Impact of potential merging of
ISIS and Boko Haram
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Source
Evidence
Left Out
The source of the video is Fox News’ America’s Newsroom featuring Bill Hemmer and
guest Jack Keane. Within the video there are
several “Fox facts” that appear on the screen
about Boko Haram (Hemmer, 2015). These
facts don’t have a listed source so they most
likely come from other Fox News reports.
Jack Keane as a retired general and war
analyst certainly has had proximity to war,
however, It is not explicitly stated if he has
been in direct proximity to Boko Haram. He
certainly appears to have an expertise in war
tactics but it doesn’t appear that he has any
credentials making him an expert in Boko
Haram.
The actual pledge from Boko Haram as well
as the acceptance video from the leaders of
ISIS serve as the primary evidence here. It is
also significant that Boko Haram have started
using the ISIS flag in their videos. Generally
when a flag is born it shows who the group
has allegiance to so that is evidence of the
ideals and goals of the group as well as their
methods. The video footage at the beginning
as well as the end of the video is also used as
evidence Though it appears that it could be
stock footage from any conflict (Hemmer,
2015).
What is left out of this video, in many cases,
are exact figures. This may add to the video’s
credibility because they avoided using easily
believable but undoubtedly made up numb ers. Instead they use terms like “responsible
for the deaths of tens of thousands” (Hemmer, 2015). This is less risky however it also
makes them lose some credibility because
they don’t have access to a more specific
figure.
Motive
Logic
The motive of this video is primarily to
inform. It comes from a normal news broadcast and while Jack Keane is not a journalist
it doesn’t appear that he has a persuasive
motive. It is to raise awareness of the acts of
Boko Haram and get the word out that they
have become an affiliate of ISIS. It does have a
hint of persuasion that they discuss the possible ramifications of the alliance however they
don’t go into too much depth of what can be
done, if anything to stop Boko Haram.
One of the points of logic that I saw used in
the video was that the proximity difference
between ISIS and Boko Haram would make it
difficult for them to team up in an impacting
way and that their alliance would be “mostly
aspirational” (Hemmer, 2015). It makes sense
that it would be very difficult for ISIS to commit training and supplies to northern Nigeria
so it is the name association that means the
most in this alliance. It will give them more
credibility within the radical Islamic groups.
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