Fighting Fire with Fire: Target Audience Responses to Online Anti-Violence Campaigns
Author(s):
This report documents young Muslim Sydneyer’s responses to a variety of online campaigns that promote non-violent political activism or aim to ‘counter violent extremism’ (CVE). In undertaking this study, which involved interviews with Muslim communities in Western Sydney—communities that have been targeted by both violent propaganda and government communication campaigns—two things became apparent. First, there’s a pool of highly educated, discerning and media-savvy young people in these communities. Second, rather than merely being an audience for government-sponsored communication campaigns, they’re creating their own websites, YouTube clips, radio programs and Facebook groups.

