Conspiracy Theory Discourses
Editors
Conspiracy Theory Discourses addresses a crucial phenomenon in the current political and communicative context: conspiracy theories. The social impact of conspiracy theories is wide-ranging and their influence on the political life of many nations is increasing. Conspiracy Theory Discourses bridges an important gap by bringing discourse-based insights to existing knowledge about conspiracy theories, which has so far developed in research areas other than Linguistics and Discourse Studies. The chapters in this volume call attention to conspiracist discourses as deeply ingrained ways to interpret reality and construct social identities. They are based on multiple, partly overlapping analytical frameworks, including Critical Discourse Analysis, rhetoric, metaphor studies, multimodality, and corpus-based, quali-quantitative approaches. These approaches are an entry point to further explore the environments which enable the proliferation of conspiracy theories, and the paramount role of discourse in furthering conspiracist interpretations of reality.
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture, 98] 2022. x, 509 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
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Acknowledgements | pp. ix–x
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Chapter 1. Conspiracy theory discourses: Critical inquiries into the language of anti-science, post-trutherism, mis/disinformation and alternative mediaMassimiliano Demata, Virginia Zorzi and Angela Zottola | pp. 1–22
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Part I. Conspiracy theories: epistemological questions
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Chapter 2. A corpus-driven exploration of conspiracy theorising as a discourse type: Lexical indicators of argumentative patterningPaola Catenaccio | pp. 25–48
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Chapter 3. Is my mobile phone listening to me? Conspiratorial thinking, digital literacies, and everyday encounters with surveillanceRodney H. Jones | pp. 49–70
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Chapter 4. “Go ahead and ‘debunk’ truth by calling it a conspiracy theory”: The discursive construction of conspiracy theoryness in online affinity spacesPilar Garcés-Conejos Blitvich and Nuria Lorenzo-Dus | pp. 71–98
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Chapter 5. “You want me to be wrong”: Expert ethos, (de-)legitimation, and ethotic straw men as discursive resources for conspiracy theoriesThierry Herman and Steve Oswald | pp. 99–120
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Chapter 6. Fake conspiracy: Trump’s anti-Chinese ‘COVID-19-as-war’ scenarioAndreas Musolff | pp. 121–140
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Part II. Conspiracy theory-related communicative phenomena
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Chapter 7. Exploring the echo chamber concept: A linguistic perspectiveMarina Bondi and Leonardo Sanna | pp. 143–168
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Chapter 8. “If you can’t see the pattern here, there’s something wrong”: A cognitive account of conspiracy narratives, schemas, and the construction of the ‘expert’Jessica Mason | pp. 169–192
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Chapter 9. Complementary concepts of disinformation: Conspiracy theories and ‘fake news’Philip Seargeant | pp. 193–214
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Chapter 10. COVID-19 conspiracy theories as affective discourseCarmen Lee | pp. 215–238
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Part III. Social media and conspiracy theories
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Chapter 11. The ID2020 conspiracy theory in YouTube video comments during COVID-19: Bonding around religious, political, and technological discoursesOlivia Inwood and Michele Zappavigna | pp. 241–266
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Chapter 12. #conspiracymemes : A framework-based analysis of conspiracy memes as digital multimodal units and ensuing user reactions on InstagramDerya Gür-Şeker, Ute K. Boonen and Michael Wentker | pp. 267–294
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Chapter 13. The New World Order on Twitter: Evaluative language in English and Spanish tweetsNatalia Mora López | pp. 295–316
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Part IV. Stancetaking and (de-)legitimation within conspiracy and anti-conspiracy discourses
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Chapter 14. Expressing stance towards COVID-19 conspiracy theories in Macedonian online forum discussionsLiljana Mitkovska and Fevzudina Saračević | pp. 319–342
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Chapter 15. Ideologies and the representation of identities in anti-vaccination conspiracy theories: A critical discourse analysis of the MMR vaccine-autism debateCarlotta Fiammenghi | pp. 343–364
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Chapter 16. Collective identities in the online self-representation of conspiracy theorists: The cases of climate change denial, ‘Deep State’ and ‘Big Pharma’Virginia Zorzi | pp. 365–392
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Part V. Political and international dimensions of conspiracy theories
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Chapter 17. Anti-Sorosism: Reviving the “Jewish world conspiracy”John E. Richardson and Ruth Wodak | pp. 395–420
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Chapter 18. “These cameras won’t show the crowds”: Intradiscursive intertextuality in Trumpian discourse’s crowd size conspiracy theoryKelsey Campolong | pp. 421–442
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Chapter 19. From strategic depiction of conspiracies to conspiracy theories: RT’s and Sputnik’s representations of coronavirus infodemicMari-Liis Madisson and Andreas Ventsel | pp. 443–464
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Chapter 20. “Gender ideology” and the discursive infrastructure of a transnational conspiracy theoryAngela Zottola and Rodrigo Borba | pp. 465–488
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Epilogue. Beyond discourse theory in the conspiratorial mode? The critical issue of truth in the age of post-truthJohannes Angermuller | pp. 489–494
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Notes on contributors | pp. 495–504
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Index | pp. 505–509
“This volume provides a necessary and timely intervention into CDS, as it tackles a disturbing trend that has gained prominence in political discourse over the last ten years and yet remained understudied by linguists. Another strength of the volume is that it is not restricted to English-language data; studies on French, Chinese, Spanish, Macedonian, Hungarian and Portuguese feature here as well, and this provides us a more global understanding of the current state of affairs rather than being restricted to Anglophone nations. Contributors also express a remarkable degree of understanding towards followers of conspiracy theories, which often arise in times of great social and political turbulence; Fiammenghi’s plea to scholars to avoid alienating such followers should be heeded by all. [...] This volume provides an excellent state-of-the-art into how critical discourse theorists can approach the present-day spectre of conspiracy theories.”
Richard J. Whitt, The University of Nottingham, in Critical Discourse Studies (February 2023)
“Aiming at adding a new page into the extant literature in terms of how conspiracy theories could be assessed and dealt with as a discursive and linguistic phenomenon, this volume is pivotal in that it has managed to cope with the issue raised by Douglas et al. (2019) as for the “methodology taken to understand the communication of conspiracy theories” not through self-report surveys or laboratory simulations but through the observations and researches based on real-time and real-life data. [...] Overall, the work makes theoretical and methodological contributions by integrating a wide range of theories into its discussions. Scholars in the fields of social science, discourse analysis, communication, and foreign relations will find much to enjoy in this collection. There are numerous case studies and a solid philosophical framework in this book.”
Xiao Shanshan & Muhammad Afzaal, Shanghai International Studies University, in The Social Science Journal 2023
“Much research on conspiracy theories has been rooted in disciplines such as sociology, philosophy, psychology, and communication studies, with the field of discourse analysis being relatively underrepresented. Conspiracy Theory Discourses successfully amends this underrepresentation. The volume convincingly demonstrates the potential for discourse analysis to investigate conspiracy theory discourse. It covers an immense array of topics, thus setting the scene for future research. [...] It represents a milestone paving the way for exciting advances in discourse-analytical studies of conspiracy theories, with each chapter presenting significant and innovative findings.”
Cedric Deschrijver, Ming Chuan University, in Language in Society 2023
“Much research on conspiracy theories has been rooted in disciplines such as sociology, philosophy, psychology, and communication studies, with the field of discourse analysis being relatively underrepresented. Conspiracy Theory Discourses successfully amends this underrepresentation. The volume convincingly demonstrates the potential for discourse analysis to investigate conspiracy theory discourse. It covers an immense array of topics, thus setting the scene for future research. [...] It represents a milestone paving the way for exciting advances in discourse-analytical studies of conspiracy theories, with each chapter presenting significant and innovative findings.”
Cedric Deschrijver, Ming Chuan University, in Language and Society 52:4 (2023).
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Musolff, Andreas
2023. Permacrisis, Conspiracy Stories and Metaphors. Półrocznik Językoznawczy Tertium 8:1 ► pp. 5 ff.
Rasoulikolamaki, Sahar, Alena Zhdanava, Noor Aqsa Nabila Mat Isa, Mohd Nazriq Noor Ahmad & Surinderpal Kaur
2023. A meta-discursive analysis of engagement markers in QAnon anti-immigration comments. Journal of Language and Politics 22:6 ► pp. 894 ff.
Terracciano, Bianca
2023. Accessing to a “Truer Truth”: Conspiracy and Figurative Reasoning From Covid-19 to the Russia–Ukraine War. Media and Communication 11:2 ► pp. 64 ff.
Vasilache, Andreas
2023. Sovereignty, Discipline, Governmentality, and Pastorate: The Ménage à Quatre of Contemporary Authoritarian and Right-Wing Populist Power. Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 48:4 ► pp. 242 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
Subjects
Communication Studies
Main BIC Subject
CFG: Semantics, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009030: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Pragmatics