A grounded theoretical account of spreading and accepting rumors among the youth in Yazd

Abstract

Today, living in the age of media and information, human beings are exposed to all kinds of seemingly real news and information, the rumored nature of which is hidden from the view. In the face of such unreliable news, people often republish it in virtual and real spaces, which can lead to a significant security, economic and social damage. Therefore, the present study is conducted with the aim of more deeply identifying users' strategies in the face of news and especially rumors in the virtual space and the process of reducing rumor-making and rumor-mongering with a qualitative approach and Strauss and Corbin's field theory method. Based on theoretical and purposive sampling, 24 young Yazdians active in cyberspace, including 12 men and 12 women, participated in the research and their narratives were analyzed. The data collection process was performed simultaneously with their analysis in three stages of open, axial and selective coding. Findings show the central phenomenon of dualism of trust in news sources, whether national, non-national or virtual. News were tracked from credible sources whereas credible and rumor contents were measured accordingly. Eventually, due to the timeliness of rumors and media literacy training, there was high probability of discrediting. The mentioned strategies, such as the temporary reduction of rumor mongers' visits were found to silence rumors.

Keywords

• rumor reduction
• cyberspace
• users
• qualitative approach
• public opinion