Jeffrey Boakye
FIQWS
23rd October 2019
Micheal Grove
Why Some People Dig Conspiracy Theories And Why They Were More Likely To Accept Them ?
In many cases, conspiracy theories tend to bring together random events into meaningful patterns to make sense to someone . “Conspiracy theories” by Micheal Shermer and Pat Linse aims to show why people believe in conspiracy theories and how they are made believable. Micheal and Pat uses unforgettable events and circumstances from the past to show how conspiracies form a different perspective into an occurrence .Ultimately, their article lays emphasizes on why conspiracy theories are formed,what triggers belief in them ,factors ideologies and test which overall gives the reader a deeper understanding.
Author : Micheal Shermer and Pat Linse are the authors and most of their articles are devoted to investigating pseudoscientific and supernatural claims.
Audience : Micheal Shermer and Pat Linse audience are very large since a lot of people are skeptical about their belief in supernatural stories .Their audience may include people who don’t know much about conspiracy theories or people who are interested in trying to engage with ,and shift the thinking of people with conspiratorial ideation.
Purpose: Their purpose is to show how the belief in conspiracy theories persuade people and are made believable and we accept them.
Tone: Their tone is persuasive and is also very informative by including information outside the box about the purpose of trying to find the truth behind conspiracy stories.
Genre/Medium: The genre for this magazine article is conspiracy theory belief and how people generate different ideas on a situation which changes our way of thinking. In this magazine article they basically use shocking news as headline or flash, or article about their topics .Both authors use past unforgettable occurences with conspiracy theories explained thoroughly. Overall, they use facts, different ideas and perspectives to belief in conspiracy theories . The Conspiracy genre is limited because use their personal knowledge to backup theories instead objective facts .
Stance: Both of the author’s stance is to make people find the truth about conspiracies and test the truth about them .
Monica Jimenez shows how supportive she is on conspiracy theories by using an interview between Kelly M. Greenhill and Tufts International Relations programs to discuss how conspiracy theories work , and their effects. .Monica Jimenez uses famous conspiracy theories and important past occurrences to support her stance such as the Watergate conspiracy theory ,German Conspiracy to invade and occupy British Isles and the 2016 elections In my understanding looking at the website, how she lays her information is easier to understand males her point understandable .
Audience: Monica Jimenez has a very large audience since conspiracy theories gets a lot of attention and is of the public interest.
Purpose : Her purpose is to give people information about the truth behind these conspiracy theories .She attempts to inform people with this by using these facts and other experiences .For example, Jimenez says,”conspiracies are all around. But how do they work ?” shows how easily people who are not knowledgeable can be fooled by people with false information about conspiracy theories.
Tone : Her tone is very informative and engaging with with how she lays out information .She uses a question and answer format with the reader that keeps the reader engaged. She also uses evidence and facts to persuade the reader about the truth behind conspiracy theories.
Genre/Medium: The genre of this article is truth behind conspiracy theories and how over past time behind had turned to believe these theories because they hadn’t been openly told the evidence and facts. Greenhill hypothesizes that, “many conspiracy theories are false, crazy, and sometimes even dangerous, but other such theories are eventually revealed to be true, after which they are referred to as conspiracies—or simply crimes—rather than conspiracy theories.” Greenhills’ statement connects to the overall idea about how people don’t know much about conspiracy theories and just accept them. Overall, shes uses facts to show why we should know the truth behind these conspiracy theories.
Stance : Jimenez stance although not stated is to bring light to the truth about conspiracy theories and that they shouldn’t always been seen as complicated but rather understandable .
Rachel Hope Cleves is a professor of history at the University of Victoriain British Columbia .She starts off by bringing up political issues, past and present situations to show how America turn to conspiracy theories.In her article she bring up conspiracy theories in a more political perspective to raise her point .
Author : Rachel Hope Cleves is the author of this book.
Audience : Rachel Hope Cleves has a very large since a lot of people believe in political matters and are ready to find the truth behind them .Their audience include politicians and historians.
Purpose: Her purpose is to enlighten her audience about the history of these conspiracy theories and tell them more about conspiracy theories with relation to political matters .
Tone: Her tone is factual because it gives a lot of information by including sources outside the box regarding the purpose of trying to find the genesis in conspiracy stories.Cleves also start bringing out a good sense of humor by how she uses twist of words to start her writing and catch the attention of the reader.
Genre/Medium : The genre for this article is conspiracy theory belief and how people should know the actual facts and information in different ideas on a situation which changes our way of thinking.She uses political facts and information for example, Hilary Clinton’s claims against the russians.
Stance : Cleves stance is she wants to point out why Americans relate their problems or matters especially political ones on conspiracy theories.
Ted Goertzel uses his journal article to show People who believed in one conspiracy were more likely to also believe in others. Belief in conspiracies was backed up with facts , lack of interpersonal trust, and based on what they were told .
AUTHOR : Ted Goertzel is the author of this book
AUDIENCE : His audience is a large due to how he explains his point and give readers a better understanding .This audience may include historians, adults ,young adults and teachers .
Purpose: Their purpose is to show how believe in conspiracy theories persuade people and are made believable and we accept them.
Tone : Her tone is very informative and engaging with with how he presents the information He makes it very understandable with the reader that keeps the reader engaged with how he breaks into parts . He also uses evidence and facts to persuade the reader about the truth behind conspiracy theories .
STANCE: He wants readers to understand conspiracy theories , how conspiracy theories take root and their history . He doesn’t focus on taking a stand but instead whats reader to understand conspiracy theories before they pick a side to believe it or not .
CITATION PAGE:
Shermer,.Micheal and Linse,Pat. “Who believes in them and why, and How to determine if a conspiracy theory is true or false“ .”Conspiracy theory “. https://www.skeptic.com/downloads/conspiracy-theories-who-why-and-how.pdf
Accessed December 16,2019
Jimenez,Monica.”The truth about conspiracy Theories”. TuffsNow. September 2,2019. https://now.tufts.edu/articles/truth-about-conspiracy-theories Accessed December 15,2019
(MLA 8th Edition)
Cleves, Rachel Hope. “Why Americans turn to conspiracy theories.” Washington Post, 21 Oct. 2019. Gale Academic Onefile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A603345036/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=5f359fa4. Accessed 16 Dec. 2019
Goertzel, Ted. “Belief in Conspiracy Theories.” Political Psychology, vol. 15, no. 4, 1994, pp. 731–742. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3791630.
