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Conspiracy Theory

Explanatory framework based on belief and speculation that attributes major events to a secret, often malevolent group of actors, typically lacking verifiable evidence and contradicting official accounts
Inge van de Ven 2025-11-04

Explication

Conspiracy theories are commonly understood as beliefs that a group secretly collaborates for harmful or deceitful goals, relying on selective reasoning, mistrust of authorities, and the assumption that hidden forces manipulate reality for their own gain (Bale). They seek to provide alternative perspectives and new hypotheses to interpret reality and can be considered myths that can mobilize people to form new groups in an attempt to create the social orders they want (Maly). As narratives, they consist of plots—sequences of events that hinge on at least one temporal juncture, a shift in time that links events—and blend fictive with non-fictive discourses (Mason, 4).

Conspiracy theories are as old as civilization itself. The most well-known conspiracy theories include the ones prompted by events like the shooting of John F. Kennedy in 1962 and the attacks on the Twin Towers and Pentagon in Manhattan on September 11, 2001. The internet, and especially Web 2.0, has made them particularly pervasive as meaning-making practices shaped by digital infrastructures and networked participation. This form of narrative relies on participatory and fragmented discourse and intertextual connections. Increasingly, hybrid narratives mix fictional and non-fictional elements, making it difficult to determine genre and intent. Algorithmic media amplify online discourse, which is decontextualized, often anonymous, and expressed through multiple modalities such as text, image, audio, and video, making authenticity harder to assess. Some conspiracy theories originate as acts of trolling but gain traction online, while others are created with genuine conviction (Mason).

The rise of AI and deepfakes further complicates the ability to discern whether a speaker is deliberately lying, being sincere, ironic, trolling, or simply confused. AI chatbots based on large language models (LLMs) can interact with conspiracy theories in complex ways: when prompted, they may unreflectively present conspiratorial claims as factual, especially if the model has encountered these narratives widely online. Efforts, both legal and technical, are underway to mitigate this risk. These include content moderation guidelines, disclaimers, and algorithmic interventions designed to prevent AI from amplifying demonstrably false claims (Romanishyn et al.).

These challenges are not hypothetical. The notorious “Pizzagate” conspiracy gained widespread attention in 2016 due to its real-world consequences. Originating on 4chan, it suggested that a child trafficking ring, run by members of the Democratic Party, was operating out of a Washington D.C. pizza parlor. A month later, a man entered the restaurant armed with an AR-15 assault rifle, believing he was there to rescue child victims. He fired three shots before being arrested and later justified his actions by stating he was conducting his own investigation into the conspiracy (see Tuters et al.).

Beyond extreme cases like Pizzagate, conspiracy narratives thrive in broader cultural contexts where fan communities and subcultures perceive the world as layered with hidden meanings. Conspiracy narratives also pervade fandom. The #FreeBritney movement scrutinized Britney Spears’ conservatorship. ‘Swifties’ are devoted to decoding the many “easter eggs” their idol Taylor Swift puts in her videos, lyrics, and appearances. Amber Heard’s defamation trial (2022), P Diddy’s 2024 arrest, and Kate Middleton’s public absence (2024) also fueled wild speculations, whereas K-pop group BTS and Beyoncé have been linked to the Illuminati or ‘New World Order’. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick argued that “protocols of unveiling have become the common currency of cultural and historical studies” (Sedgwick, 143). Today, this attitude defines media culture at large. This search for hidden meanings is fundamentally hermeneutic, involving interpretation and the uncovering of underlying significance (Van de Ven and Chateau).

Just as audiences decode hidden meanings in real-world conspiracies and celebrity culture, fictional narratives invite similar interpretative labor. Films, TV series, games, and works of electronic literature employ conspiratorial storytelling. often mirroring classical detective fiction in which protagonists investigate mysteries that expand as new information emerges (Fenster 2008). Post-network series such as The X-Files, Lost, and Stranger Things engage audiences in a mode of spectatorship that mirrors conspiracy theorizing, encouraging close attention to formal aspects, plot twists, and diegetic events. As Mittell (35) notes, complex TV series provide “cognitive workouts”, honing problem-solving and observational skills, while Brinker (4) emphasizes the significant time and effort these interpretative communities demand, setting a high threshold for media literacy and information-processing.

Together, these dynamics illustrate how conspiracy narratives, from real-world to fictional, shape how audiences interpret, evaluate, and engage with information in an increasingly mediated and participatory culture.

See Also

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) - Simulation of human intelligence processes by computer systems, to create or interpret content in innovative and sometimes literary ways
  • Chatbot - Software application designed to simulate conversation with human users, often used in digital narratives to provide interactive storytelling experiences
  • Critical Code Studies - Research approach that examines the cultural, sociological, and philosophical implications of computer code, considering how code influences and is influenced by its cultural context
  • Fanfiction - Genre of writing, often published and shared in online communities, where fans create new stories based on characters, settings, or plots from existing works
  • Hermeneutics - Methodology that describes and prescribes the process of interpretation of texts in which every part of the texts informs the understanding of the whole and the whole text informs the understanding of each part
  • Polarization - Process where beliefs become more extreme and divided between opposing sides while moderate beliefs become less commonly represented or accepted

Works Referenced

Bale, Jeffrey M. “Political Paranoia v. Political Realism: On Distinguishing Between Bogus Conspiracy Theories and Genuine Conspiratorial Politics.” Patterns of Prejudice, vol. 41, 2007, pp. 45–60. doi:10.1080/00313220601118751.

Brinker, Felix. “Hidden Agendas, Endless Investigations, and the Dynamics of Complexity: The Conspiratorial Mode of Storytelling in Contemporary American Television Series.” aspeers, vol. 5, 2012, pp. 87–109.

Fenster, Mark. Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture. University of Minnesota Press, 2008.

Maly, Ico. Metapolitics, Algorithms and Violence: New Right Activism and Terrorism in the Attention Economy. Routledge, 2024.

Mason, Jessica. “Making Fiction out of Fact: Attention and Belief in the Discourse of Conspiracy.” Narrative Inquiry, vol. 29, no. 2, 2019, pp. 293–312. doi:10.1075/ni.19023.mas.

Mittell, Jason. Complex TV: The Poetics of Contemporary Television Storytelling. New York University Press, 2015.

Romanishyn, Alexander, Olena Malytska, and Vitaliy Goncharuk. “AI-Driven Disinformation: Policy Recommendations for Democratic Resilience.” Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, vol. 8, 2025, article 1569115.

Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity. Duke University Press, 2003.

Tuters, Marc, Emilija Jokubauskaitė, and Daniel Bach. “Post-Truth Protest: How 4chan Cooked Up the Pizzagate Bullshit.” M/C Journal, vol. 21, no. 3, 2019.

Van de Ven, Inge, and Lucie Chateau. Digital Culture and the Hermeneutic Tradition: Suspicion, Trust & Dialogue. Routledge, 2024.

Further Reading

Dawson, Paul. “What Is ‘the Narrative’? Conspiracy Theories and Journalistic Emplotment in the Age of Social Media.” Dawson, P., and M. Mäkelä (editors), The Routledge Companion to Narrative Theory. Routledge, 2023, 71–85.

Fleckenstein, Kristen “Representations of Gender in Conspiracy Theories: A Corpus-assisted Critical Discourse Analysis.” Critical Discourse Studies, 2024, vol. 1, no. 17. doi:10.1080/17405904.2024.2334263

Gruzd, Antoliy, and Philip Mai. “Going Viral: How a Single Tweet Spawned a COVID-19 Conspiracy Theory on Twitter.” Big Data & Society, vol. 7, no. 2, 2020. doi:10.1177/2053951720938405

Mahl, Daniela, Mike S. Schäfer, and Jing Zeng. “Conspiracy Theories in Online Environments: An Interdisciplinary Literature Review and Agenda for Future Research.” New Media & Society, vol. 25, no. 7, 2023, pp. 1781-1801. doi: 10.1177/14614448221075759

Schulze, Heidi, et al. “Far-right Conspiracy Groups on Fringe Platforms: A Longitudinal Analysis of Radicalization Dynamics on Telegram.” Convergence, vol. 28, no. 4, 2022. 1103-1126. doi:10.1177/13548565221104977

Stewart, Michelle, Maxime Bénibé, and Sklaereim Le Gallo. “Skeptical Communities: The Participatory Dynamics of Political Fandom.” Global Media Journal, vol. 14, no. 1, 2022, pp. 48-66.

Van de Ven, Inge. “It’s Not a Game! Rules of Notice and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion in Contemporary FMV Games.” Games and Culture, vol. 19, no. 2, 2024, pp. 158-177. doi: 10.1177/15554120231161180

Electronic Literature and Games

Baggy Cat Ltd. Contradiction! The All-Video Murder Mystery Adventure. Developed and published by Baggy Cat Ltd., PC, 2015. https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/373390/

Barlow, Sam. Her Story. Developed and published by Sam Barlow, PC, 2015. https://www.herstorygame.com

Barlow, Sam, and Annapurna Pictures. Telling Lies. Developed by Sam Barlow, published by Annapurna Interactive, PC, 2019. https://annapurnainteractive.com/en/games/telling-lies

Bigelow, Alan. Saving the Alphabet. Developed and published by Alan Bigelow, 2005. Web. http://webyarns.com/SavingTheAlphabet.html.

Clark, David, et al. The End: Death in Seven Colours. Developed and published by David Clark et al., 2015. Web. http://theend7.net/.

D’Avekki Studios. The Infectious Madness of Dr Dekker. Developed and published by D’Avekki Studios, PC, 2017. https://store.steampowered.com/app/545540/The_Infectious_Madness_of_Doctor_Dekker/

D’Avekki Studios. The Shapeshifting Detective. Developed and published by D’Avekki Studios, PC, 2018. https://shapeshiftingdetective.com/

D’Avekki Studios. Dark Nights with Poe & Munro. Developed and published by D’Avekki Studios, PC, 2020. https://poeandmunro.com/

Love, Christine. Digital: A Love Story. Developed and published by Christine Love, 2010. Web. https://collection.eliterature.org/3/work.html?work=digital-a-love-story.

Nelson, Jason. Evidence of Everything Exploding. Developed and published by Jason Nelson, 2010. Web. https://elmcip.net/creative-work/evidence-everything-exploding.

Telltale Games. Sam & Max Save the World. Developed and published by Telltale Games, PC, 2009. https://samandmax.fandom.com/wiki/Sam_%26_Max_Save_the_World

Rettberg, Scott. Kind of Blue. Developed and published by Scott Rettberg, 2002. Web. https://retts.net/kindofblue/.

Cite This

Ven, Inge van de. "Conspiracy Theory." The Living Glossary of Digital Narrative, 2025. https://glossary.cdn.uib.no/terms/conspiracy-theory

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