Presentation Title
Global Media Attitudes Toward Conspiracy Theories
Panel Name
The Press: Freedom, Bias, Ethics II
Location
Lecture Center 22
Start Date
3-5-2019 3:15 PM
End Date
3-5-2019 4:15 PM
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Academic Major
Communication, Psychology
Abstract
Media coverage, political leaders, and social platforms shape public attitude toward conspiracy theories via underlying biases and psychological tendencies, allowing these conspiracies, in some cases, to gain mainstream attention in various regions of the world. The United States, Israel, and Russia provide examples of this effect. Despite having very different media environments, these countries have generated conspiracy theories whose origins share certain characteristics. These theories take off, in many cases, after public acknowledgement by well-known individuals or organizations. While they tend to originate amongst innominate social media groups, the following of these theories only gains critical mass after being legitimized by someone with an audience. Journalists and media outlets, though not always intentionally, provide platforms, and subsequently legitimacy, to conspiracy theorists. Such coverage, and subsequent coverage from other media outlets, has a great deal to do with how easily conspiracy theories spread.
Select Where This Work Originated From
Course assignment/project
First Faculty Advisor
Chang Sup Park
First Advisor Email
cpark2@albany.edu
First Advisor Department
Journalism
The work you will be presenting can best be described as
Finished or mostly finished by conference date
Global Media Attitudes Toward Conspiracy Theories
Lecture Center 22
Media coverage, political leaders, and social platforms shape public attitude toward conspiracy theories via underlying biases and psychological tendencies, allowing these conspiracies, in some cases, to gain mainstream attention in various regions of the world. The United States, Israel, and Russia provide examples of this effect. Despite having very different media environments, these countries have generated conspiracy theories whose origins share certain characteristics. These theories take off, in many cases, after public acknowledgement by well-known individuals or organizations. While they tend to originate amongst innominate social media groups, the following of these theories only gains critical mass after being legitimized by someone with an audience. Journalists and media outlets, though not always intentionally, provide platforms, and subsequently legitimacy, to conspiracy theorists. Such coverage, and subsequent coverage from other media outlets, has a great deal to do with how easily conspiracy theories spread.