Moral Panic or Conspiracy theory

A text which you can identify as either promoting a moral panic or a conspiracy theory.

Refers to a specific definition of either moral panic or conspiracy theory and successfully demonstrates that your chosen text fits that definition

· Puts your text in context as a piece of media created at a specific time for a certain audience (blog post, viral video, independent short film, etc.), attributes authorship, discusses the spread/popularity of the text (e.g. number of views/subs)

· Describes rhetorical modes or strategies employed in the text, e.g. logos, pathos, ethos, use of statistics, divine revelation, prophecies, interviews with “experts,” humour, manufactured outrage, stylistic features like editing, music, special effects, dramatizations, etc.

· Fact checks claims by referring to more reputable sources (max one paragraph, make sure to provide your sources in a Works Cited page and in parenthetical in-text citations, as appropriate)

· Applies common sense, points out rhetorical flaws/logical fallacies in their claims, e.g. not respecting Occam’s razor or falsifiability, bias, gish gallop, straw man, whataboutism, etc. (one paragraph or more)

· Evaluates the real intent of the author(s) of the text. Are they mainly looking for views, fame, money, to attack and defame someone, to save the World, or what? How successful has their rhetoric been?

· Assesses the negative impact of the text and offers one or more underlying issues which are to blame. Is it mainly a problem with lack of education and linguistic or media literacy? Or are there mental health issues here? Or is this really about political partisanship and polarization? Or is the problem the incentive structure of new media or social media platforms?

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