How a Secret Book Helped Fuel Europe’s Witch-Hunting Frenzy
Media and witch-hunts
The episode traces the role of new media in spreading conspiracy theories across six centuries. It describes the printing press as a force that helped spread European witch-hunts while also helping usher in the Enlightenment.
Rather than focusing only on technology, the programme considers how media can influence what people believe and how societies respond. Its account links shifts in communication with changing forms of persuasion and control.
From radio to social media
The episode says the Nazis used radio as a tool of mass persuasion. It also examines social media, which promised freedom but gave dictators new means of control.
The programme connects these examples to a longer history of conspiracy theories. It asks how communication technologies can be used in ways their supporters may not have intended.
Questions about AI
The episode’s final question looks ahead to artificial intelligence and its possible effects. The programme frames AI as the next technology to consider in a history of media-driven conspiracy theories.
Aya Labanieh, a writer and academic, appears in the episode. Mohamed Hassan, Marcos Bartolome, Marthe van der Wolf and Sonia Bhagat produced it, and Alexandra Locke edited it.
Key points
- The episode traces conspiracy theories and new media across 600 years.
- It links the printing press with European witch-hunts and the Enlightenment.
- The programme examines Nazi use of radio and dictators’ use of social media.
- It asks what artificial intelligence could bring next.