If a picture is worth a thousand words, how about twelve pages of pictures? Due to a growing consensus that countering the proliferation of violent extremist (VE) ideologies in both the virtual and non-virtual space must employ a variety of media that are able to effectively deliver counter-and alternative messaging to the target demographic that is most susceptible to VE influence, SEARCCT worked together with established comic artists to produce 12 CVE-based comics.
Comics are an effective medium, particularly because it is a visual medium that allows complex ideas to be broken down to easily consumable images. Not only that, comics are believed to be fairly popular among the target demographic of vulnerable groups, the readers being between 17 and 30 years of age. The resulting comics were disseminated online as well as utilised as resources in SEARCCT’s outreach programmes.