has indicated that IS is attempting to establish a presence in South Asia. At present, IS enjoys two advantages in this regard. Its financial strength is greater than the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and core al Qaeda, allowing it to offer militant factions large sums of money to switch allegiances.

Reports have infomed us that several Afghan Taliban commanders have been approached by IS representatives and offered large monetary rewards for switching their allegiance from Mullah Omar to "Caliph" al-Baghdadi. Similarly, several of the disgruntled TTP factions that have been expelled by Mullah Fazlullah have expressed admiration for IS. One group, the Karachi-based Tehreek-e-Khilafat, has already publicly switched its loyalties. In another case, Omar Khalid Khurasani, the head of the TTP's Mohmand Agency chapter, was sacked a few days ago for having disobeyed instructions.

Originally posted here:
'Islamic State' 'seeking foothold' in South Asia through social media

media control the mind...

By: mikeroweRules12

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media control the mind... - Video

This story first appeared in the Sept. 19 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

NancyDubuc, JeffBewkes, James Murdoch, Tom Freston and Martin Sorrell are media executives cut from a similar button-down, corporate-culture cloth. So perhaps it is thrilling or titillating for them to meet someone like Vice's Shane Smith, 44, who is all showman and promoter, a media type more reminiscent of the wild old days than the constrained new ones.

In late August, A&E Networks president and CEO Dubuc invested $250 million for a 10 percent interest in Vice, valuing the company at a whopping $2.5 billion (A&E is owned by Hearst and Disney). A tech venture firm, TCV, followed with $250 million for another 10 percent. Bewkes, Time Warner's chairman and CEO, was set to do a deal with Vice at the beginning of the summer that would have valued the company at $2 billion but Vice's valuation rose more quickly than Bewkes' ability to act. Murdoch bought 5 percent for $70 million in 2013 on behalf of 21st Century Fox and got a seat on the board; Sorrell, CEO of WPP, put $25 million in; and Freston, a former Viacom CEO, invested his own money early on and signed up as one of Vice's key advisers. One might be forgiven for thinking of Zero Mostel in The Producers selling a Broadway show many times over.

In theory, these executives are drawn to Smith's purported Pied Piper ability to attract that most sought-after and hard-to-reach (nearly always modified by "hard-to-reach") demographic: distracted young men, more reliably playing video games than consuming traditional media. But they also are drawn to his Pied Piper ability to attract ever-more media executives and the ever-larger multiples they and their colleagues seem willing to pay for a piece of Vice.

Arguably, the latter has been proved out much more completely than the former. These days one can attach many superlatives to Vice it might be the hottest, savviest, coolest, richest, Brooklyn-est (according to Smith, it is the biggest employer in Williamsburg, the epicenter of Brooklyn-ness) new media company on the block but one thing it does not necessarily have is a supersized audience. Vice makes a torrent of YouTube videos, but most, according to YouTube stats, have limited viewership. The New York Times, in its coverage of Vice's TCV deal, seemed eager to believe in Vice and at the same time was perplexed by it, quoting the company's monthly global audience claim of 150 million viewers but, as well, comScore's more official and low-wattage number of 9.3 million monthly unique visitors. BuzzFeed, with an audience many times greater, has been valued at less than a third of Vice's $2.5 billion.

That is, of course, part of Smith's showman appeal. Even with his company's obvious limitations YouTube is an unreliable platform he has boasted of producing a range of superhuman business-model breakthroughs.

It doesn't much matter, for instance, that Vice has low audience numbers because it does not sell the usual CPM-based advertising. Instead, Smith sells high-priced sponsorships marketing the Vice idea, in other words, rather than the Vice numbers. What's more, playing coy, he does not seem to sell advertisers very much, often offering big consumer brands like Anheuser-Busch modest sponsorship credit at the ends of videos.

Then, too, Vice's growing profits come in part because it continues to act like an outsider and pay young workers catch-as-catch-can alternative-media wages, even though it now is a richly funded enterprise.

Another of Vice's accomplishments has been to position itself as a cutting-edge technology company rather than a media company, thereby achieving a techlike valuation. But Vice really has few tech skills beyond Final Cut Pro, running much more by old media seat-of-the-pants instincts and aggressive salesmanship than new digital algorithms. (Vice, with its many fledgling music writers looking for a byline, often is compared inexactly to BuzzFeed, with its ever-growing staff of engineers able to game the social-media world.)

Smith also, counterintuitively, has launched his company into the news business, making it a veritable Zelig of multiple international conflicts. Its tipping-point moment might have been Dennis Rodman's Vice-sponsored embrace of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il and its step into legitimacy with its earnest HBO world-report show. But this is at a moment when it never has been more difficult to monetize news programming. Indeed, so bizarre is the notion that Vice's young-male audience will watch international news that puzzled media minds only can seem to conclude it must be true and another epochal media disruption. (YouTube widely advertises Vice as a type of new-wave 60 Minutes.)

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Michael Wolff on Vice Media: Why Hollywood Is Drinking the Kool-Aid

Media Control Panel: TV Station Spotlight
A short video demonstrating the TV station feature in the Media Control Panel.

By: CastControl

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Media Control Panel: TV Station Spotlight - Video

He said some political groups were still staging activities that could bring about more rifts in the country. Three orders of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) - numbers 79, 97 and 103 - would be strictly observed.

The orders ban media operators from featuring people connected with political parties. The content must not be critical of the NCPO or the government; programmes must be recorded in advance so they can be checked for content before broadcast; there must be no phone-ins to any programmes, even to entertainment ones such as music programmes.

He said the department would keep a close watch on 147 radio stations and all newspapers, Facebook and Line. "Please be patient because our country is suffering from a serious illness and we need a surgery to be healthy and happy as we were,'' he said.

Apinant said the government must tighten its grip on the media, including community radio, and if it allows the situation to go back to square one, attempts to restore peace and heal the rifts would be in vain.

He added that some community radio stations were allowing advertisements of drugs that do not have the approval of the Food and Drug Administration, placing the health of the public at risk.

First Army Region deputy director Colonel Suthat Nakpan said authorities needed to step up checks and controls against any group aiming to instigate public revolt through the use of media. He said he did not expect a crackdown on undercurrents to be easy but officials must ensure their continued efforts and get the public to understand and use their judgement when consuming media.

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'Tighter control over media to check divisive groups'