Conspiracy Theories in Authoritarian Political and Media Cultures: Russian and Turkish Cases

• In Event: De-exceptionalizing Post-Truth and Right-Wing Populism: Political Economic, Theoretical, and Comparative Interventions

Abstract

Since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, media analysts and scholars have directed increasing attention to the role of conspiracy theories in the production and circulation of fake news and the introduction of the so-called post-truth era. Drawing on these debates, this paper takes issue with framing conspiracy theories as cause and/or effect of an ill-informed public; instead it addresses them as “populist theory of power” (Fenster, 2008). It analyzes conspiracy theories that tackle global political economy and interrogate Western hegemony, and explores how conspiracy theories, the populist logic and the assumed East-West antagonisms overlap and sustain each other. The paper discusses how conspiracy theories are articulated with right-wing populist rationalities in Russia and Turkey, and argues that they serve to re-build national identity and promote national cohesion at times of global crises and geopolitical realignments.

Author

• Bilge Yesil, College of Staten Island, CUNY