Does digital media develop social paranoia? Dialogue on the presence of conspiracy theory in social media and mass culture

• Authors: Wiktor Werner , Adrian Trzoss
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

This article is in a sense a dialogue devoted to the presence of conspiracy theories on social media and mass culture. The authors present the current state of research on the development of digital culture and its social consequences. Next, a case study of the existence of the conspiracy theory of so-called Wielka Lechia is presented. In the analysis the authors combine theoretical and technical considerations of Web 2.0 with research inquiry, which is the analysis of the structure of the Great Lechia theory in social media. The problem of the popularity of the concept of Paweł Szydłowski's and Janusz Bieszk's has been referred to a wider context related to the modern functioning of historical knowledge on the Web. The factual orientation of historical education and the influence of social media on the functioning of the social dimension of history and historians have been indicated as the reason for the current state of the problem. Finally, the authors refer to the digital version of pseudoscience to its earlier analog counterparts and make a structural comparison of both. The effect of this confrontation is to point the phenomenon of remediation of conspiracy theories and the growing de-professionalization of discourse, which ultimately leads to the end of the era of intellectual authorities.

Keywords

PL

EN

social media; mass culture; conspiracy theory; Wielka Lechia; remediation; digital history; Web 2.0

• Publisher: Biuro Upowszechniania i Promocji Nauki PAN
• Journal: Nauka
• Year: 2019
• Issue: 3

Dates

published

2019

online

2019-09-13

Contributors

author

Wiktor Werner

author

Adrian Trzoss