ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the main characteristics of conspiracist semiosis; deals with the semiotic study of representations of conspiracies; and shows how semiotics could be useful in elucidating mechanisms of identity construction in the context of conspiracy theories. The semiotic point of view differentiates between several interrelated levels in analysing conspiracy theories. Mark Fenster also points out that a conspiracy theorist sees even trivial everyday events as signs of manipulation by conspiring forces. The model of mythological semiosis makes it possible to analyse how conspiracy theoretical meaning-making mixes together ideologies from disparate political movements, ideologies that are often contradictory. Les Back has developed the concept of ‘liquid ideologies’ in order to explain how extreme right-wing movements tend to use generally accepted discourses for the purpose of legitimising their own ethno-centric media practices. In addition to mapping the invariant characteristics of conspiracy theories, semiotics provides us with multi-faceted tools to analyse how the representations of conspiracies are constructed.
