ABSTRACT
This chapter elucidates the shifting nature of U.S. media practices in politically conservative communities through an analysis of the symbols and discourses of Qanon and Q-aligned social networks. Fake news, conspiracy communities, and popular documentary films based on pseudoscience are all a part of what we dub “conspiracy media ecologies.” They rely on both alternative readings of what constitutes truth, facts, and evidence, and on the idea of “conspiracy,” that some fact or evidence is being withheld from the public, making the “real” story unknowable. Concurrently, social media and online televisual platforms have democratized media production and circulation, providing conspiracy adherents with new publics and interconnections. We illustrate how indexical communities such as Qanon are linked to conspirituality, and how they rely on spreadability and participatory culture to sustain the bricolage. We conclude by examining approaches that activist, “guerrilla” scholars whose work has been usurped in support of alternative worldviews, have attempted to intervene in ever-expanding mediascapes of pseudoscience and conspiracy.
