Professor Renee Hobbs offers a workshop at the Digital Engagement Conference at Brooklyn College on Friday, May 5, 2017.

1. Renee Hobbs
Professor of Communication Studies
Director, Media Education Lab
University of Rhode Island USA
Twitter: @reneehobbs
A Workshop:
Critically Analyzing Conspiracy Theories
Brooklyn College
May 5, 2017

2. Can learning about conspiracy theories advance media literacy
competencies?

4. Workshop: Critically Analyzing
Conspiracy Theories
1. Engage: What conspiracy theories have you
encountered?
2. Access: Gain information about the information
context where conspiracy theories thrive
3. Analyze: A YOUTUBE VIDEO
4. Create: Develop a video annotation to synthesize
learning and document analysis
5. Reflect: Should teachers screen & discuss
conspiracy theory videos in the classroom?
6. Act: Tweet about what you learned

5. LOVE HATE
CONSPIRACY THEORIES
People have a love-hate relationship with them
Who Killed JFK? 9/11
Area 51 Paul Is Dead
Birtherism Moon Landings
Jesus and Mary Magdalene Holocaust
CIA Experiments Reptilian Elite
Elvis Ebola
Vaccines Global Warming

6. DEFINE SOME VOCABULARY WORDS
TO UNDERSTAND CONSPIRACY THEORIES
conspiracy
anxiety
hoax
paranoid
pessimism
“false flag”

7. Myth: All Conspiracy Theories are False

8. ACCESS: Conspiracy Theories
in an Information Age
1. Choice Overload
2. Sharing in a Network Culture
3. Six Types of Fake News
4. New Forms of Authority
5. Norms of Human Information Processing
6. Why We Share
7. How Context Shapes Text
8. Familiarity = Believability

9. Choice Overload
entertainment
information
persuasion

10. New Realities in a
Networked Global Society
 Cost to produce
content is low
 Massive
fragmentation of
production &
consumption
 Viral sharing means
popularity = profit
 Content is consumed
as unbundled
snippets on social
media

11. Six Types of Fake News
Disinformation
Propaganda
Hoax
Parody/Satire
Errors in Journalism
Partisanship
Informing and Engaging the Public
Controlling Knowledge, Attitudes & Values
Cultural Criticism or Creative Expression

12. New Forms of Authority
Attention economics is surpassing traditional forms of authority and expertise
our attention — and
most of it free —
being found is
valuable."
 Immediacy
 Personalization
 Interpretation
 Findability

13.  Selective exposure
 Confirmation bias
 Reality maintenance
 Performative sharing
60% of people share
content without
reading/viewing it
Human
Information Processing

14. We share information that is
ambiguous or challenging to interpret

15. Report from Iron Mountain

16. Government
commission concludes:
Peace is not in the
interest of a stable
society.
Even if lasting peace
"could be achieved, it
would almost certainly
not be in the best
interests of society to
achieve it.”
Context Shapes Text

17. Becomes a best selling
book, translated into 15
languages
1972: Leonard Lewin
admits he is the author
& explains its purpose
as dark political satire
Context Shapes Text

18. 1990:
Liberty Lobby publishes
the report as a public
domain document
Right-wing websites re-
distribute it online
Context Shapes Text

19. Both LEFT AND RIGHT
WING radicals believe
that government
creates war for
economic benefit
Context Shapes Text

20. Familiarity
Equals Believability
THE POWER OF A SINGLE EXPOSURE
Participants who were exposed to a conspiracy video were
significantly less likely to :
• think that there is widespread scientific agreement on
human-caused climate change
• sign a petition to help reduce global warming
• donate or volunteer for a charity in the next six months.
--Van der Linden, 2015

21. Workshop: Critically Analyzing
Conspiracy Theories
1. Engage: What conspiracy theories have you
encountered?
2. Access: Gain information about the information
context where conspiracy theories thrive
3. Analyze: A YOUTUBE VIDEO
4. Create: Develop a video annotation to synthesize
learning and document analysis
5. Reflect: Should teachers screen & discuss
conspiracy theory videos in the classroom?
6. Act: Tweet about what you learned

22. Autocomplete Censorship

23. Media Literacy: A Pedagogy of Inquiry
TEAM 1

24. Media Literacy: A Pedagogy of Inquiry
1. Who is the author and what
is the purpose?
2. What techniques are used
to attract and hold your
attention?
3. What lifestyles, values and
points of view are presented?
4. How might different people
interpret this message?
5. What is omitted?
TEAM 2

25. Media Literacy: A Pedagogy of Inquiry
TEAM 3

26. HOW TO COMPOSE A DIGITAL ANNOTATION

27. What did you learn?
What new questions
have emerged?
TIME TO REFLECT

28. Media Literacy: A Pedagogy of Inquiry
“The thing is, Google
search isn’t neutral. Like
any other set of complex
algorithms, search is shot
through with the values
of its creators.”
-Wohlsen, 2016

29. DEBATE
Should you teach
about conspiracy
theories in the
classroom?
Why or why not?
TIME TO REFLECT

30. Media literacy educators can
explore conspiracy theories to strengthen
critical thinking skills

31. Teaching about conspiracy theories risks
validating them
 There’s not enough time in class to
examine evidence in depth
 There’s too much junk information online
on these topics
 It’s too easy to trivialize conspiracy
theories, reinforcing “us” and “them”
thinking

32. TWEET ABOUT SOMETHING YOU LEARNED IN THIS SESSION
Using hashtag #DigiURI #conspiracy

33. Workshop: Critically Analyzing
Conspiracy Theories

34. Rhetoric
Print Literacy
Visual Literacy
Information Literacy
Media Literacy
Critical Literacy
Computer Literacy
News Literacy
Digital Literacy
Approaches to Analyzing Conspiracy Theories

35. re
Conspiracy theories are alarm systems
that help people deal with threat. They
resonate most among groups suffering
from loss, weakness, or disunity.
--Uscinski & Parent, 2014

36. Conspiracy theories are constructed by people, they have
an author, purpose, point of view & bias
Even brief exposures to conspiracy theories can increase
their believability
Composing critical commentary about conspiracy
theories using digital annotation tools may advance the
development of critical thinking skills
Conspiracy theories resonate in an age of anxiety by
explaining complex and ambiguous realities
People need to take time to reflect on how conspiracy
theories are shaped by historical and political context

38. Renee Hobbs
Professor of Communication Studies
Director, Media Education Lab
Harrington School of Communication
and Media
University of Rhode Island USA
Email: hobbs@uri.edu
Twitter: @reneehobbs
WEB: www.mediaeducationlab.com