Conspiracy Theories About the Pandemic of COVID-19 and Their Function on the Greek Internet

Conspiracy Theories About the Pandemic of COVID-19 and Their Function on the Greek Internet

Rea Kakampoura, Aphrodite Lidia Nounanaki
Copyright: © 2022 |Pages: 33
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-4461-0.ch004
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Abstract

Conspiracy theories are a folk narrative genre that tends to arise whenever crises occur; thus, inevitably, these kinds of theories appeared on the pandemic of COVID-19 as well. Their spread used to be done through magazines with relevant subject matter and through the word of mouth. The internet has changed this treaty because, by giving space in the dissemination of any information, it seems to have enhanced the widest spread of this narrative genre too. So, in this chapter, the impact of the internet on the genre will be highlighted through a long-term digital folklore research on the Greek internet. Through the case study of conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic, in the context of digital folklore, this chapter intents to highlight the impact of the internet on the genre, its spread, and its function, as well as the way the internet users' uptake the genre.
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Conspiracy Theories: Definitions And Research Issues

Before looking into the characteristics of their internet spread, it is necessary to analyse how these theories can be described, what they are about, when they occur and what their function is.

CTs are being studied by a wide range of fields as are political science (interested in achieving political objectives or studying the expression of criticism within foreign or domestic policy and international relations), psychology (researching the relationships between susceptibility to CTs and other psychological patterns), history (seeking to map development lines and megatrends), and media studies are among the fields studying CTs (as discourse that is represented through films and literature, but is often linked to politics) (Önnerfors, 2021, p. 24). In fact, a large European network named Comparative Analysis of Conspiracy Theories (COMPACT, https://conspiracytheories.eu/) was established from 2016 to 2020 to bring together researchers from several disciplines to explore these phenomena (Önnerfors, 2021, p. 24). Folklore studies look into the cultural characteristics of these theories as folk groups narratives while they study also their connection to other similar genres, such as rumours or urban legends (Campion-Vincent, 2007, pp. 162-199).

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