Mapping discursive regimes of transnational dynamics of conspiracy theories as an emergent process: revisiting network approaches and new research avenues

This paper provides a lens for studying the transnational flow of conspiracy theories by investigating new epistemologies, reviewing methodological challenges, and proposing new avenues for future studies. I argue that it is important to study the emergent and dynamic process whereby conspiracy theories disseminate across different contexts and even lead to their (global) audiences, including state and non-state actors, being rallied to the cause and co-creating them, thus forming ideological coalitions that connect the seemingly distant and irrelevant contexts. The intertwined cases, delineated in Section 3, show how conspiracy theories flow transnationally back and forth between mainstream and fringe, underregulated media spaces, and the interactant mechanisms of responses from different yet networked audience(s), who are potential co-creators of the conspiracy theories. The complexity and dynamics of such a phenomenon raise challenges for researchers in terms of research operationalization, and depth of elucidation and ethics. Therefore, I propose to map discursive regimes and emergent processes of co-curating, crowdsourcing and amplifying conspiracy theories and call for (1) revising the network methods with collaborative contributions to database and reliable queries and (2) supplementing with more in-depth elucidations, which also invite researchers to reflexive engagement in the field.