Roddel en gerucht als vormen van communicatie

Gossip and rumour as forms of communication - Gossip and rumour should be considered as two different things. Gossip is a kind of conversation about someone who is not present: he is an outsider. The gossipmongers talk about him, but not with him. The gossip object is not a stranger for the gossipmongers. The gossip's content usually injures the gossip object's privacy. Gossip is information of which the circulation is not institutionalised: it occurs in an unspecific way. Its time and place of origin generally are unknown. The most typical characteristic is that the contents of gossip are not and/or cannot be verified. In accordance with the laws of 'Gestaltpsychology' the contents change very much as a result of the fact that they are adapted to the narrator's social and psychic context. Functional analysis learns that gossip can be functional as well as dysfunctional for society. From an ethical point of view gossip can be eufunctional as well as kakofunctional and rumours as well true as false. Rumours also can be latently or manifestly functional or dysfunctional, but often they are non-functional. Not only Merton's middle range theory of functional analysis, but also the exchange theory can help to explain gossip and rumour. Social control and deprivatising play an important role. Some people are more exposed to gossip than others.