Goals of learning from this lesson
- What are "media templates"?
- How are genocides pre- and post mediated?
- How do you de recognize a genocide?
- Why are conspiracy theories so hard to kill?
- When is it reasonable to talk about "conspiracy cultures"?
The lecture
This lecture in my BA Course on Media & Politics at Lillehammer University College can be viewed below as a Prezi-presentation.
The literature:
- Aupers, S. (2012). “Trust No One”: Modernization, Paranoia and Conspiracy Culture. 12p. *
- Arnold, G. B. (2008). Belief and Disbelief. 14p. *
- Hoskins, A., & O’Loughlin, B. (2010). War and media. Chap. 5. 17p.
- Sunstein, C. R., & Vermeule, A. (2009). Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures. 25p
Watch relevant videos
Karen Douglas On Conspiracy Theories
The Milgram Experiment
Daniel Goldhagen's "Genocide - Worse than War"
Watch more on the YouTube playlist
Useful links
- Douglas, K. (2013, April 19). Boston and Waco conspiracy theories are inevitable. The Guardian.
- Alex Jones’ Infowars: There’s a war on for your mind!
- Anderson, S. (2013, August 8). Conspiracy Theories: the One Thing Everyone in Lebanon Has in Common. The Atlantic.
- Arnold, G. B. (2008). Conspiracy theory in film, television, and politics. Greenwood Publishing Group.
- Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. (2013). Hotel Rwanda. Carnegie Council.
- Chapman, R. (2010). Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices. M.E. Sharpe.
- Coady, D. A. (2010). Jesse Ventura Takes the Soaring Interest in Conspiracy Theory to TV.
- Conspiracy Theory On truTV.
- De Graaf, B., va der Heide, L., Wanmaker, S., & Weggemans, D. (2013). The Anders Behring Breivik Trial: Performing Justice, Defending Democracy. International Centre for Counter-Terrorism.
- Kahlke, R. (2007). Understanding Genocide?: Western Cinematic Depictions of Rwanda and Bosnia. Politics and Culture, (2).
- Leurs, R. (2013). “ War crimes’ are defined by the winners. I”m a winner.’. FlowTV, 18(6).
- McDonnell, D. A., & Cantrell, M. A. (2013, June 6). 5 Conspiracy Theories That Are Shockingly Easy to Debunk. Cracked.com.
- One, C. (n.d.). The 9/11 Truth Movement: The Top Conspiracy Theory, a Decade Later.
- Powell, E. (1968, April 20). Rivers of Blood Speech.
- Schwartzstein, P. (2013, September 12). Egypt’s Latest Conspiracy Theories Target the Country’s Syrian Refugees. The Atlantic.
- Ghosts of Rwanda - When PBS Frontline made a documentary about the genocide they also made some excellent pages with extra resources.
- BBC's pages on Rwanda
- The use of Propaganda in the Rwanda Genocide - Masters thesis by H.L. Gulseth.
