Connectedness, Conspiracy and Control: the Denver Airport Conspiracy and Suspicion in the Digital Age
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Date
2012-06
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
This thesis examines how online media provide ideal tools for the proliferation
of conspiracy theory belief, while the content of these beliefs reflect anxieties relevant to
users participating in digital culture. A case study of the conspiracy belief surrounding the
Denver International Airport and its history online will explain how conspiracies grow into
complex “superconspiracies,” as defined by Michael Barkun, when they are represented in
online media dominated by user-generated content. Examining the controversy concerning
the boundaries between public and private both in what people post online, and how sites use
users’ information, will reveal the implication that the connectedness that digital technology
brings to users is at the cost of total surveillance. This anxiety about connectedness is the core
component of conspiracy theory belief, in which one engages in mapping hidden connections
to reveal the conspiracy, and this paper will reveal how both the anxieties of Web 2.0 users,
as well as the form of the Internet itself parallel the conventions of conspiracy belief, while
facilitating their propagation.
Description
Keywords
conspiracy, internet, folklore, digital age, apocalypse, suspicion, end-times, interface, control, identity, superconspiracy, anxiety, network, social networking, Facebook, Google, conspiracy theory, mind control