Mass media use by the Islamic State

In November 2006, shortly after the group's rebranding as the "Islamic State of Iraq", it established the Al-Furqan Foundation for Media Production (Arabic: مؤسسة الفرقان للإنتاج الإعلامي, romanized: Muasasat al-Furqān lil'īntāj al'ilāmī), which produces CDs, DVDs, posters, pamphlets, and web-related propaganda products and official statements.

The earliest release indexed by the SITE Intelligence Group is on 21 November 2006, documenting the storming of a police station in the Iraqi town of Miqdadiyah.

In October 2007, the Long War Journal reported on United States Army raids targeting Al-Furqan media cell members across Iraq, including in Mosul and Samarra.

[10] On 2 September 2014 SITE Intelligence Group discovered the beheading video called A Second Message to America,[11][12] about the death of Steven Sotloff.

[24] Maher Meshaal is another Internet-famous munshid who emigrated to the Islamic State from Saudi Arabia in 2013, and sang for Ajnad until his killing in 2015.

[28] In mid-2014, IS established the Al-Hayat Media Center, which targets Western audiences and produces material in English, German, Russian, Urdu, Indonesian, Turkish, Bengali, Chinese, Bosnian, Kurdish, Uyghur, and French.

[31] In July 2014, Al-Hayat began publishing a digital magazine called Dabiq, in a number of different languages including English.

[42] I'lam Foundation, announced in 2018, was an online multilingual platform mostly used by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, specifically the Tajikistan region of the organization,[43] and the IS–KP.

[39] In May 2021 it launched al-Hijrateyn, a weekly podcast which presents news, statistics and commentary from the Al-Naba newsletter, it focuses on solutions to moral dilemmas as interpreted by the Islamic State.

[44][45] IS, in a mid-March 2020 Al-Naba article, described the fearful reaction to COVID-19 as a divinely wrought "painful torment" against Western "crusader nations".

[50] At-Taqwa Media Foundation is an IS-sympathizer/supporter outlet[51][52] which has published about targeting attacks in the Arabian Peninsula[53] and specifically during the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

[54] The group also runs a radio network called Al-Bayan, which airs bulletins in Arabic, Russian and English and provides coverage of its activities in Iraq, Syria and Libya.

Frequently posted in their media are dead jihadists' smiling faces, the Muslim 'salute' of a 'right-hand index finger pointing heavenward' (pointiong towards where Allah is), and testimonies of happy widows.

[62] IS has also attempted to present a more "rational argument" in a series of videos hosted by the kidnapped journalist John Cantlie.

In one video, various current and former US officials were quoted, such as the then US President Barack Obama and former CIA Officer Michael Scheuer.