The following thesis will set out to argue that misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracies, in tandem with today’s advanced communication technology, pose a dire threat to the future of public health, biotechnological advancement, safe medical procedures, and ethical evidence-based legislation and policy. Each chapter will explore different points in public health and medicine that misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracies have already begun to shift or disrupt in ways that are eroding safe and effective care. Misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories should be seen more broadly outside of the spheres of Big Tech and First Amendment discourse, and instead understood as a public health concern of which there are ways to inoculate, treat, and mitigate public spread. Much as we have come to understand that gun violence requires more than a judicial approach, so too must we come to understand misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories as an indicator of failing health in a population. / Urban Bioethics

The introduction of social media platforms influenced the social dynamics by changing the way individuals are exposed to information. The straightforwardness of social media communication resulted in an overwhelming amount of information for users, and the variety of sources of the information is limiting users’ ability to assess what information is genuine and what is disinformation. Exploiting this shift in societal functioning, conspiracy theories have taken advantage of social media's reach to undermine the foundations of societies. One such theory, QAnon, which revolves around a fantastical narrative of a ruling satanic cabal exploiting children, has transitioned from the obscure corners of cyberspace to become a topic of mainstream media, courtesy of social media algorithms, journalistic interest, and opportunistic politicians. The impact of the QAnon discourse resulted in violent acts for some of the followers, culminating in the U.S. Capitol storming. This act provoked immense ban activity by major social media networks. With the passage of time, interest in QAnon has waned considerably. Thus, through a survey and thematic and content analysis, this research aims to assess and answer the following research questions: Where are QAnon conspiracy theory groups present in social media networks? and What are the main discussion themes and conspiracy theory targets? two years after the “storm“ incident. Gab, Telegram and Rumble are the social media platforms that have the most QAnon followers and discussions. An analysis confirmed that the discourse mainly concentrates around politics and conspiracy theories, with Donald Trump being the individual whose activities occupy the attention of most of the discussion topics. Calls for violence are rare, mostly in the form of predicting military coups or military courts, the QAnon followers’ narrative that has already been seen. In the case of QAnon, disinformation remains an attack vector in cyber warfare which underscores the need for further analysis into the development and influence the theory has towards upcoming major political events.

AbstractWesterlund, Charlotta (2011) Inkludering- exkludering; Hur elever med hörselnedsättningar upplevt sin skolgång (inclusion- exclusion; How students with hearing loss experienced their School time). Skolutveckling och ledarskap, lärande och samhälle, Malmö högskola.Att vara hörselskadad betyder ofta att den sociala kommunikationen och samvaron med andra människor påverkas. Många är beroende av tekniska hjälpmedel, så som hörapparater och hörselslingor, för att kunna följa med i samtal och för att kunna känna sig delaktiga. Att få tillgång till rätt hjälpmedel är varje landstingsinvånares och elevs rätt. Är detta tillräckligt för att eleven ska känna sig inkluderad i skolans verksamheter? Hur har elever med hörselnedsättning upplevt sin egen grundskoletid, utifrån ett inkluderande perspektiv? Kan man vara inkluderad och ändå känna sig exkluderad? Är det tillräckligt att få gå i samma klass som ”hörande” elever för att känna sig inkluderad?Detta är en undersökning med kvalitativ ansats, som består av tre djupgående intervjuer och 20 öppna frågeformulär, om elevers egna erfarenheter och tankar kring sin grundskoletid. Syftet med undersökningen är att få en ökad kunskap om och en inblick i, elevernas egna upplevelser av delaktighet under sin skolgång, vare sig man gått i specialskola eller haft sin undervisning bland ”hörande” klasskamrater.Resultatet av undersökningen visar att många av de elever som går på skolor tillsammans med hörande klasskamrater, har svårt att känna sig inkluderade. I hörselklasskolor känner sig eleverna mer inkluderade, medan de på fritiden ofta känner sig ensamma, då avstånden till klasskompisar är långa. De spontana, sociala kontakterna blir lidande.Nyckelord: Hörselskador, skolformer, sociala relationer, stigmatisering, stämplingsteori / Westerlund, Charlotta (2011) Inclusion- exclusion; How students with hearing loss experienced their school time (Hur elever med hörselnedsättningar upplevt sin skolgång). Skolutveckling och ledarskap, Lärande och samhälle, Malmö högskola.To have a hearing impairment often means that the social communication and togetherness with other people affects. Many are depended on technical aids, such as hearing aids and hearing loops, to be able to follow conversations and to be able to feel involved. It is every student and county inhabitants right to have access to aids. Is this enough for the student to feel involved in school activities? How have students with hearing loss experienced their own school time out of an including perspective? Can a person be included and still feel excluded? Is it enough to attend a class with “hearing” students, to feel included?This is a qualitative study, which contains three deep interviews and twenty open questionnaires, about students own experiences and thoughts about their school time. The purpose of the study, have been to increase knowledge and insight in students experiences of involvement during their school time, whether they went to special schools or not.The results of the study, shows that many students with hearing loss, don’t feel included in community schools with hearing classmates. In special schools the students with hearing loss feels included but during their spare time, they often feels alone, because their classmates lives far away and the spontaneous social contacts decreases.

Desinformation har genom alla tider varit en del av samhället och har genom historien haft avgörandet betydelse för händelser som utspelat sig. Idag är desinformation ett ytterst aktuellt ämne som genom nyhetsflödets ökande tempo med digitaliseringen, samt AIs förmåga att producera manipulerade bilder är det ett område som är viktigt att studera. Syftet med undersökningen var att undersöka om det fanns någon korrelation mellan den svenska befolkningens känsla av inkludering kopplad till deras attityd mot desinformation. Vidare undersöktes det om det fanns något samband kopplade till intersektionella faktorer som kön och ålder. Undersökningen hade en kvantitativ ansats genom insamlandet av enkäter, som sedan sammanställdes. Resultatet visade att inget samband mellan känslan av inkludering och attityd till desinformation, samt mellan desinformation kopplat till kön eller ålder kunde fastställas. Slutsatsen som kan dras är att bristen på signifikanta resultat kan tillskrivas antingen en missad korrelation som inte fångades i denna studie eller det faktum att desinformation är en så genomgripande samhällsfråga att den ses negativt av de flesta individer, vilket gör det svårt att hitta signifikanta skillnader mellan olika grupper. En separat undersökning fann dock visst samband mellan konspiratoriska övertygelser och individer inom den politiska högern, vilket tyder på ett potentiellt samband mellan politiska ideologier och attityder till desinformation. Ytterligare forskning behövs för att utforska denna aspekt. / Disinformation has always been a part of society and throughout history has been decisive for events that unfolded. Today, disinformation is an extremely current topic that, through the increased pace of the news flow with digitization, and AI's ability to produce manipulated images is the most current area to study. The purpose of the survey was to investigate whether there was any correlation between the Swedish population's sense of inclusion linked to their attitude towards desinformation. Furthermore, the paper explored whether there was any relationship linked to intersectional factors such as gender and age. The survey was a quantitative survey through the collection of questionnaires, which were then compiled. The result showed that no relationship between the feeling of inclusion and attitude to disinformation, as well as between disinformation linked to gender or age could be established. The conclusion that can be drawn is that the lack of significant results can be attributed either to a missed correlation that was not captured in this study or to the fact that disinformation is such a pervasive societal issue that it is viewed negatively by most individuals, making it difficult to find significant differences between different groups. However, a separate survey found some association between conspiratorial beliefs and individuals on the political right, suggesting a potential link between political ideologies and attitudes toward disinformation. Further research is needed to explore this aspect.

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Drawing from the black swan theory developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, which defines a black swan to be an unexpected high-impact event which people tend to think is easily explained in hindsight, this study explores risk evaluation in relation to conspiratorial beliefs. The hypothesis states that a higher degree of conspiratorial thinking correlates with a proclivity to evaluate risks as being either very high or very low. The method used was a web-based survey consisting of 16 different events, both conspiratorial and non-conspiratorial, of which a total of 291 American participants got to assess the risk by paying a hypothetical sum of money for insuring themselves against the consequences of each event. This was followed by a second survey to assess the participants’ degree of conspiratorial thinking. The first analysis measured the correlation between conspiratorial thinking and the standard deviation of the participants’ money distribution, corresponding to degree of disparity in risk assessment. Based on two clusters that were observed in the aggregate of scores on the conspiracy scale, the participants were divided into conspiracy theorists and non-conspiracy theorists. The second analysis measured main- and interaction effects of what types of events the participants insured themselves against, and what types of events that participants prioritized depending on their degree of conspiratorial thinking. The hypothesis that a higher degree of conspiratorial thinking correlates with a tendency to evaluate risks as being either very high or very low was not supported. The results show that a higher degree of conspiratorial thinking correlates with a lower standard deviation in money distribution, and that the conspiracy theorists insured themselves against the consequences of less likely and more conspiratorial events compared to the non-conspiracy theorists. This study supports the idea that conspiracy theorists tend to follow a consistent conspiratorial narrative, believing in several conspiracy theories and not just one.

The numerous and varied conspiracy theories which circulate in the contemporary discourse are subject to hyperstition, insofar as they are grouped into wider, more elaborate structures. Some of them become hierarchic to such a degree, that they may, in Michael Barkun's typology, be labeled as "superconspiracy" constructs. No author is more prolific and systematic in the crafting of these constructs than the guru of anglophone conspiracy theory belief, David Icke. The work attempts to keep as its object of study the work of David Icke and his "reptoid hypothesis," as it is effectively one of the most elaborate and baroque conspiracy theories which populate contemporary political discourse. It is Icke's oeuvre which this thesis attempts to recontextualize within the confines of critical social theory and Žižekian psychoanalysis. The existence of a "paranoid style" as professed by Richard J. Hofstadter can be noted throughout the history of western culture, from the Homeric gods, scheming behind the scenes, to its modern incarnations culminating in the superconspiracy constructs of David Icke, Alex Jones, and others. The work focuses not on specific conspiracy theories and their claim to facticity, but rather attempts to trace the structural features of Icke's construct and establish their underlying...