FMST 043. Conspiracy Media

Investigates conspiracy and the paranoid imagination both within film and television narratives (through stories built around plots, hidden agendas, and betrayal) and as a mode of skepticism and mistrust toward media themselves (the role played by media in coverups, hoaxes, and “fake news”). Focusing on a period from the Cold War to present day politics, the course constructs an archeology of screen, print, and interactive media to explore the shifting meanings of conspiracy in response to technological and social change. Topics include the structural affinities among conspiracy, narration, and seriality; recurring thematics such as biological contagion, corporate and patriarchal menace, and supernatural forces; and the role of digital media in both spreading and debunking conspiracies. Required weekly viewing.
Eligible for INTP
Spring 2026. Rehak.
Catalog chapter: Film and Media Studies
Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/film-media-studies

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