ABSTRACT
Conspiracy theories are a recurrent feature of politics, and have evolved over centuries alongside developments in communication and political rhetoric. The key to the proliferation of conspiracy theories in modern Europe, then, for the first time since Antiquity, was the amount of news communication produced and received across the European continent. Conspiracy theories spread rapidly in a contemporary global media environment in which over half of the global population uses the internet, and in developed countries, regular use is the norm (85% of EU adults; 91% of UK adults). Today's rapid, accessible media environment offers people a veritable buffet of populist ideas and conspiracy theories for interpreting reality: the interaction between different media, host platforms and market logics means that journalists frequently produce content intended to appeal to the assumed preferences of intended (nonelite) audiences. Technological changes since at least the 1990s have vastly altered the media landscape.
