The Times ran a great cover story today, “An Internet Jihad Aims at US Viewers“. The article discusses the level of sophistication Islamic Jihadists have mastered in media production and distribution.
After reading this a few things have come to mind:
The article details an American-bred, 21 year old who “produces his blog from his parents home in North Carolina, where he serves as a kind of Western relay station for the multimedia productions of violent Islamic groups.”
If anyone is naive enough to believe our country is not fertile ground for waging violent wars, here’s the case in point. No to mention, we already have Oklahoma City in our collective memory — however shadowed it might be by 9/11. And, not to forget, just how shocked and dismayed the Brits were after learning the tube bombings were the plot of homegrown jihadists. Ditto for the Glasgow airport incidents this year.
The Times piece continues to detail the jihadists commitment to the video medium:
“Dahia al-Maqdassi, 26, a Palestinian who said he produced insurgent videos in Iraq two years ago, said, “In every city in Iraq they had a little office where someone did film operations.” He described his “media section” as a house near Falluja where 6 to 10 people worked. “We finished the film and then sent it to jihadi Web sites,” Mr.
Maqdassi said.”
For better or worse, this was the article I read at 6am this morning. No matter how much Arts & Leisure or Business I read following this article, the impressions of this piece persisted with me throughout the day.
The imagery of a massively networked, high-tech operation sat in the corner of my mind as I read about layoffs 2k.0, domestic print publication and site redesigns and finally, YouTube’s “video fingerprinting” to fight piracy.
I continued thinking about Al Sahab, Qaeda’s “media production arm” and read more about this into the evening. The Washington Post’s “The New Al-Qaeda Central” captures it well, when referencing a discussion with Muhammad Amir Rana, Director of the Pak Institute for Peace in Lahore, Pakistan, a research group which studies militant groups:
“If you want to stop al_Qaeda on the communications front, you should concentrate on their IT manager instead of Osama”
Compare Al Sahab’s level of tech strategy, “network effect”, and customer experience with some of the domestic media-related news today:
- AOL to cut workforce by 20% (expected, but a significant difference in scale and strategy)
- Latest YouTube Content ID tool (1 year after the acquisition, several lawsuits later)
- BusinessWeek mistakenly gloats about their print redesign (18 mos. in the making…)
- Newsweek launches a major site redesign
and last but not least, The Onion brings it all home with:
Truly, the state of US media is barely holding its own. The old-school folks (and some of the new kids) are struggling to maintain a little brand cred in a new world order of citizen journalists, bloggers, ugc and antiquated business models.
Granted, YouTube might be finding its way, but the others seem lost like children in the wilderness. I can only believe these companies have paid some smart, dedicated employees and consultants who strategically advised these businesses against their own demise for many years. Alas… status, ego and greed sometimes have the upper hand. Okay, often have the upper hand.
With the exception of a handful some very creative people doing amazing things with technology in the US, it seems like team jihad are more savvy in their exploitation of media technology production and distribution. If only some of our most recognized businesses could adapt and reconfigure themselves, both organizationally and technologically, so easily.
Imagine if Al Sahab were to advise some of our flailing businesses on tech strategy, engaging the audience, and of course, the “network effect”. Clearly, a lot of US businesses could learn a few tricks of the trade.
So unreal… you just can’t make this shit up!
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