ISIS’s Dabiq magazine is an interesting look at the ISIS perspective on the rest of the world. The magazine is not all calls for violence, although most of it is. Some of it includes coverage of the war. However, the photography and writing in the magazine is very professional and likely hired specifically for the magazine, at least for some of the photographs. This magazine could be considered a recruitment drive for Muslims, or an informative magazine for those not at the front lines. The magazine is, of course, very much affected by religious texts and beliefs of Islam.
Dabiq magazine was exclusively published online, possibly to be more easily distributed. Al Qaeda had a magazine as well, with print editions. It seems to be a recurring pattern for military organizations such as Al Qaeda and ISIS to publish magazines, or maybe that’s a sign of the pervasiveness of the media as a whole. The magazine was also specifically an ISIS magazine, not a magazine on Islam in general. It expressed explicit opinions of ISIS and focuses on recruitment and military activity. A recurring section of the magazine was dedicated to criticizing US and other western political figures, and unlike western sections that also criticize politicians, they focused exclusively on their actions in the Middle East.