Il contagio cospirativo sui social media: Ebola e la narrazione delle teorie del complotto

"To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; Both dispense with the necessity of reflection." This quote by Henri Poincarè, French Mathematician, taken from his text “Science and Hypothesis” of 1902, might well fit the themes that will be analyzed in this paper: the development of the narratives of conspiracy theories with special attention to the evolution of these mythologies on social networks. Sanitary plots, and specifically the development of the narratives around the Ebola virus, as discussed in the article, have carved out a significant space in the scenario of digital media. The virus, in 2014 has cost thousands of live in the regions of north-western Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, according to "Centers for Disease Control and prevention,"1 it caused the most serious outbreak of hemorrhagic fever in history. Like other previous known in the 'sphere of conspiracies health (AIDS, SARS and so on) the Ebola case raised numerous theories about the responsibility for its massive spread. But back to the concept of plot and dynamics related to the spread of conspiracy theories, the paper will analyze the processes and the narrative work that lie behind the conspiracy theories spread network of Ebola, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts that have dramatically improved the spread mythologies and the relationship between users and the isotopes that characterize the reading of the theories that would be the basis for the spread of the virus. “To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection”