The Islamic State's Feb. 3 release of a macabre video recording showing Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh being burned to death caused shock and outrage. But though the video was appallingly gruesome, the fact that the Islamic State's public relations team continues to amp up the shock value of its media offerings should not surprise anyone who has monitored the group's media output. Indeed, over the past several months, the Islamic State has released videos documenting the executions of thousands of Syrian and Iraqi prisoners of war. In one of the videos, the group forced prisoners to dig their own graves and to kneel on the edge before shooting them. In another video, the group paraded hundreds of prisoners through the desert to a large mass grave dug by a bulldozer, ordered them to lie down and shot them.