UK Counter Terrorism Narratives: An Analysis of the Action Counters Terrorism Campaign 2017-2020.

The Action Counters Terrorism Campaign is a public-facing campaign of the UK Government aimed at explaining and supporting the government’s counter terrorism efforts. One of its primary components is a series of videos released on Youtube between 2017 and 2020. The dominant narrative of this campaign is that “ordinary people” can assist in counter terrorism and counter radicalization by being alert and following basic rules (such as Run, Hide, Tell). As part of a GCHQ Research Fellowship in National Resilience examining online messaging on violent extremism, Dr Harmonie Toros carried out a gendered narrative analysis of the ACT video campaign.