What gives rise to conspiracy theories and how can they be contained? Because one thing is for sure, it is far more tiring to refute nonsense than to produce it. But why are weird theories about how the world works so appealing? Is it worthwhile to try to refute them claim after claim? And how do the media deal with them?

These were the questions posed by the June 1 issue of the KOSMOPOLITICS series, organised jointly by KOSMOS and the Freethinkers. 

Participants:

• Stephan Russ-Mohl was Professor of Journalism and Media Management at the Università della Svizzera italiana in Lugano until 2018. He founded the European Journalism Observatory.
• Reto Stauffacher has been head of the social media editorial department of the NZZ since 2018. Before that he was social media manager and multi media editor at the Beobachter and SRF.
• Moderator: Andreas Kyriacou is a consultant for knowledge management and president of the Freethinkers Association of Switzerland.

The panel discussion (in German) can be viewed here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtyqZCClfII