John B. Kelly highlighted this disparity in a memorable passage published in 1973:

Distance, the filtering of news through so many intermediate channels, and the habitual tendency to discuss and interpret Middle Eastern politics in the political terminology of the West, have all contrived to impart a certain blandness to the reporting and analysis of Middle Eastern affairs in Western countries. ... To read, for instance, the extracts from the Cairo and Baghdad press and radio ... is to open a window upon a strange and desolate landscape, strewn with weird, amorphous shapes cryptically inscribed "imperialist plot," "Zionist crime," "Western exploitation," ... and "the revolution betrayed." Around and among these enigmatic structures, curious figures, like so many mythical beats, caper and cavort - "enemies," "traitors," "stooges," "hyenas," "puppets," "lackeys," "feudalists," "gangsters," "tyrants," "criminals," "oppressors," "plotters" and deviationists". ... It is all rather like a monstrous playing board for some grotesque and sinister game, in which the snakes are all hydras, the ladders have no rungs, and the dice are blank.

Exposure to elite misinformation is associated with the use of toxic language and moral outrage.

Shown is the relationship between users’ misinformation-exposure scores and (a) the toxicity of the language used in their tweets, measured using the Google Jigsaw Perspective API27, and (b) the extent to which their tweets involved expressions of moral outrage, measured using the algorithm from ref. 28. Extreme values are winsorized by 95% quantile for visualization purposes. Small dots in the background show individual observations; large dots show the average value across bins of size 0.1, with size of dots proportional to the number of observations in each bin. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

Zaig, G. (n.d.). 20% of Americans believe microchips are inside COVID-19 vaccines—Study. The Jerusalem Post | JPost.Com. Retrieved July 21, 2021, from https://www.jpost.com/omg/20-percent-of-americans-believe-microchips-are-inside-covid-19-vaccine-study-674272

https://www.vaultofculture.com/nst

Defeat The Mandates: Green Our Vaccines reconstituted for COVID-19. (2022, January 21). RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE. https://respectfulinsolence.com/2022/01/21/defeat-the-mandates-green-our-vaccines-reconstituted-for-covid-19/

Surely you're already up on the work of @AnneGanzert? https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-030-35272-1

Syndicated: https://twitter.com/ChrisAldrich/status/1424235840088133635

Bonus points to the first one who can publish with a serious reference to "Lines of Thought" by Ayelet Even-Ezra. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo63098990.html

Syndicated: https://twitter.com/ChrisAldrich/status/1424236570471636993

And finally, just for fun https://condenaststore.com/featured/the-conspiracy-board-brendan-loper.html

Syndicated: https://twitter.com/ChrisAldrich/status/1424236850902753281

The Great Man theory of history is the misconception that all the most important ideas can be traced back to a single great individual—usually a man—and ignoring the fact that they had likely been brewing in the social milieu of their time before being encapsulated, like a bug in ember, by a particular writer who then gets an outsized amount of credit for "inventing" the idea.

I wonder if the effect of social media and ubiquity of communication will dampen this effect?

Timothy Caulfield. (2021, December 14). @LuisSchang @joerogan The Great Conspiracy Theory Paradox! Https://t.co/sEPuwvXJKp [Tweet]. @CaulfieldTim. https://twitter.com/CaulfieldTim/status/1470818785867153408

Schmid, P., & Lewandowsky, S. (n.d.). Tackling COVID disinformation with empathy and conversation. The Conversation. Retrieved December 15, 2021, from http://theconversation.com/tackling-covid-disinformation-with-empathy-and-conversation-173013

American vaccine disinformation used as ‘Trojan horse’ for far right in New Zealand. (n.d.). NBC News. Retrieved December 3, 2021, from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/american-vaccine-disinformation-used-trojan-horse-far-right-new-zealan-rcna6423

ReconfigBehSci on Twitter: ‘RT @NBCNewsNow: Covid conspiracy theories born in the U.S. are having a deadly impact around the world. @BrandyZadrozny takes us to Roman…’ / Twitter. (n.d.). Retrieved 3 December 2021, from https://twitter.com/SciBeh/status/1466065323879243782

How the Far-Right Is Radicalizing Anti-Vaxxers. (n.d.). Retrieved December 2, 2021, from https://www.vice.com/en/article/88ggqa/how-the-far-right-is-radicalizing-anti-vaxxers

Kale, S. (2021, November 11). Chakras, crystals and conspiracy theories: How the wellness industry turned its back on Covid science. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/11/injecting-poison-will-never-make-you-healthy-how-the-wellness-industry-turned-its-back-on-covid-science

Caulfield, T. (2021, October 18). The Golden Age of Junk Science Is Killing Us. Men’s Health. https://www.menshealth.com/health/a37910261/how-junk-science-and-misinformation-hurt-us/

Wiseman, E. (2021, October 17). The dark side of wellness: The overlap between spiritual thinking and far-right conspiracies. The Observer. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/oct/17/eva-wiseman-conspirituality-the-dark-side-of-wellness-how-it-all-got-so-toxic

Recommended Reading: Amazon’s algorithms, conspiracy theories and extremist literature. (n.d.). ISD. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from https://www.isdglobal.org/isd-publications/recommended-reading-amazons-algorithms-conspiracy-theories-and-extremist-literature/

Echols, W. (n.d.). Wild Conspiracy Theory Linking Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine To ‘Lucifer’ Goes Viral. POLYGRAPH.Info. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from https://www.polygraph.info/a/fact-check-pfizer-vaccine-luciferase-newsmax/31546045.html

Why people believe Covid conspiracy theories: Could folklore hold the answer? | Coronavirus | The Guardian. (n.d.). Retrieved October 26, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2021/oct/26/why-people-believe-covid-conspiracy-theories-could-folklore-hold-the-answer

Thaker, J., & Richardson, L. (2021). COVID-19 Vaccine Segments in Australia: An Audience Segmentation Analysis to Improve Vaccine Uptake [Preprint]. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/y85nm

Bode, L., & Vraga, E. K. (2018). See Something, Say Something: Correction of Global Health Misinformation on Social Media. Health Communication, 33(9), 1131–1140. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2017.1331312

Disinformation and Disease: Social Media and the Ebola Epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (n.d.). Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved September 28, 2021, from https://www.cfr.org/blog/disinformation-and-disease-social-media-and-ebola-epidemic-democratic-republic-congo

Jamison, A. M., Broniatowski, D. A., Dredze, M., Sangraula, A., Smith, M. C., & Quinn, S. C. (2020). Not just conspiracy theories: Vaccine opponents and proponents add to the COVID-19 ‘infodemic’ on Twitter. Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, 1(3). https://doi.org/10.37016/mr-2020-38

Bai, H. (2021). Fake News Known as Fake Still Changes Beliefs and Leads to Partisan Polarization [Preprint]. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/v9gax

As a virologist I’m shocked my work has been hijacked by anti-vaxxers | David LV Bauer | The Guardian. (n.d.). Retrieved September 8, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/07/virologist-work-anti-vaxxers-covid

‘No one wanted to read’ his book on pandemic psychology – then Covid hit. (2021, August 19). The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/19/book-psychology-pandemics-steven-taylor

‘Spreading like a virus’: Inside the EU’s struggle to debunk Covid lies | World news | The Guardian. (n.d.). Retrieved August 18, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/17/spreading-like-a-virus-inside-the-eus-struggle-to-debunk-covid-lies?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

A ‘Brainwashed Death Cult’: The Gamification of Conspiracy – Byline Times. (n.d.). Retrieved August 17, 2021, from https://bylinetimes.com/2021/08/10/a-brainwashed-death-cult-the-gamification-of-conspiracy/

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StringTheory

Sometimes also called anacapa charts in criminology.

BusinessLIVE. “HERMAN WASSERMAN: Vaccine Rollout Would Gather Pace If Public Ignored False Information.” Accessed July 16, 2021. https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/2021-07-15-herman-wasserman-vaccine-rollout-would-gather-pace-if-public-ignored-false-information/.

Agarwal, A. (2021). The Accidental Checkmate: Understanding the Intent behind sharing Misinformation on Social Media. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/kwu58

McClure, H. (2021, May 12). How conspiracy theories led to Covid vaccine hesitancy in the Pacific. The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/13/how-conspiracy-theories-led-to-covid-vaccine-hesitancy-in-the-pacific

Misinformation “superspreaders”: Covid vaccine falsehoods still thriving on Facebook and Instagram. (2021, January 6). The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/06/facebook-instagram-urged-fight-deluge-anti-covid-vaccine-falsehoods

Pennycook, G., McPhetres, J., Zhang, Y., Lu, J. G., & Rand, D. G. (2020). Fighting COVID-19 Misinformation on Social Media: Experimental Evidence for a Scalable Accuracy-Nudge Intervention. Psychological Science, 0956797620939054. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620939054

Featherstone, J. D., Bell, R. A., & Ruiz, J. B. (2019). Relationship of people’s sources of health information and political ideology with acceptance of conspiratorial beliefs about vaccines. Vaccine, 37(23), 2993–2997. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2019.04.063

Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. (2020). The Cognitive Science of Fake News. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/ar96c

This article takes on the challenge of investigating what role social media technologies have in adult learning/ their impact on learning outcomes for adult learners. The data showed that social media technologies follow similar patterns to other educational tools. Teaching method used in conjunction with the technology matters significantly. This being said, the article does make several recommendations for using social media in the classroom to boost adult learning outcomes. 10/10 interesting and relevant article with easy to find and utilize recommendations educators could implement.

Tiffany, K. (2020, September 23). Reddit Squashed QAnon by Accident. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/09/reddit-qanon-ban-evasion-policy-moderation-facebook/616442/

Mike Caulfield on Twitter. (n.d.). Twitter. Retrieved September 23, 2020, from https://twitter.com/holden/status/1308205813475897344

Nathan Allebach on Twitter. (n.d.). Twitter. Retrieved September 23, 2020, from https://twitter.com/nathanallebach/status/1308154518702620678

Washington, D. of C. 1100 C. A. N. S. 1300B, & Dc 20036. (n.d.). PolitiFact - Fact-checking ‘Plandemic 2’: Another video full of conspiracy theories about COVID-19. @politifact. Retrieved August 27, 2020, from https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/aug/18/fact-checking-plandemic-2-video-recycles-inaccurat/

University, © Stanford, Stanford, & Complaints, C. 94305 C. (n.d.). Virality Project (US): Marketing meets Misinformation. Retrieved 25 August 2020, from https://cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/io/news/manufacturing-influence-0

Salaamedia. (2020, June 23). The Special Focus with Zahid Jadwat—Understanding the dangers of misinformation. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/salaamedia/videos/the-special-focus-with-zahid-jadwat-understanding-the-dangers-of-misinformation-/261866155076824/

Who is behind the Qanon conspiracy? We’ve traced it to three people. (n.d.). NBC News. Retrieved August 18, 2020, from https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/how-three-conspiracy-theorists-took-q-sparked-qanon-n900531

Hameleers, M. (2020). Prospect Theory in Times of a Pandemic: The Effects of Gain versus Loss Framing on Policy Preferences and Emotional Responses During the 2020 Coronavirus Outbreak [Preprint]. SocArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/7pykj

COVID-19 Social Science Tracker - Google Sheets

Starominski-Uehara, M. (2020). Powering Social Media Footage: Simple Guide for the Most Vulnerable to Make Emergency Visible [Preprint]. SocArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/gefhv

Digital, culture, media and sport sub-committee on online harms and disinformation. (2020, April 30). Parliament.tv. https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/3c4aede5-2b89-4f33-9103-fb1c8a77a3ad

Allington, D., Duffy, B., Wessely, S., Dhavan, N., & Rubin, J. (undefined/ed). Health-protective behaviour, social media usage and conspiracy belief during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Psychological Medicine, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1017/S003329172000224X

Researchers: Nearly Half Of Accounts Tweeting About Coronavirus Are Likely Bots. (2020, May 20). NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/05/20/859814085/researchers-nearly-half-of-accounts-tweeting-about-coronavirus-are-likely-bots

Haelle, T. (2020, May 8). Why It’s Important To Push Back On ‘Plandemic’—And How To Do It. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/tarahaelle/2020/05/08/why-its-important-to-push-back-on-plandemic-and-how-to-do-it/

Jamieson, K. H., & Albarracín, D. (2020). The Relation between Media Consumption and Misinformation at the Outset of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic in the US. Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, 2. https://doi.org/10.37016/mr-2020-012

Young, V. A. (2020, May 20). Nearly Half Of The Twitter Accounts Discussing ‘Reopening America’ May Be Bots. Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science. https://www.scs.cmu.edu/news/nearly-half-twitter-accounts-discussing-%E2%80%98reopening-america%E2%80%99-may-be-bots

Meyerhoff, H. S., Brand, A.-K., & Scholl, A. (2020). In Case of Doubt for the Suspicion?: When People Falsely Remember Facts in the News as Being Uncertain. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/rct7a

Cook, J., & Lewandowsky, S. (n.d.). Coronavirus conspiracy theories are dangerous – here’s how to stop them spreading. The Conversation. Retrieved April 21, 2020, from http://theconversation.com/coronavirus-conspiracy-theories-are-dangerous-heres-how-to-stop-them-spreading-136564

Porter, E. & Wood. T.J. (2020 May 14). Why is Facebook so afraid of checking facts? Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/why-is-facebook-so-afraid-of-checking-facts/

McKew, M. (2020, May 13) Disinformation Starts at Home. Stand Up Republic. https://standuprepublic.com/disinformation-starts-at-home/

Beyer-Hunt, S., Carter, J., Goh, A., Li, N., & Natamanya, S.M. (2020, May 14) COVID-19 and the Politics of Knowledge: An Issue and Media Source Primer. SPIN. https://secrecyresearch.com/2020/05/14/covid19-spin-primer/

Ball, P. (2020). Anti-vaccine movement could undermine efforts to end coronavirus pandemic, researchers warn. Nature, 581(7808), 251–251. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01423-4

Edelmann, A., Wolff, T., Montagne, D., & Bail, C. A. (2020). Computational Social Science and Sociology. Annual Review of Sociology, 46(1), annurev-soc-121919-054621. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-121919-054621

Uscinski, J. E., Enders, A. M., Klofstad, C., Seelig, M., Funchion, J., Everett, C., Wuchty, S., Premaratne, K., & Murthi, M. (2020). Why do people believe COVID-19 conspiracy theories? Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, 1(COVID-19 and Misinformation). https://doi.org/10.37016/mr-2020-015

Pummerer, L., & Sassenberg, K. (2020, April 14). Conspiracy Theories in Times of Crisis and their Societal Effects: Case “Corona”. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/y5grn

Sætrevik, B. (2020, April 13). Realistic expectations and pro-social behavioural intentions to the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Norwegian population. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/uptyq

Selection and integration of communication media

Sounds like a very quick summary of what Ben Thompson was saying two weeks ago. But, in this case, it’s from “the horse’s mouth”.