According to several commentators we are living in a post-truth era. Of course, conspiracy theories and fake news are not new phenomena, but digital media did enable the upscaling of the circulation, and thus the impact of those conspiracy theories. In this file we zoom in on the relation between conspiracy theories, digital media and their political and societal consequences.
This paper discusses the content on the Instagram account Zeikschrift and explores how Madeleijn van den Nieuwenhuizen uses the digital vigilantism practices 'calling out' and 'naming and shaming' to criticize and reshape various Dutch media.
The content on fake news websites might not be considered journalistic, these websites do use journalistic terminology. To understand how, we analyze the website of De Nieuwe Media.
The Birds Aren't Real is a parody social movement with a purpose: making fun of misinformation in a post-truth world dominated by online conspiracy theories
Attempts to decrease the spread of ‘fake news’ might come with the risks of censorship and control.
Is it 'fake news', junk news, misinformation, malinformation, or disinformation? This column is going to sum up the ways in which we can critically evaluate and distinguish the types of misleading information on our (social) media timelines.
In this paper we used the mixed-method ethnomining to answer the research question: How have UK citizens' attitudes towards the government changed over the course of the first and second lockdown, due to the COVID-19 measures?
After decades of crises, normalization and fatigue leads to young people radicalizing online. Irony politics is a way of adopting new political narratives after the political middle has failed to give answers to these crises.
The flat Earth belief is pseudoscientific, yet the Internet offers a variety of different arguments on why the official round Earth narrative should be reconsidered.
This article examines how QAnon became an umbrella for a variety of far-right conspiracy theories, and in unifying these ideas produced real political turmoil.
In light of the Capitol riots, Odile Heynders claims that we have to reflect on fiction and its development in time, in order to understand how the concept is used and functions in today’s society.
The white genocide conspiracy theory refers to a spread far-right belief that white populations are gradually being replaced with non-whites. How did this theory originate and how has it gained momentum online?
Before Parler was removed from Google and Apple's appstores and deleted from the Amazon servers, Parler users discussed the apparent 'cancellation' of their plaform. An analysis of their responses reveals a complex fusion of very distinct values and beliefs that can be linked to, inter alia, the Manosphere, alt-right movements and a whole range of conspiracy theories.
This paper analyzes the media storm around hydroxychloroquine as a potential COVID-19 treatment through the lens of Golebiewski and boyd's concept of data voids (2018) and Venturini's concept of 'junk news' (2019).
This article unravels various definitions of fake news and situates it within a context of hybrid media, politics and democracy. Fake news can be overwhelming. I aim to bring a little bit of order into the chaotic world of fake news.
This article deals with the 'dems fraud' data void on DuckDuckGo. While striving to overcome filter bubbles, DuckDuckGo has been overtaken by the New Right's optimized information ecosystem that only spreads their views.
For several years, conspiracy theorists have promoted the idea that 5G waves are harmful for one's health, now even relating this to the coronavirus. This paper explores how memes are used to define (in)visibility as evidence within this theory.
The corona crisis has shown how quickly cultural repertoires can change when society is at risk. The norms we used to take for granted are now turned upside down, changing the way we perceive others and ourselves.
QAnon is an American conspiracy theory associated with Trump supporters and right-wing politics. How can one article - which seeks to explain what QAnon is - influence debunkers and believers of the theory?
QAnon is an American conspiracy theory associated with Trump supporters and right-wing politics. How can one article - which seeks to explain what QAnon is - influence debunkers and believers of the theory?
In 2018, people believed that Eric Trump suggested that Ellen DeGeneres is part of a hidden government within the US. This essay analyzes how this conspiracy theory has come into existence, who plays a role in it, and what this means online.
The pro-Trump conspiracy theory QAnon has been infiltrating mainstream media at a fast pace. While the president has never publicly stated his support for the theory, many clues suggest that his stance towards its supporters is not unfavorable.
QAnon is a far-right conspiracy theory about an on-going war between President Donald Trump and the "deep state". This article examines how QAnon followers use social media to their benefit by inviting skeptics to read between the lines.
According to Piia Varis, conspiracy theories existed long before the invention of the internet. However, digital media and online platforms now allow conspiracy theory believers to 'find' each other and support for their claims online.
Deep fakes are a rapidly evolving technology that can easily fool not just our human senses, but also the software created to counter them. This paper explores their potential social, cultural and political implications.
Since mid-October, Charlie Kirk’s Culture War tour has been increasingly haunted by the Groyper Q&A-trolls, who use the Q&A section to frame Kirk as a cuck.
How do the Rohingya genocide deniers use Facebook to spread their narratives and what kind of arguments do they use to support their claims?
The terrorist attack in New Zealand has an offline and an online dimension and it is crucial that we take this online/offline nexus on board when analyzing contemporary white terrorism. says Ico Maly (Tilburg University).
This article deals with Paul Joseph Watson's YouTube career. As the Global New Right has quickly spread their content over the Internet, a new scene of New Right YouTubers has appeared.
Conspiracy theories are not a new phenomenon; they existed long before the Internet came along . Nowadays, however, the media play a big role in contributing to and promoting those theories.
Somewhere in 2017, soy boy got added to the terms used as insults to describe supposedly unmanly men. It became the latest insult of choice for the alt-right.
