What is a conspiracy theory?

Slide One: Title, Heading with your name, class and date

Slides Two-: What is a conspiracy theory? Make sure you clearly explain it to the audience. Quote from the Brooks or Jimenez article in this slide.

Slide Three through Five: Explain the conspiracy theory that you are going to present. What does it maintain? What groups are attracted to this conspiracy? How did convergence lead this conspiracy theory to more mainstream audiences?

Slide Six: What are some clear “red flags” about this conspiracy theory? In other words, how could someone tell that this information about the conspiracy theory was totally unreliable?

Slide Seven: Find an article or reliable link that debunks this theory. (Scientific evidence, medical studies, etc.) and embed the link into this slide. What do fact checking sites say about this conspiracy theory? See the sources listed below.

Slides Eight through Ten: Explain who benefits from the advancement of this conspiracy theory? In other words, are there corporate interests that benefit from this conspiracy theory? Political benefits from circulating this theory?

Slide Eleven: Have people of note pushed this theory into the public forum? In other words, prominent politicians, celebrities, etc.

Slide Twelve: How close were you to believing this theory? What makes you skeptical of the theory? What did you learn about conspiracy theories from doing this project?

Reliable sources that help debunk conspiracy theories:

Media Matters

Snopes

Factcheck.org

CCBC library “Fake News” website

What is a conspiracy theory?
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