Internet Conspiracies (Weeks 10-11)

Monday, October 22 (Week 10)

• Michael Barkun, Chapters 1 and 2 from A Culture of Conspiracy (2013), pages 17-38
• Blog (Round 5): Group B

Wednesday, October 24

• Siva Vaidhyanathan, “The Disinformation Machine” from Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy (2018), pages 175-195
• Blog (Round 5): Group C

Friday, October 26

• Case Study 6 (Student-Led)

Monday, October 29 (Week 11)

• Ben Collins, “What Is QAnon? A Guide to the Conspiracy Theory Taking Hold Among Trump Supporters” from NBC News (2018)
• Mike Rothschild, “The #QAnon ‘Map’ Examined” (2018)
• Blog (Round 5): Group D

Wednesday, October 31

• Whitney Phillips, Executive Summary of “The Oxygen of Amplification” from Data & Society (2018)
• Whitney Phillips, “How Journalists Should Not Cover an Online Conspiracy Theory” from The Guardian (2018)

Friday, November 2

• Aja Romano, “Why Reddit’s Face-Swapping Celebrity Porn Craze Is a Harbinger of Dystopia” from Vox (2018)
• Mike Caulfield, “Unintended Consequences to Google Context Cards on Conspiracy Videos?” from Hapgood (2018)
• Robert Evans, “From Memes to Infowars: How 75 Fascist Activists Were “Red-Pilled” from Bellingcat (2018)

Header Image: Great Awakening Conspiracy Map courtesy of Champ Pirinya