The truth is out there. What was once the motto of an American science fiction TV series is now ordinary reality. Millions of people in the Western world no longer trust their epistemic science, media or the government and resort to alternative explanations.. The stereotypical image of conspiracy theorists as paranoid fanatics is prominent, and the ideas they have about reality are easily put aside as irrational and preposterous.

But is the suspicion of a conspiracy orchestrating world affairs that farfetched when secretive government operations and corporate collusions are a clear reality? Jaron Harambam shows what contemporary conspiracy theories are about, which people are involved in the milieu, how they see themselves and what they actually do with these ideas in their everyday lives. Reality turns out to be much more complex than common stereotypes would suggest. And yes, the truth really is out there…

Jaron Harambam (1983) works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Information Law of the University of Amsterdam, where he is part of the multi-disciplinary Fair News Project in which he studies the role of algorithms in news provision. He defended his PhD in October 2017 at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, titled: “The Truth Is Out There – Conspiracy Culture in an Age of Epistemic Instability”.