Do we live in a "Golden Age of Conspiracy Theories?" In the last few decades, conspiracy theories have proliferated on the Internet with some having dangerous real-world consequences. A large contingent of those who participated in the January 6th attack on the US Capitol fervently believed in the QAnon conspiracy theory. In this work, we study the relationships amongst five prominent conspiracy theories (QAnon, COVID, UFO/Aliens, 9/11, and Flat-Earth) and each of their respective relationships to the news media, both authentic news and misinformation. Identifying and publishing a set of 755 different conspiracy theory websites dedicated to our five conspiracy theories, we find that each set often hyperlinks to the same external domains, with COVID and QAnon conspiracy theory websites having the largest amount of shared connections. Examining the role of news media, we further find that not only do outlets known for spreading misinformation hyperlink to our set of conspiracy theory websites more often than authentic news websites but also that this hyperlinking increased dramatically between 2018 and 2021, with the advent of QAnon and the start of COVID-19 pandemic. Using partial Granger-causality, we uncover several positive correlative relationships between the hyperlinks from misinformation websites and the popularity of conspiracy theory websites, suggesting the prominent role that misinformation news outlets play in popularizing many conspiracy theories.

翻译：我们是否生活在一个“阴谋论的黄金时代”？在过去几十年里，阴谋论在互联网上扩散，其中一些带来了危险的现实后果。参与2021年1月6日美国国会大厦袭击事件的大量人群狂热地信奉“匿名者Q”（QAnon）阴谋论。在本研究中，我们考察了五大著名阴谋论（QAnon、新冠病毒、不明飞行物/外星人、9/11事件和地平论）之间的关系，以及它们各自与新闻媒体（包括真实新闻和虚假信息新闻）的关联。通过识别并发布一组涉及这五类阴谋论的755个不同阴谋论网站，我们发现每组网站常超链接到相同的外部域名，其中新冠病毒和QAnon阴谋论网站的共享链接数量最多。进一步审视新闻媒体的作用，我们发现：不仅以传播虚假信息闻名的媒体向我们的阴谋论网站集超链接的频率高于真实新闻网站，而且这种超链接行为在2018年至2021年间随着QAnon的出现和新冠疫情的爆发而急剧增加。通过使用部分格兰杰因果关系分析，我们揭示了虚假信息网站的超链接与阴谋论网站热度之间的若干正相关关系，这表明虚假信息新闻媒体在推动许多阴谋论流行化方面扮演了重要角色。