Folklore

Aesthetics

Epistemology

World Wide Web

Philosophy

Adaptation (eye)

Sociology

Psychology

Neuroscience

Digital media

Anthropology

Pedagogy

Orality

Media studies

Computer science

Social media

Literacy

Theory Culture & Society

Reviving the somewhat forgotten notion of ‘secondary orality’, this paper conceptualizes online conspiracism as a creative, if monstrous, response to the attention economy of social media. Combining classic literature on oral cultures and current research on online subcultures, this paper takes conspiratorial folklore seriously and develops a program of research into its features and into its surprising adaptation to the attention regime of digital media.

Online Conspiracy Theories, Digital Platforms and Secondary Orality: Toward a Sociology of Online Monsters