To Believe is Not Enough: Reading Conspiracy Theory Texts with Implications for School Curriculum

• In Event: Roundtable Session 27
  In Roundtable Session: Popular Culture and Public Curriculum: Critical Questions in Nontraditional Spaces

Abstract

This paper considers the contexts of production and reception of conspiracy texts on the Internet and argues for including the critical analysis of such texts in school curriculum. The paper provides a critical analysis of a specific conspiracy text, an online video about the 9/11 attacks, and provides two lenses that can be used to critically analyze the text as well as the contexts of its production and reception. This paper also outlines two literacy practices - excavation and elevation - to frame and guide this analysis (Author, 2011). The authors argue that these practices are esssential in helping students learn to read the word and the world in increasingly complex social and geopolitical contexts.

Authors

• Mark C. Baildon, National Institute of Education - Nanyang Technological University

• James S. Damico, Indiana University