2009/10/21 by Lorraine Bowman-Grieve · 3 citations
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Social Media and Politics #Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence #Media, Religion, Digital Communication
paper · doi:10.1080/10576100903259951
openalex publication_date 2009/10/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
In considering how terrorist movements use the Internet, it is becoming increasingly apparent that we must move beyond predominantly descriptive overviews of the contents of websites to examine in more detail the notion of virtual communities of support and the functions of these for their members. Virtual communities in support of terrorist movements are real social spaces where people interact on a regular basis to disseminate their views, share their knowledge, and encourage each other to become increasingly supportive of movements that use terrorism to achieve their goals. Taken from a larger body of comparative qualitative research investigating the content and function of discourses created in virtual communities in support of terrorism, this article presents a thematic analysis of “Stormfront,” a virtual community of the radical right.