Knowledge Goes Pop: From Conspiracy Theory to GossipA voice on late night radio tells you that a fast food joint injects its food with drugs that make men impotent. A colleague asks if you think the FBI was in on 9/11. An alien abductee on the Internet claims extra-terrestrials have planted a microchip in her left buttock. 'Julia Roberts in Porn Scandal' shouts the front page of a gossip mag. A spiritual healer claims he can cure chronic fatigue syndrome with the energizing power of crystals . . . What do you believe? Knowledge Goes Pop examines the popular knowledges that saturate our everyday experience. We make this information and then it shapes the way we see the world. How valid is it when compared to official knowledge and why does such (mis)information cause so much institutional anxiety? Knowledge Goes Pop examines the range of knowledge, from conspiracy theory to plain gossip, and its role and impact in our culture. A PDF version of this book is available for free in open access via the OAPEN Library platform, www.oapen.org |
Contents
1 Know It All | 1 |
2 Just Because Youre Paranoid Doesnt Mean Theyre Not Out to Get You | 33 |
3 Cultural Studies onas Conspiracy Theory | 65 |
The Cultural Politics of Speculation | 91 |
Gossip by Stealth | 129 |
Old Enough to Know Better? The Work of Cultural Studies | 151 |
Endnotes | 159 |
171 | |
183 | |
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Common terms and phrases
academic already analysis apparently approach attempt authority become believe challenge chapter claims clear concerned consider conspiracy theory context course cultural studies death decision deconstruction Derrida Diana discipline discourse discussion economy effects example experience fact force gossip human idea identity important interested Internet interpretation issue keep kind least legitimacy legitimate less look McHoul means Miller mode moral move narratives nature never object official particular play pleasure principle political popular knowledges position possibility practice present principle produced question radical reading reason recognize reference relation relationship responsibility risk role secret seen sense September social speculation status story structure suggest talk tell theorists thing thought traditional true turn undecidability understanding writes