“How many rumors amaze our ears! How many gossip eats away like a moth! - Vladimir Vysotsky sang. Rumors are an ineradicable component of human society that determines its social appearance.
The phenomenon of rumors is well known to any adult, however, rumors do not lend themselves so easily to strict definitions. In fact, this is unconfirmed information, the source of which is unknown.
It can be stated with confidence that rumors are a phenomenon of interpersonal communication, not mass communication. For example, the recipient's direct perception of media messages is not related to rumor circulation. Thus, one can speak of rumors only when some information becomes a fact of interpersonal communication.
Since ancient times, rumors have been transmitted orally in the form of gossip. With the development of communication media, the emergence of the Internet and a huge number of personal web pages, the scale and rate of spread of rumors has increased significantly. In the form of rumors, scandalous and hidden information that has emotional significance for the audience is spread.
The circulation of rumors is usually understood as such processes of interpersonal communication in which the actual plot becomes the property of a wide audience.
Usually spreading rumors serves the purpose of increasing the authority and public status. If the rumor is confirmed over time, then the person spreading it acquires a positive reputation. The spread of derogatory gossip is a harmful "weapon" in the hands of a disinformer.
It is also possible to spread rumors due to the lack of information in the society on a particular issue. So, the rumor about the failure with the construction of the TV tower in Riga in 1983, about the miscalculations in its project, exposed as a result of one of the well-known government newspapers, was the result of a lack of information on an issue of concern to most people.
The regularity of the spread of rumors within social groups within a certain space makes it possible to classify them by level.
In other words, the following types of rumors can be distinguished: “local” rumors (exist within a small social group, for example, at a stadium where a politician is speaking, a rumor may spread that a bomb has been planted under the podium, and spectators will begin to leave the stadium), “regional "Rumors (circulate in connection with the values and goals of the population of a region or a group of regions, regions)," national "and" interethnic "rumors (having come to any country through a foreign" source ", they can spread within the national framework, this is how »Provocative rumors during military conflicts).
