Research On Online Rumors’ Communicative Characters And Coping Strategies

How to solve those negative effects caused by on line rumor has become a global issue. By studying the backgrounds and resources that cause the generation and diffusion of online rumor, analysing its essence, clarifying its communication process,communication rules and communication mechanism, this essay tries to answer three questions: what online rumor is, how it emerges and diffuses. The purpose is to giving some prevention, control and management strategies in order to eliminate online rumor to the utmost and maintain a harmonious, steady cyberspace.Firstly, this paper analyses the origins and backgrounds that relate to online rumor.With the network society’s openness and unlimited expansion features, online rumor is able to generate and spread rapidly as well as widely. The molding of semiotic consumption society means more “semiotic consumers”, those who make, believe,diffuse rumors and use the network, will paticipate into this semiotic carnival activity,whether forwardly or passively. In Chinese transconformation period, the variation of social structure brings on “Matthew Effect”, which not only causes all kinds of social problems and the differentiation of social strarum, but also puts central official discourse in the situation of conflict with marginal public opnion, therefore, online rumor emerges and diffuses.Afterwards, concluding the essence of online rumor from two different aspects based on semiotic theories: on the one hand, the relations between discourse and power shows that online rumor is a text or discourse, constructed by complex symbols which comply with a special code. Also, it demonstrates some ideologies of “civil society”.Oline rumor is a kind of “anti power” behavior. On the other hand, as the distortion of public opinion, online rumor is the marginalized “marked term” in the whole social cultural semiotic field, which opposes to the “unmarked term” including authority symbols and mainstream discourse. The deviation of “norm term” causes“ historical retroflexion of markedness”, therefore, online rumor “counterattacks”and become the “unmarked term”. As a result, online rumor spreads rapidly and widely, the authority and media lose their discourse right, thus increasing the difficulty of “counter-rumor”.Once again, with the aid of communication, semiology and psychology theories,this paper clarifies the dissemination process of online rumor, its four diffusion periods,the semiotic ideographic principles of accepting online rumor, its “Mythological”feature and commandeering of social “archetype”, and audiences’ cognition,decoding, acceptence of online rumor.The final purpose of this article is to eliminate the online rumor, so after clarifying the essence of online rumor, combining with the specific social backgrounds, this paper gives some corresponding prevention and control strategies. Responding to online rumor actively needs the joint efforts of all including government agencies, the media and Internet users, only this can remove online rumor’s living space thoroughly, reduce its negative social influences, and finally build up a more healthy and orderly public opinion field.