The article “Anatomy of a Rumor: It Flies on Fear” by Daniel Goleman, was first seen in the New York times in June of 1991. Goleman, a highly accredited psychologist and science journalist, pulled new information from studies done across college campuses. The end results of many suggested that “rumors are kind of opportunistic virus, thriving because of their ability to create the very anxieties that make them spread, and to mutate to fit new situations” (487). Rumors have been spreading for thousands of years and the need to figure out their anatomy and how to reduce the severity of them is ever growing. Anxiety plays a large part in the creation of rumors and the to what extent they are thought to be true. According to Dr. Ralph Rosnow,
In the movie The Music Man con man Harold Hill, adeptly tricks the townspeople of River City, a small town in Iowa, into believing that they are need of a boy’s band. In the song “You Got Trouble,” he uses three types of propaganda to achieve this end: faulty cause and effect, exigency, and name-calling.
Robert Knapp has come up with some ways to identify different types of rumors in his writing called A Psychology of Rumor. Knapp says, “In practice it has been found that the emotional needs most frequently served by rumors are wish, fear, and hostility” (496). Knapp uses the name Pipe-dream and Wish Rumor to describe the rumors that contain wishful thinking. He also uses the name Bogie Rumor when describing a rumor that comes from the fear and anxiety of the people. Knapp lastly uses The Wedge-driving Aggression Rumor when describing a rumor that is made out of aggression or hatred. One of these names will be chosen to categorize the reading called Paul is Dead by Alan Glen. The name that will categorize the rumor is the Bogie Rumor.
Knapp describes how this kind of rumor is highly effective in destroying people and dividing communities. “The wedge-driving aggression rumor is so termed because of its effect in dividing groups and destroying loyalties; its essential motivation is aggression or hatred” (Knapp 228). An American novelist and a short story writer, John Updike in his article “The Rumors” he explain how we all became familiar with the what the public tells at about something and how we believe it right the way without thinking about what happens behind the door or behind the face of media. “We’ve become familiar with the public face of rumor: the instantaneous surge of an allegation across the internet and onto YouTube, the press releases on company letterhead …. But what happens behind the closed doors” (Updike 270). You can feel the hate and aggression that the Isis have on Islam to a point that they are doing all they can to make all people hate Muslims and that no one converts to
Interviewee: It seems that the majority of the stories in tabloids are sad at the beginning however they always tend to turn happy towards the end. Like it could be "I was kidnaped by an alien but they eventually returned me back home with special powers!".
The media is one of the most powerful tools in people’s lives, since it’s used by many as the medium for the delivery of useful information to diverse audience. Over the past few years, the media landscape has undergone noteworthy developments. Prized information about various cultural groups is often relayed through appropriate media, and it’s interesting to note that blogs are currently being utilized as the best medium for celebrity gossip. Celebrity blogs are usually thronged with readers, who would like to know more about their favorite superstars. The entries of different celebrity gossip blogs are often accompanied by paparazzi photos that are usually meant to trigger a stream of comments based on the readers’ observations, enthusiasm and criticisms.
An article from October 1982 “Fighting That Old Devil Rumor” by Sandra Salmans from the Saturday Evening Post talks about what Procter and gamble did to stop a rumor about them that would not go away back in 1982. What is the Purpose of this article though. The purpose is to show how fast rumors can spread, and what they can do to a company. It also shows that the company will fight back in order to keep a positive image, and to help dispense the rest of the rumor. If they are trying to dispense the rest of the rumor they are probably trying to reach adults who are 25 years and older , that are also married. In this respect of the attended audience this article succeeds. Salmans main points throughout this article get through to the intended audience, but more than that what Salmans says throughout the article helps as well. With those two points in mind that is what I use throughout this paper to analyze the article. One of the merits going for the article is when it provides an example of this rumor situation happening to another company. Then later on in the article when Procter and Gamble take charge and start suing people Salmans tells exactly who the people are. Back at the beginning of the article Salmans talks about all the different companies that Procter and Gamble own showing you how severe the situation was.
Have you ever been judged for being around a certain type of group of people? If you have then congratulations, you are part of the many stereotypes created by society, and you probably have classified other people into these stereotypes as well. There are stereotypes and misconceptions, a stereotypes is used to categorize a group of people, a widely believed mental picture of the group, although the truth can be exaggerated. For example, grouping a race, gender, or sexuality together without knowing them and judging them is being stereotypical. Now misconceptions are formed from having stereotypes, they are views that are incorrect based on opinions that were wrong. Although it might sound like prejudice or discrimination, they are formed
Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005. Siegel emphasizes the climate of exaggerated fear found in the media, advertising, and politics. He believes that the majority of fears are manufactured and the fire they create, is stoked by the hidden (or not-so-hidden) agendas of the media and government. Siegel believes the public needs to learn to assess real threats and be able to develop a set of skills that will help the public deal with real danger. I share Siegel’s belief that the false fears need to be identified and the power returned to the public through education.
Since the beginning of settled civilizations, people have had more mutual sharings than ever before. By the same token, there have been some conspiracy theories that are usually against the culturally accepted beliefs of religions, science and society. A conspiracy theory can be described so differently. However, as in his text, Marshall Brain explicates, a conspiracy is generally defined as a theory seeking to explain a disputed case or matter as a plot by a secret group or alliance rather than an individual or isolated act (Brain). Especially, after the new media has become quite popular, more and more conspiracies are theorized every single day, which aim to catch society’s attention via such media tools as the internet, journals and newspapers. Thus, people who theorize those conspiracies tend to use such objects as spiritual and mysterious ones in order to interest people. To illustrate, many examples can be given. For instance, many people have claimed that they were abducted by aliens, although they could show no evidences. Here, a citation from Blackmore could facilitate to understand the circumstance better. She states that people occasionally claim that they have been abducted from public places by aliens, in this case that may provide them with witnesses and affirmations but no evidence could be shown so far (Blackmore). As it is well known, only a small number of people believe such alien abductions, however, rating of this kind of news is quite high on media, because humankind has been wondering if there are extraterrestrial creatures out of the earth. Another example can be conspiracy theories which are about the origins of religions such as the rejection of Jesus Christ. There are some people who pay attention to...
... once it passes the individual who starts it. I feel that “Managing Rumors” by John Doorley and Helio Fred Garcia treats rumors as too much like a machine that can be turned on and turned off without any trouble. Even using a mathematical formula, one is unable to control a person’s beliefs and incentives about a certain subject in my opinion.
There are two types of propaganda: sociological propaganda; the spreading of an ideology through the mass media, and political propaganda; efforts that are sponsored by governments and political groups that alter a persons’ interests. All propaganda has a direction, and the overall quality determines whether it will have a positive or negative effect over the masses. Our entire nation is a vast propaganda operational system that is greatly linked to education, consumerism and politics. A great deal of what makes up propaganda and how it is placed among the masses lies in understanding the overall emotional and physical states of these groups of people and in finding a way to draw a persons’ attention to capture their hearts, breaking down any such persons cognizance and any reasoning behind it.
“Over 50% of people learn about breaking news on social media” (Social Networking ProCon.org 2015). One downside of the information on social media is more often then not, the information is invalid or skewed. Upon seeing a story, one should not automatically assume it is true; instead one should use the story as a starting point for further research.
of the rumors and truths the general population heard via the latest news report. Social media
Rumors can be passed easily and are spread on an everyday basis. A rumor is like gossip; some of it true or untrue, and it is passed around by word of mouth. Most rumors start off being true, then when it is being passed from one person to the other, it starts becoming untrue because some people forget details, add new information in, or just change the whole story around. In the rumor experiment conducted in class, a story was told to one person out of four. The first person had to repeat the same story to the next person who of course was waiting outside of the classroom, until it got to the fourth person. The story that the fourth person ended up with was extremely dissimilar from what was initially told to the first person. This is a prime example of how rumors change while they are being said from one person to the other.
Jimmy was a short and a big headed kid. He was very smart and had brown hair. One day, he was walking in the long and narrow hallway between his classes with, his autographed football and work books in his hand, when his friend Sheen approached him. Sheen was Jimmy’s best friend. He was tall and had black hair. Sheen was considered by Jimmy, to be slow in the head. “Where’s our next class?” Jimmy asked.