Conspiracy narratives and American apocalypticism in The Turner Diaries

2021 ◽  
pp. 130-143
Author(s):  
Stephen Joyce
Keyword(s):  
Conspiracy Narratives

scholarly journals Saturation of the media with conspiracy narratives: content analysis of selected Polish news magazines

2019 ◽  
pp. 151-171
Author(s):  
Franciszek Czech
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
News Magazines ◽  
The Media ◽  
Conspiracy Narratives

Artykuł ma trzy płaszczyzny: metodologiczną, teoretyczną i empiryczną. Punktem wyjścia do refleksji metodologicznej jest charakterystyka trzech głównych nurtów badawczych prowadzonych w ramach dynamicznie rozwijających się interdyscyplinarnych badań nad teoriami spiskowymi. Na takim tle omówiona jest analiza zawartości treści jako metoda badawcza pozwalająca w innowacyjny sposób uchwycić kluczowe zjawisko. W części teoretycznej przybliżona jest koncepcja narracji spiskowych w odniesieniu do potocznego rozumienia teorii spiskowych. Głównym celem części empirycznej jest określenie w jakim stopniu media są nasycone różnego rodzaju narracjami spiskowymi. Analiza obejmuje ponad 200 artykułów z dwóch opiniotwórczych tygodników („Sieci” i polska edycja „Newsweeka”), które znajdują się po dwóch stronach politycznego konfliktu w Polsce spolaryzowanych między innymi przez spiskowe podejrzenia dotyczące katastrofy prezydenckiego samolotu w 2010 roku w Rosji.

Of Power and Peril

2021 ◽  
pp. 12-27
Author(s):  
Scott Radnitz
Keyword(s):  
Political Competition ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Explanatory Framework ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
The World ◽  
Conspiracy Narratives ◽  
Over Time

This chapter provides an explanatory framework for why regimes promote conspiracy claims, based on the insight that because conspiracy theories are theories about power, it makes sense to foreground politics—the opportunities and constraints facing politicians as they consider what stories to tell about the world. It conceptualizes conspiracy theories as a form of propaganda and summarizes theories about conspiracism in politics. The author argues that claiming conspiracy can signal knowledge and prescience, and details three factors associated with the production and circulation of conspiracy claims: destabilizing events, political competition, and cross-border connections and alignments. Regimes may use conspiracy claims intermittently or may construct broad conspiracy narratives and strategically disseminate them over time, but there are potential hazards for regimes that rely excessively on conspiracism. Finally, the chapter outlines the features of three conspiratorial modes: sporadic official conspiracism, competitive conspiracism, and sustained official conspiracism.

scholarly journals Conspiracy Theories and the Study of Alternative and Emergent Religions

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
David G. Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Conspiracy Theory ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Aum Shinrikyo ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Alternative Religions ◽  
Conspiracy Narratives

This introduction addresses a number of approaches to the emerging field of the study of conspiracy theories and new and alternative religions. Scholars can examine how certain religious groups have been the subject of conspiracy narratives created by the wider culture, and how conspiracy narratives are mobilized within religious groups such as Aum Shinrikyo, Scientology or others. Moreover, we can fruitfully examine secular conspiracy theories through ideas typically applied to religions, such as theodicy, millenarianism, and esoteric claims to higher knowledge. Most studies assume that conspiracy theories indicate pathology—paranoia or simply stupidity. Increasingly however, scholars have begun to interpret the term “conspiracy theory” as operating polemically to stigmatize certain beliefs and ideas. The field therefore offers a microcosm of broader trends in the interplay of knowledge and power. The study of both new and emergent religions and conspiracy theories comes of age only when we cease to think of them as necessarily deviant and irrational.

scholarly journals Medical disinformation and the unviable nature of COVID-19 conspiracy theories

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e0245900
Author(s):  
David Robert Grimes
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Considerable Importance ◽  
Pharmaceutical Companies ◽  
Marked Rise ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Conspiracy Narratives ◽  
Frequency Radiation

The coronavirus pandemic has seen a marked rise in medical disinformation across social media. A variety of claims have garnered considerable traction, including the assertion that COVID is a hoax or deliberately manufactured, that 5G frequency radiation causes coronavirus, and that the pandemic is a ruse by big pharmaceutical companies to profiteer off a vaccine. An estimated 30% of some populations subscribe some form of COVID medico-scientific conspiracy narratives, with detrimental impacts for themselves and others. Consequently, exposing the lack of veracity of these claims is of considerable importance. Previous work has demonstrated that historical medical and scientific conspiracies are highly unlikely to be sustainable. In this article, an expanded model for a hypothetical en masse COVID conspiracy is derived. Analysis suggests that even under ideal circumstances for conspirators, commonly encountered conspiratorial claims are highly unlikely to endure, and would quickly be exposed. This work also explores the spectrum of medico-scientific acceptance, motivations behind propagation of falsehoods, and the urgent need for the medical and scientific community to anticipate and counter the emergence of falsehoods.

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