DISINFORMATION IN THE AGE OF QUARANTINE
Disinformation is information that has been spread purposely to muddy the water and create a false impression of the world. Misinformation comes from people who don’t know what to believe accidentally spreading false information. Both are fertile ground for conspiracies to spread.
‘Fake news’ has long been discussed as a problem of the internet era, where people have a low barrier of entry to spread information on social media networks. Our project is concerned with how these pieces of disinformation and misinformation in social media and other methods impact people’s perception of COVID and safety measures taken against it.
QANON
Qanon is a long running conspiracy theory coming from 4chan and focused on an elite cabal of Satanic paedophiles in the Democratic party and high society. COVID has led to a surge in new believers.
COVID-19
This novel coronavirus swept the world over and sent it into lockdown for months. With potentially devastating health effects, mass uncertainty on spread and lethality, and unclear government guidelines, it’s spread like wildfire throughout the United States.
Project Links
External project microsite: https://covidconspirators.weebly.com/
Covid Ethnographies 