If the media hopes to remain relevant, reporters, editors, publishers and commentators need to stop dismissing beliefs and hypotheses–those that don’t fit an official narrative–as conspiracy theories.
There are myriad reasons this change is needed. I’ll start with the easy one. Brass tacks. Money.
If you are a publication or TV program, you need customers. You need readers, viewers: people who follow your content and maybe buy something once in a while.
And yet, media is one of the few enterprises in which the customer isn’t always right. Lately, the news has been wagging its finger at us. It makes people like me say, “Stop wagging your finger and use it instead to type up some real journalism.”
Here’s the problem with regularly dismissing beliefs, whether fringe or viral, as conspiracy theories. When you deem something a conspiracy theory, you are attacking some portion of your audience. You’re saying they’re whack-jobs.
Everyone is some kind of conspiracy theorist. They may think Lee Harvey Oswald was a patsy in the assassination of JFK. They may think our food supply is under attack or that MRNA vaccinations have ill effects.
They may believe a certain grungy rock star was offed by his wife, that 9/11 was an inside job or that Epstein didn’t hang himself.
They may believe that aliens are among us, that Avril Lavigne has been cloned or that Beyonce is, indeed, involved in that “Illuminati mess.” They may look to the crisscross skies and say, “Chemtrails. The sky didn’t used to look like that.”
Everyone is some kind of conspiracy theorist, though we may not talk about it over Christmas dinner. Something the media reported doesn’t add up. It smells wrong.
Conspiracy theorists look like you and me, because they are you and me. Here’s the procedure for becoming one of these menaces. You get the idea that two or more people are quietly working together to bring about a desired outcome. Anytime you think about that idea, you are theorizing. Boom! You’re a conspiracy theorist.
When you log onto or turn on or open a media outlet and you hear something you believe or suspect called a conspiracy theory, you are being insulted. The term was invented to dismiss and marginalize ideas and those who hold them.
If this happens often enough, it makes us want to jettison the “lame-stream media” for alternative sources that explore, entertain or at least respect your beliefs.
There are many other reasons that the use of the phrase “conspiracy theory” is harmful for society and journalism and why its power is eroding. I’ll explore this in future blogs.
What are your thoughts on the subject?
–Sarah Torribio
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