Informal communication: the perspectives of theoretical access of exploration of the rumor as a cultural phenomenon

Abstract

This article examines the extent to which rumor nature specificity determines the capabilities of theoretical access of its exploration. It is shown that the exploration of the rumor as a cultural phenomenon is complicated by its restoration difficulties – rumor authentic reconstruction and its content (the expression of the main idea). Rumor information about a person or an event becomes socially visible (significant) only in the context of interpersonal communication. However, while this information is not transmitted, it is not significant as a socially observed event. Rumor information transmission is possible due to, on the one hand, the special relation between the transferor and the receiver, who has acceptability and forgiveness because of its lack of feasibility, on the other hand, also appropriate transmission procedures, which would enable to transform the information into relevant knowledge forms, which are universal and understandable to various strata and social groups. That is precisely what creates the preconditions for multidimensionality of exploration of the rumor as a cultural phenomenon, and makes the rumor itself as the object of interdisciplinary exploration (philosophical, sociological, psychological and communicative).