Horror Everything: 2016 – Forever [Dr Joe Ondrak]

Horror Everything: 2016 – Forever
Dr Joe Ondrak

The history of horror is also the history of media, and key in understanding how we use media to play with the boundaries of what is real and what isn’t. In this talk, I explore and explain how horror fiction traditions are useful to understand contemporary conspiracy culture, moving from false documents and found footage to creepypasta and QAnon. Taking a formalist and stylistic approach, I demonstrate how social media platforms shape meaning, blur the boundaries of fact and fiction, and create a shared cognitive environment ripe for conspiracy belief.

Dr. Joe Ondrak is a leading expert in digital horror, both real and fictional. He has published extensively on extreme right-wing terror, disinformation, and conspiracy theories, as well as creepypasta and networked digital horror genres. He currently works as a subject matter expert in hate groups at Resolver and consults on digital extremist behaviours and activities. His chapter for the Routledge Companion to Horror Studies – The (New) Medium is the Monster: Networked Digital Horror – is forthcoming.