Deutschmann, Peter/Herlth, Jens/Woldan, Alois (eds.): »Truth« and Fiction. Conspiracy Theories in Eastern European Culture and Literature. Bielefeld: Transcript, 2020
Conspiracy theories are often considered as being a danger to modern societies; they weaken trust... more Conspiracy theories are often considered as being a danger to modern societies; they weaken trust in institutions by spreading dangerously false information. Apart from such a pessimistic view on the phenomena, this chapter tries to show that conspiracy theories are an irreducible side effect of the mass media. Due to their intrinsic entwinedness with the media system, one should not put great hope in the possibility of eliminating conspiracy theories but rather regard them as an interesting cultural phenomenon. This chapter votes to not qualify conspiracy theories automatically as fictional discourse, but as factual discourse whose truth claims are difficult to verify. Different perspectives of conspiracy narrations—syntactic, semantic and pragmatic—are discussed. Pragmatic aspects and considerations from media theory can be deemed of primary importance for an analysis of conspiracy theories which does not lend itself to alarmism.
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