Session Chair: Adrienne Massanari
Presentation 1
‘We are all in this psyop together’: Psyop realism as vernacular media critique
Daniel de Zeeuw(1), Peter Knight(2), Clare Birchall(3)
1: University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, The; 2: University of Manchester, UK; 3: King's College London, UK
This article examines increasingly ubiquitous and casual uses of the term ‘psyops’ in both fringe and mainstream discourses online. It charts the trajectory of ‘psyops’ from deep web spaces like 4chan to social media platforms, recognising and examining a turn to ‘psyop realism’: a resignation to the transformation of the epistemological turmoil created by the convergence of military psyops, disinformation, and behavioral manipulation by commercial platforms into a paradigmatic condition of ‘living online’. But the article also seeks to situate concerns about manipulation, simulated reality and agency panic within a longer history of conspiracy culture - in both works of reflexive postmodern fiction and the reductive, knee-jerk conspiracist cries of ‘false flag’ and ‘crisis actor’ from conspiracy entrepreneurs like Alex Jones. The article considers engagements with psyop realism in both the work of Trevor Paglen and viral internet memes. The former helpfully defamiliarizes military psyops and the latter offers a vernacular media critique of the current information environment. In all of these engagements with the term ‘psyop’, there is an ambivalence between the literal and the figural that far from needing to be resolved, speaks to the very condition of datafied digital experience today.
Presentation 2
COALITIONS OF DISTRUST: CONSPIRICIZATION VIA HASHTAG HIJACKING
Marc Tuters
University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, The
This work in progress paper studies the phenomenon of “hashtag hijacking”— which refers to when “a hashtag is used for a different purpose than the one originally intended” (Xanthopoulos et al., 2016, p.1) — in a large-scale longitudinal dataset of Twitter posts (N >10 million) spanning over 15 years (2005 - 2023), collected using its academic API in February of 2023, prior to the site's termination of that service. The dataset concerns a diverse set of issues, collected via hashtags, ranging from discussions of climate change mitigation, to digital currency to life extension technologies. What they all have in common is that, at the time of collection, they had all recently been subject to a process that we refer to as _issue conspiracization_. This large-scale longitudinal dataset of formerly “on-topic” but subsequently “hijacked” hashtags provides us with the unique opportunity to analyze the overtime dynamics of what can be thought of as the _discourse networks_ – “discourse coalitions, and the storylines they mobilize, change over time” (Markard et al., 2021, p. 316)— that surround on _issue spaces_ (Völker & Saldivia Gonzatti, 2024; Marres & Rogers 2005). Specifically, in this paper we are interested both in telling the story of how an issue space gets hijacked and in making sense of what emerges at the intersection of these hijackings — an often confusing combination of issues that one prominent commentator referred to as a "conspiracy smoothie" (Klein 2020).
Presentation 3
‘CONSPIRACY THEORIES SHOULD BE CALLED SPOILER ALERTS’: CONSPIRACY THEORIES AS AFFECTIVE COMMUNITES ON RUSSELL BRAND’S YOUTUBE COMMENT SECTION
Robert John Topinka
Birkbeck, University of London, United Kingdom
This paper examines how conspiracy theories anchor affective communities through an analysis of the YouTube comment section for the actor and comedian turned political influencer Russell Brand. Comparing videos before and after Brand’s shift to covid scepticism, I explore like counts, reply networks, and other commenting patterns in a dataset of 217,157 comments and conduct an in-depth analysis of 2000 top comments. The findings show first, a shift toward right-wing viewpoints; second, a reduction in comment length and comment replies alongside an increase in likes; third, a sharp rise in proclamations of Brand fandom; and fourth, a steep increase in references to conspiracy. The in-depth analysis reveals that comments focused not on narrating the content of conspiracies but on celebrating conspiracy as the basis of a political community and as a defence against accusations of paranoia. I argue that conspiracy theories can function as formal categories that anchor affective communities.
Presentation 4
UNEARTHING CONNECTIONS: EXAMINING THE ROLE OF SENSE OF COMMUNITY IN A CONSPIRACY BELIEVERS’ FACEBOOK GROUP
Alma Kalisky, Neta Kligler-Vilenchik
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Conspiracy theories have been studied increasingly in recent years, with the main research approach to understanding conspiracy theorists focusing on their personal characteristics. However, research has not yet clarified the role of online communities in the identity and social experience of believers. To address this, this research endeavor examines the social and community dynamics among conspiracy theory believers, focusing on the case study of the public Facebook group "The Flat Earth Community – Israel." Through a qualitative content analysis of posts and comments from within the group, the study reveals the role of a sense of community in the experiences of group participants. Findings reveal that participants seek appreciation and solidarity within the group while engaging in boundary work to maintain the authenticity of group members and defend the group against 'threats from the outside.' This research offers a deeper understanding of how online communities, serving as safe spaces for individuals whose beliefs are marginalized by societal norms, can fulfill a similar function for conspiracy theory believers. Such an in-depth understanding can help researchers to contend with the negative aspects of belief in conspiracy theories, for example through the consideration of alternative mechanisms that could satisfy participants’ need for a sense of community.
