Interview conducted by Jaime Ortega.
Director – Graduate Program in Strategic Communication
Saint Peter’s University
1-There is a certain danger in the way conspiracy theories have altered social media, specially on Youtube. Do people distrust modern Media (television, radio, print)?
Absolutely. Conspiracy theories become very appealing in times when people distrust major social institutions, when they fear people in positions of power and privilege. Right now, the majority of people see the mainstream media as a major part of the so-called “system,” rather than as an independent watchdog of the system. Poll after poll, for instance, shows that the majority of Americans don’t trust the mainstream, traditional media. They see the media as being extensions of big corporations, of business interests rather than the public interest, of being little more than organizations that regurgitate governmental P.R. statements, of being ideologically biased in some way and ultimately dishonest and presenting an inaccurate view of the world. If people feel this way, it becomes very easy for them to imagine the mainstream media as being part of vast global conspiracies to lie to, exploit, and manipulate the world.
For many, the antidote to this becomes the web pages, social media, YouTube, and blogs. Of course what the suspicious-minded then refuse to consider is that all of the conspiracy web pages and blogs might be no more than money-making schemes for the unscrupulous, a way to take advantage of the fearful and the gullible. Every major conspiracy web page bombards its readers with adds for self-published books and independently produced videos (for a reasonable price, of course) claiming to offer proof of everything from hoaxed moon landings and aliens in the Pentagon to weather-manipulating machines creating hurricanes and space lasers bringing down the World Trade towers on 9/11.”
2-We did a street survey in UNLV campus a few weeks back, and the results pointed 60% of students believed the US government involvement in the Boston Bombings that took place on 2013 and also September 11. When people suspect their own government is involved in these attacks on US soil, what comes to mind as a conspiracy researcher?
These kinds of beliefs bring fear to my mind. They make me afraid because they hint at a very large percentage of the population that feels so completely alienated and disenfranchised today that they automatically reject any kind of consensus reality. These people have no faith in any public institution – be that the government or academia and science – even in our very political system, or democracy itself. What also worries me is the simple fact that the committed conspiracy believers also have no critical and logical thinking abilities.
Of course they will swear all day long that they do, that they are smarter than all the “sheep” who don’t question the “official sources,” yet these are the same people who will accept at face value any unproven claim simply because it comes off of a YouTube video, a Facebook meme, or a blog. They will ignore all the empirical evidence debunking the 9/11 conspiracies, the moon landing hoax conspiracies, or the-government-created-
3-Modern media seems to have commercialized and sold its soul to sponsors, and media giants that profit from consumer advertising investments. Are modern day news a fictional representation of reality? Are journalist allowed to do their job of investigating serious cases? Is there an agenda to not report on stories with higher impact?
There is not so much an agenda to keep journalists from reporting on serious stories and issues that have a high impact, as there is a fear that the average news consumer simply does not care about complex stories. There is a terrible epidemic of the underestimation of the audience in mainstream journalism today. Now the root of this does lie in the fact that the media have been commercialized so much. They have sold their souls to the sponsors and now they must deliver on high ratings and high sales, or higher rates of clicks and views and downloads in the case of online journalism. The quest for profits has turned journalism into infotainment, into watered down news that seeks to make the news-watching and reading process fun and light. This, of course, leads to the ignoring of serious news and it creates the impression in many that the news media are somehow a part of a sinister conspiracy to keep people ignorant.
4-Its hard not to distrust the Government given some historical cases; The John .F. Kennedy assassination, and the CIA involvement in the Watergate scandal to name a few. Has the government have to change its ways for people not to believe in conspiracies?
What drives so many conspiracy believers is the fact that we have seen so many instances of corruption and criminality in the government. From the time Americans heard of the MKULTRA program where the CIA sponsored drug- and mind-control experiments on unsuspecting people, the Pentagon Papers affair, Watergate, or Iran/Contra, many started to develop a type of tip-of-the-iceberg mentality. If we’ve seen so much abuse of power before, we can now just stretch our imagination a little further and believe that the government is behind mass shooting and terrorist attacks. The antidote to all this is more transparent government, a government that owns up to its mistakes rather tries to lie about them and cover them up.
This comes down to the basic issue of proof. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. The problem with most conspiracy theories is that they offer no solid proof of their assertions. They make tenuous connections between unrelated events and accuse various parties and organizations of wrongdoing because it’s conceivable that those parties might benefit from some sort of wrongdoing. So if the conspiracy theorist can’t offer any solid, incontrovertible proof that the official version of events is wrong, the government still remains more credible. For example, I have not seen persuasive evidence that the government’s version of the collapse of the World Trade towers is not correct, or that the Colorado or Sandy Hook shootings happened in any way other than what the police assert, or that Hurricane Sandy was caused by weather control technology.
6- Conspiracy theories through the use of social media could propose irreparable effects on the future of mainstream media; Partly, because they report on stories where journalist might not done a decent job reporting, or taken the necessary steps to conduct an investigation. Take the case of Collin Powell discussing the Weapons Of Mass Destruction on live television back in 2003; holding a photo shopped picture of the storage bunkers he claim as reliable proof, in front of innumerable media outlets. When there is distrust from media skeptics, what follows next for the future and credibility of most media outlets, if people believe mediums such as Youtube to be more reliable?
This is something that worries me a lot because if people get more and more of their information from social media and YouTube, the mainstream media will start imitating them. I believe that so many people don’t just turn to this alternate media because their faith in mainstream journalism was so badly shattered. They do so because the weird, the sensationalistic, and the conspiratorial paranoia all over social media are simply fun and entertaining. I think mainstream journalism will start heading down a very dangerous road when it will try and out-sensationalize and out-conspiracy social media.
7- Do conspiracy theorist have a solid opinion on the problems they observe when interpreting raw data, or is it made to create propaganda to feed their believe system?
It’s definitely a process of feeding their own belief system. I would describe most of the really colorful and complex conspiracy theories as an exercise in the reverse scientific process. Instead of gathering data with a detached, open mind, conspiracy theorists make up their mind immediately about what they want to believe, then only present information that bolsters their belief and ignore every bit of data that contradicts it. This is apparent in the case of every conspiracy theory spreading on the Internet immediately in the wake of a major event. Within 24 hours of the Colorado theater shootings or the Sandy Hook shootings, conspiracy theories were all over the Internet. People who wanted to believe in a conspiracy did so from the first moment, then went to their web pages and blogs and only reported their take on events in such a way as to support their preconceived beliefs.
8- Since the rise of conspiracies is statistically higher than ever before (un-education goes along that row), how do you think it will affect the governments relation with its citizen, if credibility suddenly vanished inside a crisis? Could there be a future uprising of people who will oppose the government?
Yes, this is something I’m concerned with. If Americans think all elected officials, all people in power, are liars and criminals, it will highly destabilize society. People will not want to participate in democracy if conspiracy theorists have them believing that the system is rigged anyway by some invisible, untouchable cabal. So people who don’t think they can have their voices heard through the democratic process might next resort to disorder, violent protest, and uprising. For a perfect example, we should look at all the anti-government militias and hate groups. They all believe in far reaching plots by international Jewish cabals and banking conspiracies coming to take over the world. These conspiracy believers – incidentally also poor, on the fringes of society, and uneducated – have come to believe that violence and rebellion are their only options in a world controlled by evil, shadowy conspirators.
