Conspiracy Theory as a Working Method of Political Propaganda

Abstract

The paper Conspiracy theory as a working method of political propaganda deals with using of conspiracy theories by the specific (pro-Kremlin) kind of propaganda to spread certain ideological content. In the paper, the conspiracy theory The European Union organizes migration to Islamize Europe is analyzed. In the paper the internal logic of this conspiracy theory is revealed. The main objective of the paper is to analyze the argumentation strategies of this conspiracy theory and find out what kind of binarities analyzed conspiracy theory uses to legitimize its construction of reality. For the text analysis, a discourse analysis is chosen. This method allows me to analyze key discursive patterns characteristic for the set of collected news. The empirical part composed by the analysis of the research material follows the theoretical part of the paper, where the concept of conspiracy theory as the type of the discursive construction of reality and as a part of the political propaganda is presented. Results of research show that analyzed conspiracy theory disseminates concrete ideological views in favor of Eurosceptical, populist forces.