They want to supplant al-Qaeda as the strongest jihadist group in the world, and their social media effort is a big part of that.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria wages a battle for minds and bodies on Twitter.

From WNYC in New York, this is on the media. I'm Brooke Gladstone.

Would you sacrifice one person to save five others? Your answer may

depend on the language you use to ponder the question. When you are thinking about it in a foreign

language, it gives you a psychological emotional distance from the problem. And then more than 40%

of people are willing to say, yes, I will do that.

And how much of an NPR fan are you?

Enough to know what NPR actually is and isn't?

NPR is kind of like the Kleenex of public radio brands.

People use that term to be a synonym.

Like NBR and public radio are just used interchangeably.

All that and more after this.

From WNYC in New York, this is on the media.

Bob Garfield is away this week. I'm Brooke Gladstone. What goes around comes around.

President Obama is weighing possible military action in Iraq as Islamic fighters gain more control. What Iraq is facing today is a deadlier

and more ruthless occupation than ever existed during the U.S. occupation. And at the center of it,

this time, is the terrorist group, the Islamic

state in Iraq and Syria, ISIS, whose brutal offensive launched almost two weeks ago has left

it in control of huge swaths of Iraq. In the region, it's deemed too extremist even by Al-Qaeda.

And here... These are the vicious, the worst of the worst.

If they get back into the United States or in Western Europe against Western targets,

...