Publication details
Misconstrued anticipations? Disaster politics in the age of disinformation
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | The growing frequency and intensity of disasters and the rapid spread of disinformation top the list of ongoing global challenges. This chapter evaluates the intersection of these two types of phenomena, focusing on public risk perceptions in the context of disaster politics. Disasters are political events that shape both vulnerability and disaster risk perceptions. The chapter explores these “objective” and “subjective” elements of disasters, discussing them in the context of disaster conspiracy theories. Through brief case studies of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the chapter traces the effect of conspiracy theories on public risk perceptions, highlighting the role of temporality in post-disaster framing. Findings suggest both positive and negative effects of disaster conspiracy theories, with implications for disaster management and resilience building. |
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