• DOI:10.1007/S10708-018-9854-7
• Corpus ID: 158696604

When folkloric geopolitical concerns prompt a conspiratorial ideation: the case of Egyptian tweeters

@article{Essam2019WhenFG,
  title={When folkloric geopolitical concerns prompt a conspiratorial ideation: the case of Egyptian tweeters},
  author={Bacem A. Essam and Mostafa M. Aref and Fayrouz Fouad},
  journal={GeoJournal},
  year={2019},
  volume={84},
  pages={121-133}
}

• B. Essam, M. Aref, Fayrouz Fouad
• Published 1 February 2019
• Sociology
• GeoJournal

The cartography of danger has recently expanded to turn several hotspots worldwide. This proves true when it comes to the Middle East where military interventions escalate and internal conflicts leverage. Implicating on the folkloric perception of the real geostrategic threats, this paper uses linguistic cues to explore the conceptualization of geopolitical concerns in a large-scale corpus of Egyptian tweets (2012–2017). Results reveal that the Conspiratorial Ideation is widely enabled and ushered to relieve the increasing anxiety ad hoc the rapidly changing political scene in Egypt and the pan-region. There, America, Israel, Iran and Cyprus are defined as the outsider plotters where the reigning regimes are accused of conspiring against the Egyptians. The threatened Egyptian geostrategic territories are claimed to be Sinai, Tiran strait, Halayeb triangle and Mediterranean gas fields. The suggested plotting scenarios are bootstrapped and discussed.