Conspiracy theories and their effects have greatly proliferated during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. As in various countries, so in Cyprus, a mobilization of anti-vaxxers organized mainly through Facebook, violently attacked the largest media group of the island, “Sigma”. Taking into consideration local peculiarities and historical contexts, a qualitative research was conducted on comments posted on Sigma Live's Facebook page, spanning between August 2020 and June 2021.The article illustrates how cultural, political, and historical peculiarities are instrumental in the formation of anti-vax movements, and how conspiracy theorizing in general is inextricably bound to such peculiarities. We demonstrate how new publics in social media platforms may dispute media outlets’ representations through using the official channels of these outlets, highlighting an understudied facet of participatory media. The paper advocates for more context-bound theoretical analyses of conspiracy theorizing, which delve deeper into the meaning-making, interpretative, and discursive practices of conspiracists against media outlets.

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Facebook 上的阴谋叙事及其历史背景关联：来自塞浦路斯的案例研究

在 COVID-19 大流行危机期间，阴谋论及其影响大大增加。与其他国家一样，在塞浦路斯，主要通过 Facebook 组织的反vaxxers 动员暴力袭击了岛上最大的媒体集团“Sigma”。考虑到当地特点和历史背景，对 Sigma Live 的 Facebook 页面上发布的评论进行了定性研究，时间跨度为 2020 年 8 月至 2021 年 6 月。文章说明了文化、政治和历史特点如何在反vax 运动，以及一般的阴谋论是如何与这些特点密不可分的。我们展示了社交媒体平台上的新公众如何通过使用这些媒体的官方渠道来质疑媒体的陈述，突出参与式媒体的一个未被充分研究的方面。该论文提倡对阴谋论进行更多与上下文相关的理论分析，深入研究阴谋论者针对媒体的意义构建、解释和话语实践。