Online Conspiracy Theories, Digital Platforms and Secondary Orality: Toward a Sociology of Online Monsters

2022/03/05 by Tommaso Venturini · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Misinformation and Its Impacts #Digital Games and Media #Gothic Literature and Media Analysis

paper · doi:10.1177/02632764211070962

openalex publication_date 2022/03/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30

Abstract

Reviving the somewhat forgotten notion of ‘secondary orality’, this paper conceptualizes online conspiracism as a creative, if monstrous, response to the attention economy of social media. Combining classic literature on oral cultures and current research on online subcultures, this paper takes conspiratorial folklore seriously and develops a program of research into its features and into its surprising adaptation to the attention regime of digital media.

Citations

• The Printing Press as an Agent of Change
• Economization, part 1: shifting attention from the economy towards processes of economization
• The Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media
• Tweeting From Left to Right
• The politics of ‘platforms’
• The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories
• The spread of true and false news online
• Post-Truth Protest: How 4chan Cooked Up the Pizzagate Bullshit
• Understanding Conspiracy Theories
• What Makes Online Content Viral?

Discussions

• Reading Tommaso Venturini's article on online conspiracy narratives and the link to oral cultures (doi.org/10.1177/0263...). It's striking how much applies to contemporary UK politics where slogans ar [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]