Lu on site François-Bernard Huyghe :
IMAGES RUMORALES
rumorale Image: This neologism refers to images circulating on the Internet and to be ironed user to user. Depending on the case, they represent a tourist posing on top of one of the Twin Towers a few seconds before the attack of September 11, image of the devil in the smoke of the fire within minutes after Bush's ridiculous ... a giant animal, an incredible accident, found a missing ...
These images are presented as rare, often as evidence refuting an official release. In all cases they do not emanate from mainstream media, but parallel circuits: for those who receive it is so rewarding to retransmit.
One user can send a picture to dozens of others in one click, below which sets the image or text accompanying the appropriate changes or comment that alters the interpretation (by example, a user can submit an image as doubtful he received as authentic ...). As with other e-rumors, it is often very difficult to understand the purpose of him who has initiated the process: gag, aesthetic or technical (do the best trick, believe the hoax as huge as many people) , denounced political destabilization of an enterprise, mystical delirium, mania conspiracy ...
Images - Digital necessarily - are they fake? Not necessarily. Some take pictures even humor their willingness to misuse. There are even pictures rumorales drawn, taking the principle of diversion advertising. Others argue simply be surprising or may be mere art photographs. but in all cases, the image recalls rumorale Internet, far from leading to the knowledge society open highways of uncertainty.
Their proliferation reflects primarily a technological phenomenon: while the faking of photography was a relatively difficult and more or less detectable with the digital image and software accessible to all, everyone can achieve his own image and rigged especially the broadcast worldwide, the success does depend on the receptiveness of users. This echoes a broader trend: it is increasingly difficult to control the proliferation of images-real or fake - out of all media channels, or official, whether a hoax or authentic images a meeting of Segolene Royal.
Reminder: the defintion of rumor
(from Understanding the strategic power of the media )
The rumor is often presented as " the oldest in the world media "Since the word-of-mouth, the gossip, the gossip, gossip, noise, often backbiting would be born with the spoken language. To define more precisely the rumor, adding:
- it bears upon a statement of fact ("X is Y" Z actually did this for such ulterior motive, "there is such a risk that 'we conceal ") and not a mere opinion, even insulting the value of a work, an achievement or an individual (" sucks "or" Machin is a bastard ")
- it is always supposed to be something that ignoring interlocutor: it will perhaps become turn-spread the rumor, most often, it presents itself as the revelation of a secret that some would try to stifle. As in the series "X-Files: the truth lies elsewhere
- it requires a constant flow of information: one that received the broadcasts, sometimes in embellishing and adding his own commentary on
authority sources - is not necessarily deceptive or wrong. There are rumors that revealed perfectly true facts required under
silence by insiders - it is characterized by its presumed source: it is always the "reliable source", but also unofficial sources, which implies that the content of the rumor, at least in its early stages , is presented as a rare and therefore valuable information. It is rewarding to its possessor. However, sometimes the media or "official sources" reflect a rumor once it exists, even if only to deny it.
- that can be launched deliberately (often to harm an individual or an institution), but also a spirit of play (as a hoax or a joke) by naivety or stupidity, even in the laudable purpose to warn his contemporaries of a risk or a scandal
- What if the malice or defamation do not necessarily part of the definition of rumor, it would be hard pressed to cite rumors rave
- That, in the same way if the rumor can theoretically carry on anything, it often tends to return to the same themes : money, illness, poisoning, conspiracy of powerful groups operating in the shadows, the great events that would actually rigged, the most innocent objects that hides a hidden meaning or a hidden peril, death of famous people and of course sex
- That often provides a rumor seemingly rational explanation so reassuring facts due Random
- That the plurality of information sources, the abundance of documentation or transparency would not preclude him instead ...
- What new technologies (and particularly the Internet where it is so easy to become transmitter in turn) does not inhibit the expansion of rumors, on the contrary ... The book
P. Froissart Rumor history fantasies and Belin 2004
