This week is the first in an ongoing series of talks about conspiracy theories. The idea came to me as I was chatting with a friend and colleague, Dr. Ben Gross, an associate professor of sociology at St. Bonaventure University. The two of us have similar interests in that we want to teach media literacy – among other literacies.
Somehow in one of our conversations we started talking about conspiracy theories. We see them all over the news in any number of areas – particularly in politics and science and health. We then started talking about some of our favorites – those that are fun to think about but basically harmless. And those that are not fun and are harmful.
This works very well with what I am trying to do here at the Data Doyenne podcast and in my own online classes. How do we take information that’s out there and determine what is real or not? What’s accurate? What’s false? Ben and I plan to take two conspiracies each month – one current and one historic and unpack it. Where is the kernel of truth – if there is one? How did it spread? Who believes it? How can you prevent falling into a conspiracy theory trap? All of this and more is the fun we plan to have on PB&J.
This week we discuss what a conspiracy theory is, who believes them, why, how they spread, and are they harmful.
We reference two articles and a website: