Digital Claims and Platform-Mediated Conspiracy Discourse Negotiating Credibility, Authority, and Meaning on Zhihu
(2026) MKVM13 20261Media and Communication Studies
Department of Communication and Media
- Abstract
- This study examines how contentious knowledge surrounding the moon landing is expressed, negotiated, and organized on digital platforms. It develops “Digital Claims” as a potential meso-level analytical framework for examining how meanings, interactions, and visibility become observable and accumulative in digital spaces. Moving beyond approaches centered on users’ beliefs, intentions, or undifferentiated digital traces, the study distinguishes between Articulated Digital Claims, where meanings and arguments are expressed, and Associative Digital Claims, where interactional relations become observable.
Through qualitative methods, the study examines moon-landing-related questions, answers, comments, and interaction indicators on Zhihu.... (More) - This study examines how contentious knowledge surrounding the moon landing is expressed, negotiated, and organized on digital platforms. It develops “Digital Claims” as a potential meso-level analytical framework for examining how meanings, interactions, and visibility become observable and accumulative in digital spaces. Moving beyond approaches centered on users’ beliefs, intentions, or undifferentiated digital traces, the study distinguishes between Articulated Digital Claims, where meanings and arguments are expressed, and Associative Digital Claims, where interactional relations become observable.
Through qualitative methods, the study examines moon-landing-related questions, answers, comments, and interaction indicators on Zhihu. The findings show that the controversy extends beyond competing claims about whether the moon landing occurred. Articulated Digital Claims bring institutional knowledge, scientific-style reasoning, common sense, source criticism, and practical verification into a shared space of credibility negotiation, where different evaluative criteria are brought into relation. Technological claims also function as symbolic resources through which national capability, political institutions, morality, and collective identities are interpreted and contested.
The study further suggests that platform datafication and standardization transform semantically heterogeneous activities into comparable interaction signals that can be accumulated around specific Digital Claims. Comment relations, nested replies, and visibility arrangements further organize these relations into persistent and traceable platform objects. Digital Claims therefore offer an alternative analytical perspective for examining how platforms shape the ways controversies become observable, connected, and sustained. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9249309
- author
- Wu, Jiaqi LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MKVM13 20261
- year
- 2026
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Digital Claims, digital platforms, Conspiracy
- language
- English
- id
- 9249309
- date added to LUP
- 2026-09-07 12:49:59
- date last changed
- 2026-09-07 12:49:59
@misc{9249309,
abstract = {{This study examines how contentious knowledge surrounding the moon landing is expressed, negotiated, and organized on digital platforms. It develops “Digital Claims” as a potential meso-level analytical framework for examining how meanings, interactions, and visibility become observable and accumulative in digital spaces. Moving beyond approaches centered on users’ beliefs, intentions, or undifferentiated digital traces, the study distinguishes between Articulated Digital Claims, where meanings and arguments are expressed, and Associative Digital Claims, where interactional relations become observable.
Through qualitative methods, the study examines moon-landing-related questions, answers, comments, and interaction indicators on Zhihu. The findings show that the controversy extends beyond competing claims about whether the moon landing occurred. Articulated Digital Claims bring institutional knowledge, scientific-style reasoning, common sense, source criticism, and practical verification into a shared space of credibility negotiation, where different evaluative criteria are brought into relation. Technological claims also function as symbolic resources through which national capability, political institutions, morality, and collective identities are interpreted and contested.
The study further suggests that platform datafication and standardization transform semantically heterogeneous activities into comparable interaction signals that can be accumulated around specific Digital Claims. Comment relations, nested replies, and visibility arrangements further organize these relations into persistent and traceable platform objects. Digital Claims therefore offer an alternative analytical perspective for examining how platforms shape the ways controversies become observable, connected, and sustained.}},
author = {{Wu, Jiaqi}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Digital Claims and Platform-Mediated Conspiracy Discourse Negotiating Credibility, Authority, and Meaning on Zhihu}},
year = {{2026}},
}