After two hours, Anne Braune-Vásquez needs a break. The world into which the doctoral student is immersing herself for her research is a tough one. The trained photographer is doing her doctorate on visual and photographic strategies for conspiracy theories. What she gets to see on the messenger service Telegram can sometimes depress the mood.
"Photos serve as eyewitnesses. They still enjoy a high level of trust, even though they are easy to manipulate," says Anne Braune-Vásquez. During her studies at Fachhochschule Dortmund, she was already concerned with the reference to reality and the credibility of images. Two works in her Master's degree course in Photographic Studies were an artistic examination of UFOs and so-called chemtrails. For her doctorate at the University of Applied Sciences and the University of Tübingen, she is approaching the topic in an empirical-analytical way.
To this end, she delved deep into groups on three conspiracy theories on the messaging service Telegram. First: The moon landing did not happen. Second: The 9/11 attacks were staged by the USA itself or a global elite. And thirdly: The contrails from airplanes are so-called chemtrails, which are intended to either poison humanity or make it compliant. "What unites these three conspiracy theories is the evidence provided by their supporters in the form of photos," says Anne Braune-Vásquez. The doctoral student has collected, categorized and evaluated hundreds of contributions from an entire year. She is currently investigating the strategies behind the use of images to spread conspiracy theories.
Photos as evidence and counter-evidence
Photos are used in the postings both as evidence and as counter-evidence, the doctoral student concludes in an initial summary. "Sometimes photos are supposed to depict a truth, sometimes supposed image errors or inconsistencies in the photos expose a lie."
At the same time, photos are often used in combination with other images or text elements. "This results in a false contextualization," says Anne Braune-Vásquez. For example, when images of the New York World Trade Center on 9 September 2001 are combined with photos of the fire in a London skyscraper in 2017. At the same time, images of violence or war are also shown in the "Telegram" groups in order to emotionalize. "Anti-Semitic codes also appear time and again," reports the doctoral student. The senders are primarily looking for confirmation within the conspiracy theory community. Very few postings have the specific aim of convincing people from outside.
Anne Braune-VásquezSimply no longer trusting a picture cannot be a solution either.
Nevertheless, the UAS graduate believes it is important to advance research in this area. "There have hardly been any studies on the use of images in conspiracy theories," she says. However, understanding the strategies behind the use of images is a prerequisite for developing clever countermeasures, for example in the area of media literacy education. Everyday users of social media need to be better educated about the strengths and weaknesses of photos without being overwhelmed. "Simply no longer trusting any image can't be a solution either," says Anne Braune-Vásquez.