A presentation that discusses my case study on the conspiracy and anti-police framing of the Seth Rich murder case by WikiLeaks' Founder Julian Assange and conservatives such as Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity and conservative commentator Newt Gingrich. All of whom alleged that Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party had Rich assassinated because he, and not the Russians, had leaked the DNC documents to WikiLeaks.

1. THE CONSPIRACY & ANTI-POLICE
FRAMING OF THE SETH RICH MURDER
BY LISA MAKSON

2. THE CONSPIRACY & ANTI-POLICE FRAMING OF THE SETH RICH MURDER

3. THE CONSPIRACY & ANTI-POLICE FRAMING OF THE SETH RICH MURDER
DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE STAFFER (DNC) SETH RICH
WAS MURDERED IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
▸ During the 2016 Presidential election, on Sunday July 10, 2016, 27 year-old
Seth Rich was gunned down in a robbery gone awry.
▸ The murder occurred in the Bloomington neighborhood of D.C., where
several armed robberies had occurred recently.

4. THE CONSPIRACY & ANTI-POLICE FRAMING OF THE SETH RICH MURDER
WIKILEAKS ALLEGES SETH RICH WAS ASSASSINATED
▸ On August 8, 2016, nearly two weeks after WikiLeaks published documents from the DNC
hack, WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange uses conspiracy framing to allege that Seth Rich
was assassinated because he was the source of WikiLeaks’ DNC documents.
▸ When Dutch TV’s Niewsuur host Eelco Bosch van Rosenthal asked Assange if he really
believed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had Rich murdered, Assange
continues his conspiracy frame then adds an anti-police frame too, saying, “Well, others
have suggested that, we are investigating to understand what happened in that situation
with Seth Rich."

5. THE CONSPIRACY & ANTI-POLICE FRAMING OF THE SETH RICH MURDER
THE DAY AFTER THE DUTCH TV INTERVIEW, WIKILEAKS OFFERS
A REWARD FOR INFORMATION INTO SETH RICH’S MURDER
▸ The is another example of WikiLeaks’ use of a conspiracy frame to try and link the botched
robbery of Seth Rich to Hillary Clinton and the DNC.
▸ This tweet also demonstrates anti-police framing in which it tries to portray the Washington, D.C.
Metropolitan Police Department as being inept or involved in covering up the murder
conspiracy, which is why WikiLeaks is offering the reward and conducting its own investigation
into Seth Rich’s murder.

6. THE CONSPIRACY & ANTI-POLICE FRAMING OF THE SETH RICH MURDER
ASSANGE KEEPS PUSHING THE CONSPIRACY FRAMING OF THE SETH RICH MURDER
▸ On August 25, 2016, Assange appears on Megan Kelly’s Fox News Channel
show and continues his use of conspiracy and anti-police frames of the Seth
Rich murder.

7. THE CONSPIRACY & ANTI-POLICE FRAMING OF THE SETH RICH MURDER
CONSERVATIVES START USING CONSPIRACY & ANTI-POLICE FRAMES OF
THE SETH RICH MURDER TO TRY AND LINK IT TO THE CLINTON CAMPAIGN
▸ Fox News hosts Lou Dobbs and Sean Hannity as well as conservative commentator Newt Gingrich
start using conspiracy and anti-police frames to allege that Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party
had Rich assassinated.
▸ This was an attempt by conservatives to use agenda setting to deflect media attention away from
the recently released Russian dossier that alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and
Russia during the 2016 presidential election.

8. THE CONSPIRACY & ANTI-POLICE FRAMING OF THE SETH RICH MURDER
CONCLUSIONS
▸ Conspiracy theories have been around since America’s founding (Barkun, 2003).
▸ Mass media coverage has moved conspiracy theories from the radical fringe to
the mainstream in America (Aupers, 2012; Goodnight & Poulakos, 1981).
▸ This mainstreaming of conspiracy theory is an example of cultivation theory, in
which the more one is exposed to an idea by the media, the more one believes it
to be true (Mastro, Behm-Morawitz & Ortiz, 2007; Morgan & Shanahan, 2010).
▸ The use of conspiracy and anti-police frames can undermine trust in public
institutions, such as the police and elected officials.
▸ WikiLeaks successfully used conspiracy and anti-police frames in the Seth Rich
murder to get free publicity for its publication of hacked DNC documents, which
allowed the group to attack Hillary Clinton’s hypocritical portrayal of herself as
an anti-establishment candidate during the 2016 presidential campaign.

9. REFERENCES
▸ Aupers, S. (2012). ‘Trust no one’: Modernization, paranoia and conspiracy
culture. European Journal of Communication, 27(1), 22-34.
▸ Barkun, M. (2003). A culture of conspiracy: Apocalyptic visions in
contemporary america. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
▸ Goodnight, G. T. & Poulakos, J. (1981). Conspiracy rhetoric: From pragmatism
to fantasy in public discourse. The Western Journal of Speech Communication,
45, 299-316.
▸ Mastro, D., Behm-Morawitz, E. & Ortiz, M. (2007). The cultivation of social
perceptions of latinos: A mental models approach. Media Psychology, 9,
347-365.
▸ Morgan, M. & Shanahan, J. (2010). The state of cultivation. Journal of
Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 54(2), 337-355.
THE CONSPIRACY FRAMING OF THE SETH RICH MURDER