QAnon and Its Conspiracy Milieu: The Italian Case

Murru, María Francesca

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-97535-7_8

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 23 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Our findings therefore mirror findings from Finland (Xia et al, 2022) where parties spreading COVID vaccine conspiracy theories also spread anti-NATO narratives. Our results further support the "conspiracy singularity" theory (Merlan, 2020;Murru, 2022;Terracciano, 2023;Tuters and Willaert, 2022). Those MPs involved in spreading conspiracy theories of one type also interconnected them with other conspiracy theories, thus merging different conspiracy theories into one overarching…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

“…In Finland, the same parties involved in spreading COVID vaccine conspiracy theories before the invasion continued to spread anti-NATO narratives and conspiracies during the invasion (Xia et al 2022). The tendency of actors to spread multiple different conspiracy theories and interconnect various conspiracy theories into one overarching narrative has been called "conspiracy singularity" (Merlan, 2020), with emerging research providing evidence of this phenomenon's existence (Murru, 2022;Tuters and Willaert, 2022). A study by Terracciano (2023) comparing the conspiracy theories related to COVID and the Russian invasion disseminated on QAnon-supporter Telegram channels upheld the "conspiracy singularity" theory.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Slovak MPs’ response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine in light of conspiracy theories and the polarization of political discourse

Lintner,

Diviák,

Nekardová

et al. 2023

Humanit Soc Sci Commun

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine received widespread international condemnation. In Slovakia, the invasion became a subject of much political discussion with large number of MPs openly advocating Russian interests. This study investigates Slovak political discourse on Facebook in the weeks before and after the invasion began. We examine the discourse through the lens of Discourse Network Analysis, combining qualitative content analysis of MPs’ Facebook posts with quantitative bipartite social network analysis. During the two weeks, we retrieved all (n = 1880) posts from all (n = 117) MPs who had an active public Facebook page. We manually coded all posts and created a bipartite discourse network consisting of MPs connected to each other via shared discourse codes in two timepoints. We performed a series of exploratory analyses that identified the content of the political discourse, the structure of the political discourse network, and the mechanisms driving the change of the political discourse network. Our results show that the invasion dramatically changed political discourse in Slovakia, with the domestic coalition-opposition struggles losing prominence among the invasion-related topics. The structure of the political discourse network showed a strong coalition-opposition split. While coalition MPs had largely pro-Ukrainian sentiments, opposition MPs largely communicated pro-Russian propaganda. A cluster of opposition MPs consistently spread conspiracy theories both before and after the invasion began, supporting a “conspiracy singularity” theory—the tendency of actors to spread multiple different conspiracy theories and interconnect various conspiracy theories into one overarching narrative. The change of the discourse network at the beginning of the invasion was largely driven by the agenda setting of several parties, agenda reinforcement, and increasing political polarization. We discuss our findings in relation to the previous research on the spread of conspiracy theories among politicians and the polarization of political discourse during the invasion, and we suggest implications for future research.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Slovak MPs’ response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine in light of conspiracy theories and the polarization of political discourse

Lintner,

Diviák,

Nekardová

et al. 2023

Humanit Soc Sci Commun

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Other conspiracy theories, by contrast, were filtered out by RKC's members' 'perspectives'. QAnon-related speculations, for example, never really took off within this communicative flow while they circulated in other Italian ecosystems, even encapsulating micronarratives on 5G (Murru, 2022).…”

Section: The Populist Turn and The Adoption Of Syncreticmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Scientific to Syncretic Patchwork Storytelling: The Discursive Ecosystem of Italian Stop 5G Refused Knowledge Communities

Tosoni

2024

Manufacturing Refused Knowledge in the Age of Epistemic Pluralism

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This chapter addresses the discursive practices, media-related and not, adopted by the Italian Stop 5G RKC to produce, stabilise and transform its shared (refused) knowledge. Adopting an ecological approach, this inquiry has its main focus on the digital sphere as a transmedia circulation environment in which a range of discourses and narratives can coexist and interact in multiple ways, sometimes colliding and competing, sometimes adapting to each other, sometimes merging in new ways. In particular, it shows how, during the pandemic crisis, the Stop 5G RKC transformed its discursive practices (and, consequently, its shared knowledge) from a ‘scientific patchwork’ storytelling approach—based on a rigid definition of borders and selection of scientific sources—to a ‘syncretic patchwork’ storytelling approach—based on combining diverse and sometimes conflicting discursive sources (e.g. scientific knowledge, folklore, new age spirituality and conspiracy theories). This perspective allows to highlight the close relationship between the RKCs’ discursive practices, their forms of organisation and the shared (refused) knowledge they produce and reproduce.

show abstract

Us and Them: Martyrs, Prophets and Mythic Narratives of Refused Knowledge

Bory

2024

Manufacturing Refused Knowledge in the Age of Epistemic Pluralism

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

On the basis of the literature on myths and narrative tropes in science and religion, this chapter enquires into RKC mythical narratives to highlight the relevance of certain key figures, events and objects that constitute the main characters around which these communities weave their common goals, visions and sense of belonging. Exploring the construction of, and the tropes surrounding, these mythical narratives—both scientific and religious—this analysis also emphasises the way such narratives stimulate everyday discussions, practices and even ritual forms within RKCs. In addition to martyrdom stories, a special focus on the myth surrounding the story of Ryke Geerd Hamer and the foundation of German New Medicine also serves to highlight an archetypal path in which the narrative tropes of mythic science and religious prophets converge. The chapter concludes by highlighting how compound martyrdom, mythical science and religious prophet stories, together with the ritual, social and cultural practices that they trigger, consolidate the demarcation between social worlds, contributing to the distinctions between an ‘us’–members of refused knowledge communities–and a ‘them’, i.e. the rest of society.

show abstract

QAnon and Its Conspiracy Milieu: The Italian Case

Cited by 3 publications

References 23 publications

Slovak MPs’ response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine in light of conspiracy theories and the polarization of political discourse

Slovak MPs’ response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine in light of conspiracy theories and the polarization of political discourse

From Scientific to Syncretic Patchwork Storytelling: The Discursive Ecosystem of Italian Stop 5G Refused Knowledge Communities

Us and Them: Martyrs, Prophets and Mythic Narratives of Refused Knowledge

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About