People enjoy succulent gossip every now a then. Not many people can keep a juicy secret for too long any more. As soon as someone hears gossip it usually does not take long for them to tell the first person that lends an ear. That ladies and gentelment is how a big fat rumor gets started. Most of the time it does not matter if the rumor is true or false, whoever is telling the rumor is going to make it sounds extreamly believeable.
For example there is a rumor that started on a website called Associated Media Coverage. The rumor is that a transgender woman was shot and killed in the women’s restroom in Colorado. On May 14, 2016 this website posted a story stating that the shooting did not happen until the department store decided to change …show more content…
This rumor plays off of the fears and anxieties that people are having because of different stores changing their restroom policies. Rumor plays off more than just fear. Rumors can play off death, conspiratorial theories, or racial tension. In Daniels Goleman’s Anatomy of A Rumor: It Flies on Fear, Goleman states that “The results suggest rumors are a kinds of opportunistic information virus, thriving because of their ability to create the very anxieties that make then spread, and to mutate to fit new situations.”(Goleman 487.) In the case of Ms. Wright and Mrs. Workman this is very true. There are a lot of men and women that are extremely afraid of the new bathroom polices. Websites like Associated Media Coverage start rumors like this to get the public fired up and to keep them interested in reading the their stories. As reported by Robert H. Knapp, there are seven rules as to what makes a “good rumor”. The one most suited with the transgender woman being shot and killed is the very first rule on Knapp’s list. Rule number one states that “No successful rumor may exceed a length or complexity greater than the memory span of the group through which it phases.” (Knapp 496.) This rumor is short, sweet, and to the point. It tells the whole story just in the title
For example there is a rumor that started on a website called Associated Media Coverage. The rumor is that a transgender woman was shot and killed in the women’s restroom in Colorado. On May 14, 2016 this website posted a story stating that the shooting did not happen until the department store decided to change …show more content…
This rumor plays off of the fears and anxieties that people are having because of different stores changing their restroom policies. Rumor plays off more than just fear. Rumors can play off death, conspiratorial theories, or racial tension. In Daniels Goleman’s Anatomy of A Rumor: It Flies on Fear, Goleman states that “The results suggest rumors are a kinds of opportunistic information virus, thriving because of their ability to create the very anxieties that make then spread, and to mutate to fit new situations.”(Goleman 487.) In the case of Ms. Wright and Mrs. Workman this is very true. There are a lot of men and women that are extremely afraid of the new bathroom polices. Websites like Associated Media Coverage start rumors like this to get the public fired up and to keep them interested in reading the their stories. As reported by Robert H. Knapp, there are seven rules as to what makes a “good rumor”. The one most suited with the transgender woman being shot and killed is the very first rule on Knapp’s list. Rule number one states that “No successful rumor may exceed a length or complexity greater than the memory span of the group through which it phases.” (Knapp 496.) This rumor is short, sweet, and to the point. It tells the whole story just in the title