Gandų fenomenas: kilimo priežastys ir socialinės funkcijos

LTDidėjant visuomenės kritiškumui oficialios valdžios bei jos institucijų teikiamai informacijai ir norui gauti vis daugiau ir „tikresnių“ žinių, auga neformalios informacijos poreikis. Tarpasmeninio bendravimo metu perteikta neoficiali informacija sudaro palankią terpę įvairiems gandams tarpti. Gandai tampa svarbiu instrumentu, kuriuo noriai naudojasi suinteresuotieji, jų grupės ir pavieniai asmenys, siekdami savų tikslų įgyvendinimo. Vis ženklesnę vietą jie užima ir žiniasklaidos paslaugų asortimente. Esant menkam pilietiniam ir politiniam visuomenės brandumo lygiui, kyla būtinumas gandų fenomeną detaliau panagrinėti. Straipsnyje aptariamas gando sąvokos apibrėžimas, analizuojami įvairių tyrėjų požiūriai. Gandas nagrinėjamas kaip neformalios tarpasmeninės komunikacijos forma, išryškinami jos ypatumai. Aptariamos pagrindinės gandų kilimo ir plitimo visuomenėje priežastys. Parodoma, kad gandai atlieka svarbias socialines funkcijas, pateisinančias tam tikru mastu jų buvimą ir kartu lemiančias jų gajumą. Raktažodžiai: gandas, informacija, komunikacija, žiniasklaida, gandų socialinės funkcijos, gandų kilimo priežastys, bendravimas, socialinė grupė.

ENIn every presentation of information there are always things that are uderstantood differently by different people. This is determined, by two factors: firstly, different intelligence, cultural experience, age, profession etc. of the people, secondly, different understanding of vocabulary (meaning of concepts). Thus, there is a difference between “knowing what it is” and “knowing about what it is”. A rumor is a means of not official communication and is concerned with not knowing what it is but with trying to explain “knowing about what it is”, on the ground of not so much verified facts as on the feelings and speculations clad into a daily garment of uderstanding of concepts and information, adding more or less meaning to one or another detail of the news by an individual himself. Thus, not official (non-verified) information can become (and becomes) more importent than the official one. Being spontaneous, actually not controlled, it influences directly the general process of public communicatiuon in its own way, giving it emotionality and making propagators of official information look for ways to convey their information in a much more precise, exhaustive, thorough way, not needing additional explanations, though (in the form of ru- moms) it is not easy to avoid them completely. There also exist objective reasons for the origin and spreading of rumours in society. First, the shortage of information on a specific subject which is of interest and importance to society. That is not announcing of the events over the mass media; intentional mispresentation of the information being given by journalists due to various reasons and interests; public distrust of the mass media, jornalists, politicians, government authorities and official information conveyed by them; trying to achieve their goals by interested groups and individuals in spreading malicious information.Second, the lack of information concerning a specific issue for that individual. Third, fast spreading of scientific and technological inventions over different spheres of life, the understanding of which requires a corresponding un official presentation in the form partly given by rumours. Spreading of rumours in wide sections of the population and social groups show that they also perform very important social functions. First, they help a group and an individual to form and preserve their social (including national) identity. Second, they strenghen the integrity of a social group. Third, they influence decision making in case of different types of (intergroup and international) conflicts. Fourth, they help the individual and the group achieve their goals. Fifth, they help the parties provoke actions which would be useful to one of them. Sixth, they help someone mislead the opponent. Seventh, they give the individual additional information in unclear and dangerous situations, thereby increasing one’s possibilities to better react to a new situation. Eighth, they decrease social alienation, encourage informal mutual personal contacts and cooperation. Existence of a rumour together with official verified information, exerting a stronger or weaker influence upon all strata of social groups shows, on the one hand, its discrepant power and on the other its amazing viability conditioned by its dual nature. Key words: rumour, information, communication, mass media, social functions of rumours, origin of rumours, cooperation, social groups.