Conspiratorial Narratives on Facebook and Their Historical Contextual Associations: A Case Study from Cyprus

IF 0.9 Q3 COMMUNICATION

Journal of Communication Inquiry Pub Date : 2022-07-29 DOI:10.1177/01968599221117235

Theodoros Kouros, Venetia Papa, M. Ioannou, Vyronas Kapnisis

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Conspiracy theories and their effects have greatly proliferated during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. As in various countries, so in Cyprus, a mobilization of anti-vaxxers organized mainly through Facebook, violently attacked the largest media group of the island, “Sigma”. Taking into consideration local peculiarities and historical contexts, a qualitative research was conducted on comments posted on Sigma Live's Facebook page, spanning between August 2020 and June 2021.The article illustrates how cultural, political, and historical peculiarities are instrumental in the formation of anti-vax movements, and how conspiracy theorizing in general is inextricably bound to such peculiarities. We demonstrate how new publics in social media platforms may dispute media outlets’ representations through using the official channels of these outlets, highlighting an understudied facet of participatory media. The paper advocates for more context-bound theoretical analyses of conspiracy theorizing, which delve deeper into the meaning-making, interpretative, and discursive practices of conspiracists against media outlets.

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Facebook上的阴谋叙事及其历史背景关联:来自塞浦路斯的案例研究

在新冠肺炎大流行危机期间，阴谋论及其影响激增。与其他国家一样，在塞浦路斯，主要通过脸书组织的反疫苗者动员暴力袭击了该岛最大的媒体集团“西格玛”。考虑到当地的特点和历史背景，在2020年8月至2021年6月期间，对Sigma Live Facebook页面上发布的评论进行了定性研究。这篇文章阐述了文化、政治和历史特点如何在反vax运动的形成中发挥作用，以及阴谋论是如何与这些特性密不可分的。我们展示了社交媒体平台上的新公众如何通过使用这些媒体的官方渠道来质疑这些媒体的陈述，突出了参与式媒体研究不足的一面。本文主张对阴谋论进行更多的语境理论分析，深入探讨阴谋论者对媒体的意义制造、解释和话语实践。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Communication Inquiry COMMUNICATION-

CiteScore

2.90

自引率

11.10%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Communication Inquiry emphasizes interdisciplinary inquiry into communication and mass communication phenomena within cultural and historical perspectives. Such perspectives imply that an understanding of these phenomena cannot arise soley out of a narrowly focused analysis. Rather, the approaches emphasize philosophical, evaluative, empirical, legal, historical, and/or critical inquiry into relationships between mass communication and society across time and culture. The Journal of Communication Inquiry is a forum for such investigations.