Weibo Rumors Spread And The Rumours That Way

Rumour is the gossip (usually a mixture of truth and untruth) that is not verified bypublic, but is widely spread through informal ways. It is the substitute for the absence ofinformation and it is also based on the common cognition of public. In respond to rumours,most people will keep silence to prevent the spread of the unverified information. However,it may not achieve the desire results. Therefore, the research on finding the channels ofrumours spread and the methods of refuting rumours is significant for the whole society.At the early age, rumours were passed from mouth to mouth when people do not havethe formal written language. However, along with the prevalence of the Internet, rumoursbecome more easily spread among citizens. As Mcluhan mentioned that medium is themessage, the emergence of Weibo provides a new important mode of spreading rumoursamong the public. To prevent the spread of rumours on Weibo, figuring out the methodsand reasons for rumour spread and finding out the effective ways of refuting rumours areuseful measures to some extent.The paper consists of three parts, including introduction, main body and conclusion. Inthe introduction part, basic background, definition of rumours spread and the scope ofstudy will be discussed. Then, there are four chapters in the main body. In the first chapter,conditions, influences and modes of the transmission of Weibo rumours will be mentioned.In next segment, it will focus on the research of features and changes of Weibo rumoursspread. Furthermore, effective and useful methods of refuting Weibo rumours will bediscussed. In addition, some valuable suggestions based on the research will be proposed aswell. In conclusion, the paper put forward that the most important purpose is finding theway of refuting the rumours rather than mode of rumours spread.The paper will focus on the study of Weibo rumours in mainland China and integratetheories with practical cases to find out the mode of rumours spread and methods ofrefuting rumours from the perspectives of communication, social psychology and publicrelations.