New medium fuels ancient passion

0 Comments | Insight on the News, March 9, 1998 | by Michael Rust, | Tiffany Danitz

In her book, I Heard It Through the Grapevine: Rumor in African-American Culture, Turner argues that real conspiracies of the past, such as the Tuskegee syphilis experiment in which scientists withheld treatment from 400 black men in Alabama, have fueled paranoia within the African-American community, making blacks susceptible to rumors that the CIA subsidized crack cocaine sales or that national fried-chicken outlets are Ku Klux Klan fronts that add illegal spices to cause sterility in black men. Fertile ground is necessary for Internet-fed rumors to spread.

It is no accident that the prime movers of online rumor are dissatisfied advocates of both left and right, who believe their views are ignored or distorted by the mainstream media. Rumors that actually catch on among Internet users are "usually about a deeper belief than the surface of the text," says Turner. To gain credence, the rumor "has to speak to anxieties and ambivalences that are already present," she adds. "It would be very difficult to invent one out of whole cloth and anticipate that it would spread like wildfire. "

So political gossip that catches on -- such as reports on Clinton's sex life -- is readily accepted because people find it readily believable. At the same time, the culture of celebrity has infected both journalism and politics, making alleged "inside" reports on personal foibles fair game in the minds of news consumers. But the Internet and all that passes through it are here to stay. Th think it can be reined in, suggests Goulden, "is like putting your finger out in front of the ocean and saying `Waves, stop.'"