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Robert Knapp A Psychology Of Rumor Summary

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Robert Knapp’s article “A Psychology of Rumor” was written in an attempt to discern the human need to conjure needless rumors in a time of war. In the article, Knapp defines rumor as a “proposition of belief of topical reference disseminated without official verification”. This stems from the fact that the article was written during World War II, a time when spreading needless rumors could have changed the outcome. Knapp wants to find a way to control the flow of rumors while also trying to discern where rumors come from and why people feel the need to conjure them up. He analyzes 1,000 reported rumors in order to understand the human need for attention. He classifies these rumors into 3 categories and gives examples of each and how they
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Finny blindly trusts people, and he often trusts his feelings over facts. For example, when discussing the validity of the news about the war, Finny recounts, “‘That’s what this whole war story is. Medical drug,’” (Page 115). Finny knows the truth but chooses to believe what he wants to be true instead.

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In their chapter “Whispers on the Borderline,” Gary Alan Fine and Bill Ellis recapitulate the reasons why rumors of terrorism, immigration, and trade continue to matter and persist in society as nations continue to globalize. They do this by revisiting the reasons why different rumors arise in the first place and what motivates individuals to take them as plausible events and continue to spread them to others. The authors attribute the proliferation of certain rumors to matters of trust and fears of the “others.” The rumors they explored in their work fall into these two common themes. Fine and Ellis also provide manners in which rumors that are prejudiced, stereotypical, and negative can be combated and can be stopped from spreading among

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Famous people have more rumors spread throughout society and the internet about them than ordinary people. The most rumored target is presidential candidates. “The Anatomy of a Smear Campaign” by Richard H. Davis follows John McCain’s campaign for president in the 2000 primary election. Another article regarding John McCain and the 2000 primary election is “How to Fight A Rumor” by Jesse Signal which entails the best way to fight against rumors in the public spotlight. In “How to Fight A Rumor,” the best way to fight a rumor was to not fight against it verbally in case one says the wrong thing, but to immediately create a factual platform to show the truth.

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The emotional appeal is furthered during later parts of the article. For instance, McWhortor proves word have connotation through the use of anecdotal and somewhat historical evidence when he uses direct examples of controversial

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Fighting till the end was a much more glorified action rather than obeying the commands from the enemy. This mindset remained throughout the Pacific War, resulting in millions of deaths, especially with the Japanese. In addition to the violent war strategies, the use of propaganda began to flourish during the war. Chapter 2, “Know Your Enemy”, allows the reader to further understand what the films, booklets, and other forms of publicity were composed of.

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In the speech “The Man with the Muck-rake” presented by Theodore Roosevelt the topics of investigative journalism, and speaking the truth are discussed. His point was made through a variety of rhetorical techniques including the use of analogy, anaphora, and ethos. The use of these three devices allowed him to convince the audience that investigative journalism, if done by lying, is one of the worst possible evils. When starting the speech Roosevelt compared the present (1906) to the time of George Washington in the late 18th century. His use of analogy illustrates the similarities and differences between the two times, this allows the audience to understand that the problems that exist now have been overcome before.

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The writer was convicted for printing in his book several fabricated Bob Dylan quotes. In this situation, Michael was faced with some of the ethical issues: morality and vice in the form of lies. He decided to publish the article about it, because “Michael was the guarder of social rules”. However, Johan has been publicly shamed. He retired from work, lost the trust of his readers, had lots of awful comments on the Twitter, his life was ruined.

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The absolute truth may not always be known. Another culture’s history may tell a varied version of an account that differs from the ones that exist in the textbooks in American classrooms. To every war, there is the triumphed and the defeated. Each side walks away with a drastically different outlook on what has occurred. By only hearing one side, individuals are there by limited and constricted to a less knowledgeable idea of the truth.

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The people of the internet spread a rumor that a child sex trafficking ring was being held in a pizza parlor basement… albeit, said pizza parlor has no basement. Foster points out that the bandwagon mentality fueling this claim could all have been avoided if people actually thought for themselves. Everything that happened surrounding this allegation is the consequences of today’s public lacking general critical reading and thinking skills. Had those skills been present, the conflict and misinterpretation could have been avoided, as the “ many listeners and commentators” thought this was the “fake news” she was referring to (Foster 94). These people took that to mean her idea of “fake news” was simply news that she didn’t like.

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The spread of false information or “fake news” in today’s society is creating mobs of people with uninformed or misguided rage that causes them to abandon rational thinking. For example the aforementioned awful repercussions of pizzagate came to a head when It was reported that “the Washington DC pizzeria Comet Ping Pong fell victim to fake news in 2016 when false internet stories claimed the restaurant was operating a child sex ring. Responding to the story an armed vigilante entered the pizzeria and began firing a rifle”(Currie 6). It has clear that this is a problem that can affect anyone from big name politicians to small time pizza places.

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