QAnon and the Media Environment

How modern technologies shape conspiratorial thinking.

(Photo by Markus Winkler from Pexels)

I recently had the chance to present my research on QAnon, a meta-conspiracy theory, and the media ecology perspective taken by Neil Postman. He was an educator, media critic, and language enthusiast, among many other things. He also drew heavily on historical analysis. I share many of his concerns about how technology shapes, influences, and even takes over our human capabilities.

Following many others such as Postman, Marshall McLuhan, and Jacques Ellul, I am critical of what modern technologies are taking from us, or rather, what we are giving away when we cede our abilities to some innovation or invention. It becomes a “Faustian Bargain,” to use Postman’s metaphor, when we look longingly at what technology brings and fail to see what it will inevitably take.

Applying the Media Ecology tradition to conspiracy theories, more precisely the 21st-century phenomenon QAnon, I looked at how modern media enabled these subaltern ideas to grow. Everything from algorithms to Facebook groups, YouTube influencers to Twitter hashtags allowed the ideas to spread and influence individuals across the United States. While the prophecies of the QAnon church have not come true, there are still those who have hope that they are correct. This hope was arguably…