Semiotic Approaches to Conspiracy Theories1

What is it about?

The semiotic point of view differentiates between three interrelated levels in analysing conspiracy theories. The first relates to modelling or signifying through a specific filter of interpretation that presupposes the existence of a conspiracy. Analysing this level enables to ascertain the mechanisms of conspiracy theoretical semiosis. The second level concentrates, first and foremost, on conspiracy theories as verbal and/or visual representations – conspiracy theories are analysed as a text with its own specific boundaries. This second level is also closely related to specific audiences and to communicational situations to which the representations of conspiracy theories are targeted. Receivers here construct certain meta-level interpretations, or in other words, interpretations of a conspiracy theory constructed by someone. The third level concentrates on analysing the identity construction and self-description of publics that are affected by conspiracy theories. The present section concentrates on these three levels: firstly, we propose the main characteristics of conspiracy theoretical semiosis; secondly, we deal with the semiotic study of representations of conspiracy theories; and thirdly, we enquire about how semiotics could be useful to elucidating mechanisms of identity construction in the context of conspiracy theories. At the end of this section, we briefly sketch some future research directions to which the semiotic approach could contribute.

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